Donald Trump is about to get a significant donation from Silicon Valley prominent investor Peter Thiel, who will thus claim the first place among the candidate's supporters. Thiel is reportedly going to donate $1.25 million to Trump's presidential campaign.
Reports indicate that a slice of the donation will head to a pro-Trump Super PAC, while the other part will be poured straight into the campaign. Thiel abstained from making any official comments on the donation, but the news reached the media via a person familiar with the matter.
The support for Trump in Silicon Valley is barely visible, with Thiel being one of the very few open supporters of the Republican candidate. Actually, Thiel is the single high-profile tech name who transparently backs Trump. Just a reminder, Palmer Lucky of Oculus was in hot water earlier this year when it was revealed that he contributed funds to a pro-Trump group.
Thiel's funding will assure him a spot on a napkin-sized list of people who donated north of $1 million. The Center for Responsive Politics reports that Trump got $15.5 million from Renaissance Technologies, as well as $2 million from developer Geoffrey Palmer and $1 million from Hawaiian Gardens Casino.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was bestowed with most donations coming from the tech world in 2016. The campaign of the Democratic candidate banked about $8 million from the tech industry, while Trump ranked about $1.5 million, Thiel's reported donation included.
During the past 90 days, Clinton got north of $300,000 from employees of Google alone, with workers at Apple, Microsoft, IBM and other tech companies no far behind. Looking at a list of big Clinton donors, we find Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife, who put $20 million into the Democratic Presidential campaign.
Thiel took the floor and endorsed Trump during the Republican National Convention in July, but his public stance backing Trump stopped there.
Earlier this week, rumors hinted that he might not even be in Trump's boat anymore, in the wake of sexual harassment allegations that surfaced about the Republican candidate.
However, the new New York Times reports how it is pretty clearly that he is still backing The Donald and is willing to go the extra financial mile for his beliefs.
Reactions were swift to appear on Twitter, as voices from the tech community chastised Thiel's allegiance and supportive actions for Trump.
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