THIELING THE HEAT

MAGA Billionaire Caught Turning on Trump in Leaked Audio

A major Silicon Valley billionaire thinks Trump’s war in Iran should never have happened.

Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, one of Donald Trump’s most influential backers, has privately delivered a blunt verdict on the president’s war with Iran.

In audio obtained by Politico’s Decoded, PayPal co-founder Thiel, 59, can be heard criticizing the military campaign during a private lecture in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 12, saying the U.S. should never have launched the conflict.

Thiel was a major early tech supporter of Trump in 2016 and spoke at the Republican National Convention that year.

The billionaire is also closely tied to Vice President JD Vance, who worked for his venture capital firm. Thiel introduced Trump to his future running mate at Mar-a-Lago in 2021 and financially backed super PACs supporting Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign, helping cement his influence in the MAGA movement.

But now Thiel, a devout Christian with an unusual interest in the Antichrist, is at odds with a central element of the president’s foreign policy.

“I’m skeptical of [the war], I think we should not have done it,” Thiel said. “There were a lot of mistakes that were made.”

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He also warned that the U.S. could be losing ground on the global stage.

“Maybe we don’t have the hard power. Maybe we’re going to lose the soft power war,” he said.

Despite his criticism, Thiel stopped short of abandoning Trump completely and reiterated his support for the president, according to Politico.

Still, the remarks mark Thiel’s most explicit break with Trump yet, coming just two weeks before midterm elections that threaten major losses for the Republicans, with backlash over the Iran war emerging as a key factor.

The war has caused fuel prices to spike. AAA figures show the average price of gas in the U.S. at $4.27 a gallon, while diesel stands at $6.31.

Inflation also rose faster than expected in September, largely driven by surging gasoline prices, according to the Labor Department.

And Americans are not happy about it. The latest CNN/SSRS poll showed that just 27 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, and two-thirds of respondents, including around one-third of Republicans, believe his policies have made economic conditions worse.

The poll also showed that voters increasingly favor Democrats over Republicans on their ability to manage the economy and address the cost of living.

Meanwhile, Trump’s approval ratings have fallen into the low 30s, and with the economy dominating voters’ concerns ahead of the midterms, which are widely viewed as a referendum on his leadership, Republicans are losing ground.

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The RealClearPolling average gives Democrats an eight-point lead on the generic congressional ballot.

Several House districts Trump won by double-digit margins in 2024 have also become competitive, putting Republican control of Congress under pressure.

With the GOP facing the prospect of a grim defeat, some Republicans, including those closest to Trump, have begun to turn on him.

The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is one example. According to The Atlantic, Trump Jr. has been privately badmouthing the Iran war to those around him and has opposed the Middle East conflict since it broke out on Feb. 28.

Trump Jr. has even made his feelings known to his father about the war, which has dragged on for nearly eight months with no end in sight.

Vance has also privately opposed the war. Politico reported in March that the vice president had voiced reservations about launching military strikes against Iran before the war began.

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Multiple other MAGA figures have also broken with Trump over the war, questioning why an “America First” president would join Israel in a conflict that has deepened Americans’ affordability concerns.

They include former loyalists Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson.

“Our American soldiers wouldn’t be getting killed if you weren’t fighting an unnecessary war against Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz that was already open before you went to war,” Greene wrote on X in July. “End the war. In your 1st term in 2019, gas was under $2 and inflation was 1.8%, DO THAT AGAIN!”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Thiel’s representatives for comment.

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