Vice President JD Vance is facing a multi-billion-dollar liability that could sink his presidential dreams — and it's tied to his relationship with Peter Thiel.
The MAGA billionaire and Palantir co-founder helped get Vance elected and now potential voters are growing more "suspicious of big tech and the surveillance state – and they are very wary of the Trump administration’s deepening ties to Palantir," Arwa Mahdawi wrote in an opinion piece for The Guardian Tuesday.
Vance, who is strongly viewed as a potential heir to the MAGA movement, is eyeing a presidential run in 2028. President Donald Trump called a Vance and Marco Rubio pairing "unstoppable" and Rubio has apparently told his inner circle that he would support Vance's run for the job.
But Vance has to face tough reality.
"In his role as vice-president, Vance is already under constant scrutiny. But, as 2028 approaches, he will be put under the microscope. And if he wants to get the top job there are a few liabilities that he should probably sort out," Mahdawi wrote.
"His personality is one of them: Vance can come off as smug and obnoxious. But that’s something he can work on. This is a man, after all, who has changed his name many times; a former atheist who converted to Catholicism in 2019, a few years before running for political office. A man who once called Donald Trump 'America’s Hitler' and now calls him boss. Vance is adept at shape-shifting," Mahdawi explained.
Even the podcast bros and other right-wing figures are starting to take notice of Palantir.
Joe Rogan called the relationship between Palantir and the Trump administration "kinda creepy," citing the government's collection of Americans' personal data and asking "who signed off on this?" Tucker Carlson has also expressed concern over the company's motives and what the administration could use the data for.
"All this is a big problem for Vance because, as he recently acknowledged while speaking to university students: 'I get asked about Palantir a lot because there’s this internet meme out there that somehow I am super in bed with Palantir.' Meme or not, it’s hard to ignore the links between the two, which are, increasingly, generating headlines. You’ve made your bed, Vance; now you’ve got to lie in it," Mahdawi added.