Thiel: Trump will move country in ‘new direction’

Venture capitalist Peter Thiel said Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would “move the party — and the country — in a new direction” in an op-ed late Tuesday.

“The establishment doesn’t want to admit it, but Trump’s heretical denial of Republican dogma about government incapacity is exactly what we need to move the party — and the country — in a new direction,” Thiel wrote in The Washington Post.

{mosads}“For the Republican Party to be a credible alternative to the Democrats’ enabling, it must stand for effective government, not for giving up on government.”

He drew on a local point of comparison to make his point, citing the difficulty-plagued Washington Metrorail subway system as proof that the “amount of money you spend matters far less than how you spend it.”

Thiel is one of Silicon Valley’s most high-profile venture capitalists, known for co-founding PayPal and making a smart early bet on Facebook. He’s also one of tech’s most outspoken conservatives.

And his support for Trump, whom he praised in a speech at the Republican National Convention this summer, has made him an outlier in tech. Most donations from employees at tech companies have gone to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. She’s also received support from a broad slate of tech leaders, including Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Salesforce chief Marc Benioff.

Trump’s campaign has yet to take a position on a range of major tech policy issues, while Clinton’s campaign has actively courted tech experts to build a tech and telecommunications policy platform.