Trumpy tech billionaire Peter Thiel has fled the U.S. for Argentina, citing concerns about the direction of the country under the president he helped put in office.
The New York Times reported that Thiel has been living lavishly in Argentina, the infamous haven for Nazis fleeing Europe to escape trial for their crimes against humanity.
In the past two months, while President Donald Trump’s war has raged in Iran, Thiel has met with Argentine President Javier Milei, an ally of Trump, and purchased a $12 million mansion in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Buenos Aires.
The Times reported that Thiel is considering making Argentina his “Plan B,” if things go awry in the U.S. under Trump. Sources close to Thiel told the Times that he is particularly concerned about a nuclear war and artificial intelligence taking over.
He’s also reportedly concerned about a potential billionaire tax in California, which is being put up for a vote to residents this November. If passed, it would impact around 200 Californians by imposing a one-time levy on five percent of their wealth.
These factors have reportedly made Thiel so concerned about the direction the U.S. is going that he has relocated his family to Argentina, and his children are enrolled in a local school.
The Argentine government has even offered him permanent residence, or potentially citizenship, the Times reported, although Milei’s office denied that such an offer is on the table.
Still, Thiel, a supporter of the Trump administration’s hardline anti-immigration policies, is no stranger to racking up residences abroad. He was born in Germany, was raised in the U.S., and has become a citizen of New Zealand. In 2022, he also tried to obtain a Maltese passport.
Argentina’s government is separately working to establish a “golden passport” program that would allow those making large investments in the country to get citizenship.
Despite his apparent concerns about the direction the U.S. is going, Thiel is a longtime supporter of Trump, speaking at the 2016 Republican National Convention and giving $1.25 million to his first presidential campaign.
The right-wing billionaire is also good friends with Vice President JD Vance, having heavily funded his early political career.
During Trump’s second term, Thiel’s Palantir has also secured lucrative government contracts.
A representative for Thiel did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
His move overseas has been met with concern by many, as moves by billionaires are sometimes seen as warning signs of global issues to come
“Chilling to read in the N.Y. Times article about Peter Thiel now living in Argentina that in the event of a nuclear war that devastates all of North America, Argentina ‘would hardly be affected at all,’” Joyce Carole Oates wrote online. “Presumably the major reason that this far-right billionaire has left the US to live in Argentina.”
In a social media post Pedro Gonzalez wrote on X, “Peter Thiel is cooking up a plan B for fleeing the United States and hunkering down in Argentina, which I hope is an indicator of how bad he thinks it’s going to get for the new right and how dramatically JD Vance has failed as a viable political vehicle for Thiel’s agenda.”
Argentina’s history as a Nazi haven post WWII has also come under scrutiny.
Thousands of Nazi officers fled Europe, including the movement’s architects and high-ranking party members, settling in South America, and particularly in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
Some Nazi party members who escaped to Argentina include Adolf Eichmann, at one point known as the “world’s most wanted Nazi,” and the architect behind Hitler’s “Final Solution” to exterminate the Jews from Europe, Josef Mengele, the doctor nicknamed the Angel of Death, who conducted macabre experiments among the prisoners at the Auschwitz death camp and even on his own children, and Walter Rauff, who is said to be responsible for the killings of 100,000 people.
In some cases, it took decades to bring the Nazi exiles to justice.
In the case of Eichmann, he was captured by the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, when he was living under an alias. Mossad agents stalked his daily commute and eventually snatched him. He was put on a flight to Tel Aviv dressed in an El Al flight uniform as the agents smuggled him out of Argentina to stand trial, in which he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Some people conspired that Hitler actually fled to Argentina via U-boat, and did not in fact die by suicide in his Berlin bunker. The theory gained traction in the aftermath of WWII, given how many Nazis found a new life in South America, but historians and forensic experts have maintained that forensic analysis proves Hitler’s remains were, in fact, his.
For years, it was believed that Hitler’s henchman Martin Bormann fled to Argentina with hundreds of other Nazis, but his remains were found by a construction crew in Germany in 1972. Argentine officials did search for Bormann, but their bungled mission was based on sensational news items, and not actual intelligence.
