Vance urges Thiel to 'get off the sidelines' and support Trump

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) said in an interview that he has urged billionaire Peter Thiel, his former Silicon Valley boss, to “get off the sidelines” and support former President Trump’s White House run. 

The senator, who became Trump's running mate in July, told the Financial Times in an interview that he will keep pushing the Silicon Valley billionaire to reverse his decision to stay away from the 2024 presidential race and expand the GOP candidate's war chest. 

“I’m going to keep on talking to Peter and persuading him that — you know he’s obviously been exhausted by politics a little bit — but he’s going to be really exhausted by politics if we lose and if Kamala Harris is president,” Vance said in an interview published Thursday.

“He is fundamentally a conservative guy, and I think that he needs to get off the sidelines and support the ticket,” he added. 

Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, gave $1.25 million to support Trump’s successful 2016 White House bid. The co-founder of data analytics company Palantir also donated $15 million in support of Vance’s Senate run. 

In November last year, Thiel said he does not intend to give money to GOP politicians in 2024, but he later added, “There’s always a chance I might change my mind.” Thiel said in late June this year that he would not be giving money to super PACs supporting Trump but that he would vote for the Republican nominee. 

Vance's attempts to persuade Thiel come as Vice President Harris’s campaign said it has raised $540 million since she entered the presidential race, with $82 million coming during the Democratic convention in Chicago. 

Vance worked at a venture capital firm that was co-founded by Thiel. They met in 2011 at Yale Law School.

The Hill reached out to Thiel’s representative for comment.