Pete Buttigieg mocks JD Vance as he explains why he thinks tech bros are backing Trump

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Louise Thomas

Editor

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher to issue a succinct takedown of Republican vice presidentian nominee JD Vance.

He said Vance was a close ally of former PayPal boss and prominent Republican donor Peter Thiel. Thiel is one of a number of high-profile tech tycoons to back Trump, the latest being Elon Musk, something Trump boasted about at length during his Michigan rally on Saturday.

"I think it's a profound contradiction, but maybe it's not that complicated," he explained to Maher, when discussing why tech billionaires were shifting their support towards conservatives including Trump.

“We've made it way too complicated. It's super simple. These are very rich men who have decided to back the Republican party that tends to do good things for very rich men."

He also made a comparison between Vance and the political journey of Mike Pence, Trump’s last vice president, who rose from essential political obscurity to become vice president of the United States only to later end up a target on January 6 and persona non grata in the Republican Party when he ran for president in 2024.

“[Pence] got four glorious years, I guess, as vice president,” said Buttigieg. “[I]t ended on the west front of the Capitol with Trump supporters proposing that he be hanged, for using the one shred of integrity he still had, to stand up to an attempt to overthrow the government.”

“I guess maybe not as a politician, but as a human being, what I’ll say is that I hope things work out a little bit better for JD Vance than they did for Mike Pence.”

His comments are particularly relevant given Musk’s recent announcement of support for Trump, which the Twitter/X owner says will include $45m per month donated to a new pro-Trump super PAC. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz also recently came out in support of Trump.

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