If you had the power to pick, like the Democrats did last election, would you choose Vance, Rubio or DeSantis as the Republican candidate for President.
Feel free to state why.
Feel free to state why.
Vance, Rubio or DeSantis for President
- Thread starter sword
- Start date
Feel free to write in another option in your comments. Ted Cruze comes to mind.
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2013
- Messages
- 5,248
- Reaction score
- 322
- Points
- 83
There is a lot here. JD’s connections go deep with big tech. The reason I used Chat to copy and paste this is because there’s a lot there to explain with a lot of details.
JD Vance has unusually deep ties to Silicon Valley, especially to the right-leaning venture-capital and “tech right” rather than to the mainstream leadership of companies like Apple or Microsoft.
The key relationships are:
The bigger picture
The interesting thing is that these aren’t simply a collection of wealthy people Vance happens to know. There’s a fairly coherent network:
Peter Thiel → JD Vance → Trump administration
↕
David Sacks / Elon Musk / Joe Lonsdale / Marc Andreessen / Palantir / defense-tech companies
Vance worked in Silicon Valley before entering politics, including at Mithril Capital, Thiel’s investment network, and later founded Narya Capital, a Cincinnati-based venture fund. That gave him relationships with investors and founders that are quite unusual for a politician whose public image is rooted in Appalachia and the Rust Belt.
And there’s a particularly important distinction: Vance is often critical of “Big Tech” while being extremely connected to Big Tech’s venture-capital ecosystem. His argument is generally that established platforms such as Google, Meta and other incumbents have become too powerful, while startups, defense tech, AI companies and “Little Tech” deserve more freedom. That distinction helps explain why people such as Thiel, Sacks and Lonsdale can be enthusiastic Vance allies even though Vance sometimes attacks Silicon Valley’s biggest companies.
JD Vance has unusually deep ties to Silicon Valley, especially to the right-leaning venture-capital and “tech right” rather than to the mainstream leadership of companies like Apple or Microsoft.
The key relationships are:
- Peter Thiel — probably the most important connection. Thiel, the PayPal co-founder and Palantir co-founder, hired Vance at his investment firm and became a mentor and major political backer. Thiel gave $15 million to Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign. He also privately advocated for Trump to select Vance as VP.
- David Sacks — close political/tech ally. Sacks is a former PayPal executive, Yammer founder and venture capitalist. Vance developed a relationship with him in Silicon Valley and helped connect him with Trump-world. Sacks hosted a major Trump/Vance fundraiser at his San Francisco home and was among the people pushing Trump toward Vance for VP.
- Elon Musk — political alliance, though less of a personal/financial relationship. Musk strongly backed the Trump–Vance ticket in 2024. Vance is part of the broader tech-right coalition around Musk, Sacks and Thiel.
- Marc Andreessen / Ben Horowitz — important indirect connections. The Andreessen Horowitz network overlaps heavily with Vance’s Thiel/Silicon Valley circle, particularly around AI, crypto, defense technology and the idea of supporting “Little Tech” rather than large incumbent platforms. Andreessen subsequently became a major Trump ally.
- Joe Lonsdale — another Thiel-world connection. Lonsdale co-founded Palantir with Thiel and later founded 8VC. He’s been a significant Republican/Trump donor and part of the same Silicon Valley political network surrounding Vance.
- Jacob Helberg — Palantir/tech-policy connection. Helberg, a former Google employee and Palantir adviser, was also involved in lobbying Trump to choose Vance as VP.
The bigger picture
The interesting thing is that these aren’t simply a collection of wealthy people Vance happens to know. There’s a fairly coherent network:
Peter Thiel → JD Vance → Trump administration
↕
David Sacks / Elon Musk / Joe Lonsdale / Marc Andreessen / Palantir / defense-tech companies
Vance worked in Silicon Valley before entering politics, including at Mithril Capital, Thiel’s investment network, and later founded Narya Capital, a Cincinnati-based venture fund. That gave him relationships with investors and founders that are quite unusual for a politician whose public image is rooted in Appalachia and the Rust Belt.
And there’s a particularly important distinction: Vance is often critical of “Big Tech” while being extremely connected to Big Tech’s venture-capital ecosystem. His argument is generally that established platforms such as Google, Meta and other incumbents have become too powerful, while startups, defense tech, AI companies and “Little Tech” deserve more freedom. That distinction helps explain why people such as Thiel, Sacks and Lonsdale can be enthusiastic Vance allies even though Vance sometimes attacks Silicon Valley’s biggest companies.
