As many Democrats challenge Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a major tech leader and frequent donor to Democrats has raised questions about their opposition—the latest in a line of criticisms from the tech world directed at a political party with which it once was comfortably aligned.
Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp aired his concerns with a party he often supports in an interview broadcast on Feb. 17 on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.
Karp co-founded the software firm Palantir Technologies, a top defense contractor, with Peter Thiel, one of Silicon Valley’s most outspoken conservative libertarians.
He took issue with progressive leftists’ general opposition to DOGE, saying most Americans support its identification of fraud, waste, and abuse in federal spending.
“I just view this as yet another example of the progressive left boxing themselves into a suicide dance,” he continued, questioning whether this group was seeking to communicate with Musk in good faith.
“Why is it that we do not know where every penny of our money goes? How do you explain that to people?” he asked, adding that DOGE’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful means of bringing transparency to government spending.
“It feels like the people criticizing Elon don’t want it to happen. And this is going to destroy those people,” Karp said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a frequent participant in protests against DOGE, told The Epoch Times that engagement between progressive Democrats and Musk is difficult because “it’s hard to engage with an oligarch who’s trying to tear apart our democracy.”
“There’s just a host of conflicts of interest that ought to deeply trouble progressives,” Blumenthal said of Musk’s effort, citing possible access to data of Musk’s business competitors.
Yet, Blumenthal said, he would be glad to speak with Karp, “or anyone else.”
Karp, a self-described socialist with a Ph.D. in neoclassical social theory, has donated tens of thousands to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. His money has also backed various individual Democrats, including Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.).
In recent years, he has stepped up his donations to the GOP, including to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Karp said a turning point for him was Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the latest massive escalation in a decades-long tit-for-tat between that state and Palestinian leadership.
Several months into the conflict, he flew his company’s board to Israel in a show of support. The firm maintains an office in that country.
Karp, who is Jewish, took other tech leaders to task for failing to back Israel in as public a way as he had.
“I think so few people speak out because they believe they can skirt by with no opinion, but there is no one who doesn’t have an opinion on Israel, especially if you are a big company,” the tech CEO said at the time.
In the months leading up to the 2024 election, Karp said he would be “voting against Trump” despite his reservations with Democrats, backing the candidacies of both former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Other tech leaders have backed away from the party that found ready allies in Silicon Valley during President Barack Obama’s administration.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated to Trump’s inaugural fund and, on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, said that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor COVID-19-related content.
The Epoch Times has also reached out to Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) a Democrat on the House DOGE Caucus, for comment on Karp’s remarks.
