Come May, Peter Thiel plans to leave a post he has held for 18 years: board member of Facebook’s parent company. Thiel has already planned a party.

A few weeks later, the fete will take place at Blake Masters’ island property near Miami Beach. It is a two-home bay-front home that he bought for $18million last year. It’s a fundraiser for Blake Masters, a Thiel protégé running for U.S. Senate from Arizona, and invites have already gone out to a collection of moneyed, pro-Trump GOP elite. Tiered attendance is possible at the event. VIPs will be able to enter at 6 pm, while partygoers can go in at 6:45 (at a cost of $1,500). Thiel Masters and Thiel are more likely to get along with VIPs. There’s a third level, too: $5,600 for billing as a cohost.

Thiel is hosting a fundraising event for Masters Miami at the very least. In December, about 100 people gathered to drink cocktails and take pictures around Thiel’s pool. View Ana Navarro, CNN commentator and host, was there as well as Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina Congressman). Hedge funder James Koutoulas did, too, a giant “LGB” button fastened to his blue blazer. (The pin is a reference to the anti-Biden slogan “Let’s Go Brandon.” Last year, Koutoulas launched a LGB-branded meme coin.)

“I think Blake has a nice combo of technical competence,” Koutoulas says. Masters is a Stanford graduate who runs Thiel Capital. The company has invested in companies such as SoFi online lender and Regent (a maker of an electric seaplane). Masters manages Thiel Foundation. This foundation provides annual grants for 225 students who are not enrolled in college. Koutoulas perceives the D.C. bureaucrats as lacking any experience like Masters’. “You’ve got so many people in government who don’t have a basic understanding of technology,” he sighs.

For anyone curious about Thiel’s life after Facebook, it will probably look a lot like these gatherings in south Florida. Thiel (54) is still extremely wealthy. His net worth was estimated at $2.7 million. It seems impossible that Thiel would give up his empire of startups investments which he built 20 years ago. Those stakes form the basis of his wealth; those dollars are what he’s pumping into Republican politics to emerge as a leading figure in a Trump-centric GOP. He is clearly at an inflection. There’s not only his Facebook departure announced on Monday but also his surge in political spending. Just accounting for publicly traceable funds, Thiel has spent $22 million in the last two years–mostly on U.S. Senate and House of Representatives contenders–five times the amount he spent over 2015 and 2016. Much of Thiel’s splurge went to two Super PACs. The one supports Masters and the other J.D. Vance Hillbilly Elegy Author vying for Ohio Senate seat. This is a sign that Democratic …read more

Source:: Social Media Explorer