JD Vance's Billionaire Mentor 'Disinclined' to Donate to Trump Campaign

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance's billionaire mentor, Peter Thiel, is "disinclined" to donate to former President Donald Trump's campaign, according to The New York Times on Saturday.

Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, officially announced Vance as his pick for vice president earlier this month at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee.

Thiel, a Republican and PayPal co-founder, and Vance's relationship dates back to 2011, when then-student turned Ohio senator met Thiel after the venture capitalist gave a speech at Yale Law School. He later became a "pretty good mentor" to Vance, according to The Washington Post as Vance made the switch to venture capital and joined Thiel as a partner in 2015, Politico reported.

In early 2021, Thiel introduced Vance to Trump. Since then, the venture capitalist has noted his approval of Vance as he privately encouraged Trump to choose the senator as his running mate, according to the Times.

In an interview with the newspaper on Friday, Thiel, who was among Trump's earliest major backers in 2016, spoke about Trump's and Vance's White House bid as he pointed toward his support of the pair. However, when asked if he planned to donate to Trump's campaign or allied groups, Thiel said he was "disinclined to do it" as he suggested the former president doesn't need his money.

"I went on record saying I would not give money to super PACs, and I still feel I have to stick with that. I think it's going to be very different from 2016 or 2020. I don't think the election is going to be close. I think Trump and JD will crush the election by a solid margin—4 percent or 5 percent of the popular vote. And it doesn't matter what I do. It doesn't matter what Democrat donors do," he said. "Trump is locked on a massively winning race. And the Democrats are locked on a massively losing race. And that's why the money doesn't matter."

This comes after Thiel did not donate to Trump's reelection bid in 2020, but donated just over $1 million in 2016.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign via email and Vance's spokesperson via text message for comment.

According to the Times, Thiel indicated that he believed the first Trump term did not deliver on all of its promise, but admitted "in spite of many misgivings I had earlier this year, it makes me more hopeful that a second Trump term will be better than the first."

Previously, Thiel was one of the GOP's biggest individual donors leading up to the 2022 midterm elections. He reportedly contributed more than $35 million to at least 16 GOP candidates running in federal elections.

On Tuesday just 48 hours after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate, Harris' campaign raised $126 million, according to Wednesday's state of the race memo from Harris for President Chair Jen O'Malley Dillon. Trump raised almost $112 million in June, Politico reported.

However, the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, is expected to have spurred large donations. The shooting left the former president with an ear injury, while one rallygoer was killed and two others injured before Thomas Matthew Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service counter-snipers.

This comes amid reports that Trump may regret picking Vance as his vice presidential candidate following Biden dropping out of the race and endorsing Harris.

Vance is the first non-incumbent vice presidential nominee to have a net-negative favorable rating after a convention since 1980, poll numbers show. His rating was at -6 points after the convention, according to CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten.

"I have gone all the way back since 1980. He is the first guy, immediately following a convention—a VP pick—who actually had a net-negative favorable rating," Enten said on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront on Tuesday night. "The average since 2000 is +19 points. JD Vance [is] making history in the completely wrong way."

However, Trump's communications spokesperson Steven Cheung, denied reports that Trump was second-guessing his choice of running mate.

"President Trump is thrilled with the choice he made with Senator Vance, and they are the perfect team to take back the White House. And any reporting to the contrary is nothing but ridiculous fake news from either nonexistent sources or individuals who have no idea what's going on," Cheung told Newsweek on Tuesday. "Meanwhile, Democrats are in complete disarray after their coup that forcibly removed Biden from the campaign, proving they are the real threats to democracy."

Meanwhile, Thiel praised Vance, telling the Times on Saturday: "I think JD is smart. I think he's charismatic. I think he is not a crazy person. And I think he is fundamentally a good person. I don't even know who else they could have found who's all four of those."