Billionaire Democrat Changes Mind About Trump

Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and CEO of Social Capital, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York, on May 8, 2017. Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Former President Donald Trump’s peace-nurturing policies look “pretty incredible” in the wake of violence erupting in the Middle East, a billionaire Democrat says.

During last week’s episode of the All-In Podcast, prominent venture capital investor Chamath Palihapitiya, who previously called the former Republican president “an idiot,” says it is time to re-evaluate President Trump’s accomplishments.

Commenting just days after Hamas, an Iran-backed terrorist group, invaded Israel and raped, killed, and kidnapped innocent civilians, Mr. Palihapitiya lauded the Trump Administration for its foreign-policy gains.

Labeling himself “a Democrat who has been left ‘homeless,’ who is now definitely in the center, but probably leaning increasingly Right,” Mr. Palihapitiya said that “Trump Derangement Syndrome” has blinded people to the Trump administration’s achievements.

“What those guys did was pretty incredible, in hindsight,” Mr. Palihapitiya said.

The podcast moderator, fellow tech investor Jason Calacanis, said he’s “no fan of Trump” but chimed in: “It’s a miracle, actually, when you look at it, what they did.”

Mr. Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive, listed several accomplishments of the former president’s team, including brokering the Abraham Accords. That 2020 agreement forged cooperation among Middle Eastern nations that have clashed over investments, tourism, energy, and other key issues.

President Trump’s administration made strides toward a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Mr. Palihapitiya noted.

‘We Killed the Message’

President Trump received several Nobel Peace Prize nominations for his foreign-policy efforts.

“To really be able to, like, find long-lasting peace is just a real example for the world,” said Mr. Palihapitiya, who was born on the South Asian island of Sri Lanka.

Because of the violence in the Middle East, “this is a moment where you have to start to re-underwrite” the former president’s policies and actions, Mr. Palihapitiya said.

Nine months ago, Mr. Palihapitiya called President Trump “an idiot savant, minus the savant” on that same podcast, which he hosts with three well-known friends. That remark was made during a discussion of the former president’s legal troubles over his alleged mishandling of documents with classified markings.

Those issues notwithstanding, Mr. Palihapitiya says: “So much of the work that happened in that administration turns out to have been right. And that’s what’s so frustrating for me.”

(L-R) Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump, and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan hold up documents after participating in the signing of the Abraham Accords where the countries of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates recognize Israel, at the White House in Washington, on Sept. 15, 2020. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

“The work on the border wall, we didn’t like the messenger, so we killed the message. Turned out it was right,” he said. Ditto for “issuing long-term debt to refinance when rates were at zero,” along with the Trump administration’s proposal to restructure the Middle East.

“When are we going to stop shooting ourselves in the foot? And when are we going to actually see and take the time to look past who is saying things and actually listen to them, word-for-word?” Mr. Palihapitiya asked.

Seeking additional comment, The Epoch Times left a message for Mr. Palihapitiya at a phone number listed for his California-based business, Social Capital, but received no return call before publication.

Praise for Trump’s Son-In-Law

The All-In podcasters applauded the former president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who is Jewish, for his work in the Middle East.

He played a key role in the Abraham Accords.

Mr. Kushner also conducted extensive world history research for the “Peace to Prosperity” plan, the Trump White House’s 2020 blueprint for revamping the political and economic frameworks of Israel and the Hamas-controlled regions.

The plan, which has not been implemented, was intended to resolve the complex,  longstanding economic, governmental, and religious conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. It advocated a “two-state solution”  to the problem.

Aiming to guarantee civil and political rights for both sides, the plan would have recognized Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people” and created “defensible borders for the State of Israel” for land west of the Jordan River. It also called for a newly created State of Palestine through “significant territorial expansion, allocating land roughly comparable in size to the West Bank and Gaza.”

While Mr. Calacanis said it was “weird” or “bizarre” that a president’s son-in-law or another relative would help formulate foreign policy, Mr. Palihapitiya disagreed.

