During the fourth night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland (July 21), before Donald J. Trump gives his acceptance speech, RNC chairman Reince Priebus will speak. Trump’s eldest daughter, businesswoman Ivanka Trump will speak, as will Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Thiel is a co-founder of PayPal, he’s on the board at Facebook, and recently funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker.
After Thiel announced his participation at the RNC, Facebook released a statement saying that Thiel “is not attending on behalf of Facebook or to represent our views.” Thiel’s RNC support also makes him somewhat of a unicorn in Silicon Valley political circles (where they usually love unicorns) in the sense that he’s rare. Dozens of other powerful Silicon Valley leaders recently signed a letter condemning Trumps “divisive candidacy.” The letter was posted on Medium (Twitter and Blogger founder Ev Williams’ property), a platform on which Clinton occasionally publishes essays.