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2013
- Messages
- 5,248
- Reaction score
- 322
- Points
- 83
Yes I know I will be criticized for copy and pasting but this breaks it down much better than my scattered brain.
The important part is that these relationships overlap heavily.
1. Peter Thiel is the hub
This is the single most important relationship.
Vance worked for Thiel’s Mithril Capital, and Thiel helped finance Vance’s venture-capital career. When Vance started Narya Capital, Thiel was one of its investors. Thiel subsequently gave $15 million to Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign—the largest single contribution to that campaign.
Thiel’s network also connects Vance to:
Thiel → PayPal → Sacks
Thiel → Palantir → Lonsdale/Helberg
Thiel → Founders Fund → broader venture-capital network. And this wasn’t merely financial. In 2024, Thiel was reportedly one of the people who personally urged Trump to pick Vance as his VP.
2. David Sacks is the other major bridge Sacks is particularly interesting because he’s both Silicon Valley establishment and Trump-world insider.
He was an early PayPal executive alongside Thiel and later became a prominent venture capitalist and political commentator.
Sacks and Vance organized Trump’s major 2024 San Francisco fundraiser, bringing Trump directly into the Silicon Valley donor network. Sacks was also among those lobbying Trump to choose Vance. After Trump won, Sacks received a formal administration role as the government’s AI and crypto czar, giving the network a direct policy channel into the White House.
3. Palantir is a surprisingly important connection. This is where the network gets especially interesting.
Peter Thiel → Palantir → Joe Lonsdale + Jacob Helberg
Vance has longstanding relationships with people in that orbit. Lonsdale co-founded Palantir with Thiel and subsequently became a major venture capitalist through 8VC.
Helberg was an adviser to Palantir and became another prominent Trump/Vance ally. According to reporting, Thiel, Sacks and Helberg were all making the case to Trump for Vance as VP. Helberg subsequently entered the Trump administration as undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment. So you can draw a pretty direct line:
Thiel → Palantir → Helberg → Trump administration and Thiel → Palantir → Lonsdale → Republican donor network
4. Marc Andreessen and Eric Schmidt Vance’s own venture fund, Narya Capital, is another important piece.
When Narya raised its first fund, it attracted money from Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and Eric Schmidt, among others.
That’s significant because Andreessen and Schmidt represent very different parts of Silicon Valley:
5. Elon Musk. Musk’s relationship with Vance is somewhat different.
I wouldn’t characterize Musk as Vance’s mentor in the way Thiel is. Rather, Musk, Vance, Thiel and Sacks became part of the same political coalition as Silicon Valley shifted toward Trump.
Musk’s enormous political influence after 2024 made this particularly important. Vance has also been highly supportive of Musk’s broader political/technological agenda.
There is a useful distinction here:
Thiel helped build Vance.
Sacks helped connect Vance to the tech/Trump donor world.
Musk became one of the coalition’s most powerful independent actors.
6. Vance’s own political network: Rockbridge. There’s another piece that gets overlooked.
Vance co-founded the Rockbridge Network with investor Chris Buskirk in 2019. Reuters reported that the network accumulated roughly $75–80 million and brought together conservative donors, including major figures from the tech-investor world. Vance no longer has a formal role, but he remained connected to the network. Rockbridge matters because it represents something broader than “Vance knows some billionaires.”
It was an attempt to build a new conservative donor/institutional ecosystem—including media, political organizing, polling and religious activism—that could compete with the traditional Republican establishment.
The important part is that these relationships overlap heavily.
1. Peter Thiel is the hub
This is the single most important relationship.
Vance worked for Thiel’s Mithril Capital, and Thiel helped finance Vance’s venture-capital career. When Vance started Narya Capital, Thiel was one of its investors. Thiel subsequently gave $15 million to Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign—the largest single contribution to that campaign.
Thiel’s network also connects Vance to:
Thiel → PayPal → Sacks
Thiel → Palantir → Lonsdale/Helberg
Thiel → Founders Fund → broader venture-capital network. And this wasn’t merely financial. In 2024, Thiel was reportedly one of the people who personally urged Trump to pick Vance as his VP.
2. David Sacks is the other major bridge Sacks is particularly interesting because he’s both Silicon Valley establishment and Trump-world insider.
He was an early PayPal executive alongside Thiel and later became a prominent venture capitalist and political commentator.
