Peter Thiel, the billionaire founder of PayPal, will not serve in president-elect Donald Trump's administration despite his role in the transition.
"There's no job you would take in the Trump administration," The New York Times' Maureen Dowd asked Thiel during an interview.
"Confirm," Thiel said. "I want to stay involved in Silicon Valley and help Mr. Trump as I can without a full-time position."
Last month Thiel assisted the Trump transition team by arranging a meeting between the president-elect and several notable technology executives, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple head Tim Cook, and Tesla's Elon Musk.
"I think, early on, everybody was worried that they would be the only person to show up," Thiel told the Times. "At the end, everybody was worried they would be the only person not to show up. I think the bigger tech companies all wanted to get a little bit off the ledge that they had gotten on.
"Normally, if you're a C.E.O. of a big company, you tend to be somewhat apolitical or politically pretty bland. But this year, it was this competition for who could be more anti-Trump. 'If Trump wins, I will eat my sock.' 'I will eat my shoe.' 'I will eat my shoe, and then I will walk barefoot to Mexico to emigrate and leave the country.'
"Somehow, I think Silicon Valley got even more spun up than Manhattan," he continued. "There were hedge fund people I spoke to about a week after the election. They hadn't supported Trump. But all of a sudden, they sort of changed their minds. The stock market went up, and they were like, 'Yes, actually, I don't understand why I was against him all year long.'"
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