Silicon Valley billionaire and long time Democratic voter, Chamath Palihapitiya, has shared a surprising revelation about his experience with President Donald Trump on Friday.
Palihapitiya, the Sri Lankan-born Canadian-American venture capitalist and CEO of Social Capital stated on his podcast that the media’s portrayal of Trump had been lies and that witnessing Trump in person dramatically changed his perception of the former president.
Speaking on the All In Podcast, alongside co-hosts Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg, Palihapitiya praised Trump for his charisma, intellect, humor, and unexpected kindness.
Palihapitiya: “I’ll give you two observations. The first is that I think there is a huge gap between how the media tries to portray Donald Trump and what he’s like when you meet him in person. And that gap is really wide. So, I would say, specifically to Democrats and independents, you really do need to sit in the room and feel what it’s like. David is right. He is charismatic, he’s intellectually sharp, and he’s funny. When you put that together, he can engage an audience for a long time and be totally extemporaneous.
“The other thing I would say is that he is very polite and he’s kind in a way that was disarming and was not what I expected. I felt that I had misjudged him for many years in the past. I was very glad that I had an opportunity to sit beside him and to actually interact with him one-on-one. It was really engaging. That’s more about the style. Then about the substance, what I would say is that it was not just a pro-American agenda, but it’s very clear that he was pro-innovation. He was really supportive of AI in the details that he talked about.”
He recounted a humorous moment where Trump complimented him and his wife, saying, “You guys are a really beautiful couple… Well, you must be really rich.” Palihapitiya found this quite amusing.
Palihapitiya also admired Trump’s willingness to engage in open discussion. He noted that Trump encouraged people to ask questions and share their thoughts, leading to a roundtable discussion on various topics including Iran, foreign policy, deficit, and debt.
“He’s very much on your side of to really figure out how to get spending in order and get the deficit under control,” Palihapitiya said.
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.@chamath says President Trump is completely different from how he is portrayed by the media.
“He is charismatic. He’s intellectually sharp, and he’s funny. And when you put that together, he can engage an audience for a long time and be totally extemporaneous. The other thing I… pic.twitter.com/dac0RuL2or
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) June 14, 2024
This is not the first time the billionaire has defended Trump. Last year, he said his Trump Derangement Syndrome did more harm than Trump himself.
“As a Democrat, who has been left homeless, who is now definitely in the center, but probably leaning increasingly right, I’m left yet again with an appreciation, despite the messenger of the message, of the Trump administration, because what those guys did, was pretty incredible,” Palihapitiya said on his podcast show “All-in-Podcast.”
He continued, “These Abraham Accords, the accords with Israel and the GCC, the almost accord between Israel and Saudi, to really be able to like find a long-lasting peace is just a real example for the world. And those guys did a lot of really great work.
“This is a moment when you have to start to re-underwrite, is one’s ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ causing more damage than anything President Trump could have done? And I think the answer is yes,” Palihapitiya said.
“Because it is now causing us to not see that good work, and then embrace and extend it. So much of the work that happened in that administration turned out to have been right, and that is what is so frustrating for me,” he added.
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