Sacks and Vance organized Trump’s major 2024 San Francisco fundraiser, bringing Trump directly into the Silicon Valley donor network. Sacks was also among those lobbying Trump to choose Vance. After Trump won, Sacks received a formal administration role as the government’s AI and crypto czar, giving the network a direct policy channel into the White House.
3. Palantir is a surprisingly important connection. This is where the network gets especially interesting.
Peter Thiel → Palantir → Joe Lonsdale + Jacob Helberg
Vance has longstanding relationships with people in that orbit. Lonsdale co-founded Palantir with Thiel and subsequently became a major venture capitalist through 8VC.
Helberg was an adviser to Palantir and became another prominent Trump/Vance ally. According to reporting, Thiel, Sacks and Helberg were all making the case to Trump for Vance as VP. Helberg subsequently entered the Trump administration as undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment. So you can draw a pretty direct line:
Thiel → Palantir → Helberg → Trump administration and Thiel → Palantir → Lonsdale → Republican donor network
4. Marc Andreessen and Eric Schmidt Vance’s own venture fund, Narya Capital, is another important piece.
When Narya raised its first fund, it attracted money from Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and Eric Schmidt, among others.
That’s significant because Andreessen and Schmidt represent very different parts of Silicon Valley:
- Andreessen → venture capital, AI, startups, crypto
- Schmidt → Google/Alphabet and technology policy
- Thiel → defense tech, Palantir, venture capital, political right
5. Elon Musk. Musk’s relationship with Vance is somewhat different.
I wouldn’t characterize Musk as Vance’s mentor in the way Thiel is. Rather, Musk, Vance, Thiel and Sacks became part of the same political coalition as Silicon Valley shifted toward Trump.
Musk’s enormous political influence after 2024 made this particularly important. Vance has also been highly supportive of Musk’s broader political/technological agenda.
There is a useful distinction here:
Thiel helped build Vance.
Sacks helped connect Vance to the tech/Trump donor world.
Musk became one of the coalition’s most powerful independent actors.
6. Vance’s own political network: Rockbridge. There’s another piece that gets overlooked.
Vance co-founded the Rockbridge Network with investor Chris Buskirk in 2019. Reuters reported that the network accumulated roughly $75–80 million and brought together conservative donors, including major figures from the tech-investor world. Vance no longer has a formal role, but he remained connected to the network. Rockbridge matters because it represents something broader than “Vance knows some billionaires.”
It was an attempt to build a new conservative donor/institutional ecosystem—including media, political organizing, polling and religious activism—that could compete with the traditional Republican establishment.
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2013
- Messages
- 5,248
- Reaction score
- 322
- Points
- 83
Why this matters:
The really consequential point isn’t simply that Vance knows rich tech people.
It’s that Vance sits at the intersection of three networks:
1. Silicon Valley
And there’s an interesting paradox: Vance frequently attacks “Big Tech,” yet many of his closest financial and political allies come from the technology industry’s most powerful venture-capital circles. His faction generally distinguishes between incumbent Big Tech (Google, Meta, etc.) and the startups, AI, crypto and defense-tech companies they want to encourage.
The really consequential point isn’t simply that Vance knows rich tech people.
It’s that Vance sits at the intersection of three networks:
1. Silicon Valley
- Thiel
- Andreessen
- Schmidt
- Sacks
- Musk
- Lonsdale
- Palantir
- 2. The new Republican donor/intellectual network
- Rockbridge
- Thiel
- Mercer
- Sacks
- Lonsdale
- conservative media/institutional organizations
- Sacks → AI/crypto policy
- Helberg → State Department
- Musk → enormous political influence
- Vance → Vice President
And there’s an interesting paradox: Vance frequently attacks “Big Tech,” yet many of his closest financial and political allies come from the technology industry’s most powerful venture-capital circles. His faction generally distinguishes between incumbent Big Tech (Google, Meta, etc.) and the startups, AI, crypto and defense-tech companies they want to encourage.
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2013
- Messages
- 5,248
- Reaction score
- 322
- Points
- 83
All that to say this, does this network give private interest more or too much influence over public policy?
I’d say, yes!
Trump was supposed to drain the swamp (when is the last time you heard that?) if Trump is unable to drain the swamp what has JD done to convince any of us that he actually can or even cares to do so.
I’d say, yes!
Trump was supposed to drain the swamp (when is the last time you heard that?) if Trump is unable to drain the swamp what has JD done to convince any of us that he actually can or even cares to do so.
