Michael Steinberger

And he goes to an event in California, the Reagan National Defense Forum, in December 2023.

And he says that he wants the Democratic Party to speak in unambiguous terms, to unambiguously denounce the protesters for being anti-Semitic.

And he thinks that needs to be shut down.

And if it's not shut down, he's saying that he's prepared to walk away from the Democratic Party.

Yes, he starts donating much more aggressively to Republicans after October 7th.

And in the private conversations that he and I had, he makes clear that he is looking much more favorably on Republicans.

And he's even warming to the idea of a second Trump presidency.

Not long after October 7th, we had a conversation and he had asked me not to record the conversation, but said I could take notes.

And Trump's name comes up and he says, and this was unprovoked, I didn't even say anything.

And he says, I don't think Trump is a fascist.

I don't think Trump is an anti-Semite.

I don't think Trump is a bigot.

It really felt like he was trying to convince himself of something.

And, you know, at that point, it became clear to me that he believed that Trump was likely to win the 2024 election and that he was, in a sense, in a way, talking himself into getting behind that.

Well, I think he certainly recognized that he was going to have to say nice things about Trump this time around.

I mean, the first rule of doing business in Donald Trump's Washington is don't piss off Donald Trump.

The second rule is do everything you can to curry favor with Donald Trump.

And if you're a major government contractor, as Palantir is, you have a particularly acute need to curry favor with Donald Trump.

So Karp recognizes that a second Trump presidency is potentially a huge opportunity for Palantir.

and he writes a million-dollar check to the Trump-Vance Inauguration Committee, and Palantir lands a number of deals during the first months of Trump's second presidency.