At least one prominent techie is happy about a Donald Trump presidency.
PayPal co-founder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel is joining Trump’s transition team. Bloomberg reports that Thiel could focus on vetting presidential appointments and deciding which campaign promises will translate to policies.
Thiel, who spoke on behalf of Trump at the Republican National Convention and donated $1.25 million to his campaign, has consistently said that the current system of government is broken, and it will take a outsiders, like Trump, to fix it.
“The big things he’s right about amount to a much-needed dose of humility in our politics,” Thiel said at a talk to the National Press Club a week prior to the election. “We’re voting for Trump because we’ve judged the leadership of our country to have failed.”
Bloomberg reports that government waste will be a big focus for Thiel. He has argued for shifting from cultural issues like sexuality and gender and focusing on making the government efficient enough to complete big infrastructure projects like it did in the mid 20th century.
Tech industry bigwigs have been reacting to Trump’s election win throughout the week. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos congratulated him, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was stunned by the results, Microsoft was diplomatic, and Apple CEO Tim Cook didn’t mention him by, but urged people to come together and move forward.
