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- Republican megadonor Peter Thiel is not planning to donate to any 2024 GOP candidates.
- Sources told Reuters that he's unhappy with the GOP's positions on abortions and transgender rights.
- Thiel wants Republicans to talk less about the culture wars, and more about China, per Reuters.
Billionaire Republican megadonor Peter Thiel is not planning to donate to any political candidates in 2024 because he's unhappy with the GOP's positions on several important social issues, according to Reuters.
The news agency spoke to two sources close to the businessman, who was an early backer of former President Donald Trump and stumped for him in 2016, who said that Thiel reached this decision late last year.
One source, a Thiel business associate, said that the GOP's positions on abortion and restrictions on which bathrooms transgender students can use in schools contributed to his decision.
The source said that Thiel believes Republicans are making a mistake by honing in on culture war topics for 2024, and prefers candidates to instead focus on US innovation and competing with China.
Both sources said that Thiel, who has a net worth of more than $8 billion, has declared on several recent occasions that he has taken a step back entirely from US politics.
Four other sources confirmed to Reuters that Thiel, who was born in Germany and later went on to co-found PayPal, has plans to withdraw from American political life, with one person saying that concerns over his family's safety have influenced his decision.
Thiel donated some $1.25 million to the 2016 campaign efforts of Trump, which set him up as an outlier in Silicon Valley.
But he didn't financially back Trump's re-election efforts in 2020, with one source close to Thiel telling Reuters that the businessman was turned off by the chaos surrounding Trump's persona.
Thiel contributed more than $25 million to federal-level GOP candidates in 2022, making him the 10th largest donor to either party in the midterm congressional elections, according to Reuters, which cited OpenSecrets data.
Insider contacted Thiel for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
The news that Thiel does not intend to contribute to GOP candidates in 2024 follows reports that Republican megadonors are souring on Gov. Ron DeSantis, with some attributing it to similar reasons.
Thomas Peterffy, for example, told the Financial Times that DeSantis' "stance on abortion and book banning" meant that he and "his friends" are no longer planning to give their financial support to the Republican governor.