Billionaire Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel has privately told friends that President Donald Trump’s administration is “incompetent” and may end “in disaster,” BuzzFeed reported on Monday.
Thiel, a libertarian who urged “Americans to stand up and vote for Donald Trump” at the 2016 Republican National Convention and joined Trump’s White House transition team in November, has soured on the President since his election, according to the report.
BuzzFeed reported, citing two unnamed sources in attendance of a meal Thiel had with friends in January, the investor said “there is a 50 percent chance this whole thing ends in disaster.”
Thiel nevertheless described Trump’s administration as a work in progress and dismissed questions about whether Trump’s election would have negative ramifications for social change, such as the legalization of marriage equality, according to the report.
He made further remarks to that effect at an event in May, BuzzFeed reported, citing an unnamed guest in attendance who said Thiel appeared “annoyed” with Trump’s first few months as President.
Thiel was concerned that Trump would have a stagnant first term and said he did not think Trump would win reelection, according to the report. He summed up Trump’s administration as “incompetent.”
In a statement to BuzzFeed, Thiel did not deny making those statements, but said he continues to “support” Trump in “his ongoing fight to achieve” change.