Silicon Valley power players like Peter Thiel and, to a lesser extent, Elon Musk have been a few of the tech industry figures supporting President Trump in one way or another. Thiel’s been distancing himself from the President in recent months, according to reports, but that hasn’t stopped others in tech from calling him out for his initial support.
According to Thiel himself, his support of Trump nearly got him removed from the Facebook board of directors, despite being the longest-serving person on the board. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, himself a Facebook board member, even warned Thiel shortly after Trump accepted the Republican nomination that Thiel would face consequences for publicly supporting Trump. This exchange took place in an August 2016 email obtained by the NY Times:
“I see our board being about great judgment, particularly in unlikely disaster where we have to pick new leaders,” Mr. Hastings wrote in the email to Mr. Thiel, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. “I’m so mystified by your endorsement of Trump for our President, that for me it moves from ‘different judgment’ to ‘bad judgment.’ Some diversity in views is healthy, but catastrophically bad judgment (in my view) is not what anyone wants in a fellow board member.”
Both Hastings and Thiel remain on the Facebook board, but that could certainly change. After all, the aforementioned email landed with Thiel on the day prior to a scheduled review of Facebook directors.
(Via New York Times)