Billionaire Trump backer Thiel leaving Silicon Valley over politics: report

Billionaire venture capitalist and Trump supporter Peter Thiel is reducing his involvement in the tech industry and relocating his home and business firms from Silicon Valley to Los Angeles, according to a new report.

Thiel, one of the few vocal backers of President Trump in Silicon Valley, has become frustrated with the overwhelmingly left-leaning nature of the Bay Area, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

“Silicon Valley is a one-party state,” Thiel said at an appearance last month at Stanford University. “That’s when you get in trouble politically in our society, when you’re all on one side.”

Thiel has also considered resigning from the board of Facebook, but is unlikely to do so soon, the Journal reported.

Thiel, who is also a co-founder of PayPal, has reportedly discussed launching a conservative cable news network to compete with Fox News.

Thiel secretly funded a 2015 lawsuit against Gawker Media that eventually led to the website’s bankruptcy.