Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel will join the Trump transition team
(Fred Prouser/Reuters and Mark Wilson/Getty)
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel will join the Trump transition team, according to a report from ex-Fortune reporter Dan Primack.
The Trump team confirmed the appointment on Friday.
"The mission of our team will be clear: put together the most highly qualified group of successful leaders who will be able to implement our change agenda in Washington," Trump said in a statement.
The Huffington Post first reported on Thursday that Thiel could even be a candidate to lead the team, replacing New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in the post if he were to step down. On Friday, Trump's team said vice president-elect Mike Pence would lead the transition team. A representative for Thiel could not be reached for comment.
While Thiel was once seen as the outlier in the tech industry for supporting Trump, he's become the most powerful representative of it overnight.
Thiel has been a strong Trump supporter since he delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention and pledged to donate $1.25 million to his campaign. In an interview with the New York Times, Thiel said he'd be interested in helping out the Trump administration, but not in any formal capacity or a role that requires him to move to Washington. Instead, he hopes the tech community takes action.
"At the end of the day, it would be crazy to simply spend four years issuing denunciatory tweets on Twitter. For a day or two, that’s fine. But I hope Silicon Valley will be more productive than that," Thiel told the Times.
Thiel's support of Trump has ruffled some feathers in the tech industry. One of his Thiel Fellows, college students paid $100,000 to drop out of college, decided Thursday to drop out of the program and decline the money. Other leaders, like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Y Combinator President Sam Altman, had to defend Thiel's links to their organizations.
NOW WATCH: Watch Peter Thiel tell the RNC audience that he's proud to be gay and Republican
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