03 June 2022

DOING THE AFTERMATH: Rightwing Republican Power Players in Ground-Zero Arizona

Races are heating up for the August 2 Primary Election

‘Don’ of a new era: the rise of Peter Thiel as a US rightwing power player

The Paypal Mafia’s lynchpin is putting his vast tech fortune to work for candidates aligned to Trump’s agenda in the midterms

<div class=__reading__mode__extracted__imagecaption>Peter Thiel holds hundred dollar bills as he speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference in Miami.  Photograph: Marco Bello/Getty Images<br>Peter Thiel holds hundred dollar bills as he speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference in Miami.  Photograph: Marco Bello/Getty Images</div>

"The Paypal Mafia’s lynchpin is putting his vast tech fortune to work for candidates aligned to Trump’s agenda in the midterms. As the Republican party primaries play out across the US, the most sought after endorsement is still that of former president Donald Trump. But when it comes to the most vital part of any American campaign – money – another figure is emerging on the right of US politics who is becoming equally significant.

Peter Thiel, the PayPal founder and former CEO referred to as the “don” of the original PayPal Mafia, a group that included Elon Musk, is establishing himself as a serious power player in American rightwing politics by wielding the power of his vast fortune.

Thiel, styled as a billionaire venture capitalist and tech entrepreneur, plowed more than $10m into a super Pac backing Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance, winner of the Republican primary for an open US Senate seat in Ohio.

In August, Thiel’s backing will be tested again after shoveling $13.5m into supporting former employee Blake Masters in the competitive Republican primary for a US Senate seat in Arizona.

In both cases, Thiel put his money – his fortune is said to be in the region of $6bn – to work behind candidates aligned with Trump’s rightwing agenda in 2022 midterm elections...[  ] By some estimates, Thiel has donated $25m to 15 other 2022 candidates for the House and Senate towing the Trump election fraud line.

Earlier this year Thiel stepped down from the board of Meta, where he was an early investor, and a long-serving adviser to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “He wanted to avoid being a distraction for Facebook,” according to a person close to Thiel. With his resignation effective this month, the source told Forbes Thiel “thinks that the Republican Party can advance the Trump agenda and he wants to do what he can to support that”. . .

NOTE: In 2003, he co-founded Palantir Technologies, a firm to assist US intelligence agencies with counter-terrorism operations. Last week, Palantir and global commodities trader Trafigura announced a new target market to track carbon emissions for the oil, gas, refined metals and concentrates sector. BP is among its customers, Reuters reported.

--- Thiel’s libertarian credentials, and perhaps in part his political motivation, were publicly established in 2016 when he funded an invasion of privacy lawsuit filed by Terry Bollea, known more popularly as wrestler Hulk Hogan, that bankrupted the news website Gawker. Gawker had outed Thiel in 2007...[  ] Blake Masters, the 35-year-old Republican US senate candidate for Arizona, has suggested he would use the same tactics after the Arizona Mirror wrote that the candidate opposes abortion rights and “wants to allow states to ban contraception use”. Masters denies those positions. . .

. . .

Moira Weigel, a professor of communications at Northeastern University and a founding editor of Logic magazine, argued in the New Republic last year that Thiel does not really matter: “What matters about him is whom he connects.”

At the moment, Thiel is busy connecting some of the most rightwing politicians in recent US history."

>

Why Trump endorsed Blake Masters in Arizona

<div class=__reading__mode__extracted__imagecaption>Screenshot: Fox News' &quot;The Ingraham Angle&quot;

Context: Masters — a populist who has embraced a national abortion ban and argued the gender pay gap is a "left-wing narrative" — is far more conservative than most Republican senators.

  • He's also backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who has endorsed GOP firebrands like Sen. Josh Hawley (who celebrated Trump's endorsement of Masters on Thursday) and Vance.
  • If he were to win the Aug. 2 primary, and subsequently a general election race against incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Masters would enter Congress as a hard-right, anti-institution MAGA-libertarian eager to take on Big Tech and illegal immigration.

Behind the scenes: Trump, who relishes being a kingmaker and wants to be involved in every race, quickly took a liking to Masters, sources familiar with the matter tell Axios. . .

The other side: Trump didn't click with businessman Jim Lamon after they met in person at Mar-a-Lago, two sources familiar with their meeting told Axios.

  • Trump thought Lamon, who pushed his business bonafides, talked about himself too much, one of the sources said. He felt Lamon's attempts to compare himself to Trump were "off-putting," a third source explained to Axios.
  • Meanwhile, Trump felt Brnovich was "weak" on claims of 2020 election fraud as attorney general — and made those feelings known in his endorsement message, calling him "such a disappointment." (Lamon was not mentioned in the endorsement). . .

What they're saying: “There is no candidate in this race who has fought harder to support the America First movement than me," Lamon said in a statement following Trump's endorsement.

  • "As a staunch supporter of President Trump’s America First policies, I am especially disappointed in his endorsement, but I don’t think Arizonans will nominate someone whose candidacy is a wholly owned subsidiary of a Big Tech, California billionaire, and who spent the majority of his adult life living and working in Silicon Valley until just a few years ago."
  • “Brnovich intends to fight and win this Primary Election and we look forward to working with President Trump to defeat Mark Kelly this fall," said Brandon Urness, Brnovich's campaign manager.

Read more >> https://www.axios.com/2022/06/03/trump-endorsement-blake-masters-arizona-senate-primary

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Trump Backs Venture Capitalist Masters in Arizona Senate Primary

  • Ex-president’s endorsement could sway outcome in GOP contest
  • Fall race against Democrat Kelly could decide Senate control

". . .The former president also cited Masters’s background and said he’s “a great modern-day thinker.”

Blake Masters is running on a hard-line nationalist agenda to reshape the Republican Party. But can the Peter Thiel protégé make it to the ...
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