He pointed to Mr. Kushner’s recent four-hour interview with The Lex Fridman Podcast and said: “You know, it’s not weird.”

The podcast makes clear that Mr. Kushner “is incredibly thoughtful and incredibly competent,” Mr. Palihapitiya said.

White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner speaks to journalists after U.S. Ambassador David Friedman unveiled a plaque at the U.S. embassy designating the Kushner Courtyard, in Jerusalem, on Dec. 21, 2020. Maya Alleruzzo/Pool/AP Photo

During the podcast with Mr. Fridman, Mr. Kushner commended his father-in-law for strengthening the United States’ relationship with Israel. President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy there, a feat that past U.S. presidents pledged repeatedly but failed to enact.

President Trump broke down “false barriers that people had erected” and demonstrated that most Middle Easterners “just want to live better lives,” regardless of their nationality or religion, Mr. Kushner said.

In 2018, after learning that Iran was secretly developing nuclear weapons, President Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear arms deal.

He also imposed economic sanctions, blocking certain financial transactions and exports, including oil.

After government officials declared that President Trump’s opponent, Democrat Joe Biden, had won the hotly disputed 2020 election, Mr. Kushner aided in the transition to the Biden administration.

Biden Backs Away

“We left them a place where we had tremendous momentum in the Middle East,” Mr. Kushner said. However, he said the Biden Administration changed gears.

Instead of building on the Middle East peace process, President Biden wanted to focus on “the three C’s:” the COVID-19 pandemic, “climate change,” and China.

After his installment in office, President Biden loosened sanctions on Iran. He also cut back U.S. oil production, increasing the nation’s reliance on oil from foreign nations such as Iran. These actions enriched and emboldened Iran, a nation with a history of funding terrorist organizations, Mr. Kushner said.

Further, Mr. Kushner said the United States failed to respond in a timely manner to crises that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) faced, Mr. Kushner said. In January 2022, Iran-backed Houthi rebels, based in Yemen, launched rockets into Abu Dhabi.

In the aftermath, “they basically don’t get a call from the United States for 17 days,” Mr. Kushner said.

President Joe Biden (R) and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (L) attend a bilateral meeting at a hotel in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on July 16, 2022. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

That failure to act, coupled with other actions, alienated “the first Muslim country to stand up with the United States,” Mr. Kushner said.

The Biden Administration “severely degraded the trust that we built with our allies,” Mr. Kushner said.

President Trump, in a speech last week, accused President Biden of strengthening Iran and creating a climate ripe for the terrorist attack on Israel.

The Epoch Times asked The White House to comment on criticisms of his Middle East policies and actions, but received no response before publication.

United States ties with the UAE and Saudi Arabia were “frayed,” Reuters reported last year.

The news agency added: “Gulf states have chafed at perceived declining U.S. commitment to their security in the face of Iran’s missile program and network of regional proxies.”

‘Two-State Solution’ A Must?

Looking to the future, entrepreneur and political commentator David Sacks, who also appears on the All-In Podcast along with Mr. Palihapitiya, points out that there is no quick fix for the Middle East.

“Hamas is now deeply embedded in a civilian population of over 2 million that’s densely packed. How do you root them out? It’s going to take decades,” he said, fearing that the general population in that region is supportive of Hamas.

The situation is delicate, he said. “If you take measures that are perceived as too drastic by the rest of the world, then you will inflame the opinion of other countries, you'll turn it against Israel,” Mr. Sacks said.

“I think that the US should only affirm its support for Israel. It should only denounce the atrocity that happened” during the Oct. 7 Hamas ambush of Israel, Mr. Sacks said.

He encourages the Biden administration to reinforce its support for the proposed “two-state solution.”

“The Palestinians are eventually gonna have to have their own state,” Mr. Sacks said. “There’s simply no way around that.”