Peter Thiel, founder of the online payment system PayPal and Republican Party mega-donor, has been named as one of the Republican National Convention delegates for Donald Trump’s presidential bid.
The venture capitalist has been named on as a Trump delegate in the San Francisco-based 12th congressional district, as part of a delegate list filed to the California Secretary of State by the Trump campaign.
Thiel, an openly gay ideological libertarian with an estimated net worth of $3.3 billion, previously supported Ron Paul’s 2008 and 2012 presidential bids, and Ted Cruz’s Senate race in Texas, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
Both Cruz and Paul had reportedly been courting Thiel at the beginning of their presidential bids. However, the only donation he made was of $2 million to a super PAC that supported former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, a vocal critic of Trump.
The billionaire has also previously criticised Trump himself, saying in a 2014 interview with the Daily Caller that he was the “sort of symptomatic of everything that is wrong with New York City.”
The move will come as a boost to the Trump campaign, which has faced questions over unity in the GOP, with many establishment politicians refusing to back him.
Other Trump-pledged delegates on the list include House majority leader Kevin McCarthy, former House committee chairman Darrell Issa, and congressman Duncan Hunter Jr.
You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at ben@yiannopoulos.net
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.