Miriam Adelson arriving at Peter Thiel’s house in Washington. Photo / Jason Andrew, The New York Times
Miriam Adelson arriving at Peter Thiel’s house in Washington. Photo / Jason Andrew, The New York Times
The party symbolised the euphoria of the tech industry on the cusp of the Trump presidency. The guest list included Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Miriam Adelson and the vice president-elect, JD Vance.
The who’s who of Silicon Valley and Washington converged at Peter Thiel’s beaux-arts mansion in DC on Saturdayevening, as the power brokers gathered in anticipation of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Casino mogul Miriam Adelson, one of the richest people in the world, arrived minutes before the 5pm party officially started, joined shortly after by one of the few people richer: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta.
He briskly walked in from the cold to the 10,000 square-foot home in the Woodley Park neighbourhood, clad in black-tie attire and surrounded by a few security people and his newly promoted head of global policy, Joel Kaplan, who has a long history in Republican politics. Zuckerberg stayed for about 90 minutes at the home of Thiel, a board member at Meta and mentor to him, declining to answer shouted questions from reporters.
Thiel’s other powerful friends joined later, and most party attendees (though not Zuckerberg) had to be screened by Secret Service agents. About 7.30pm, Vice-President-elect JD Vance arrived with his motorcade, although he stayed for less than 30 minutes. Vance was elected to the Senate in 2022 with US$15 million ($26.8m) in campaign support from Thiel.
Vice President-elect JD Vance arriving with his motorcade. Photo / Jason Andrew, The New York Times
Thiel was an early, lonely Silicon Valley supporter of Trump in 2016, and his party symbolised, in vivid terms, the tech industry’s new excitement for Trump. Dozens of top right-wing venture capitalists joined the likes of Speaker Mike Johnson and Donald Trump jnr, who emerged from the evening party with a triumphant grin.
“I don’t think anyone has ever been looking forward to a Monday like this,” he told a New York Times reporter one minute before he posted a similar thought to his followers on the social platform X. “I’ve been working a little too hard. Looking forward to Tuesday when I can relax.”
The collective net worth of Thiel’s party was hard to count, but included plenty of billionaires who know Thiel or his co-host, David Sacks. Sacks is an incoming administration official from Silicon Valley and a college friend of Thiel from their days at Stanford.
Thiel prides himself on his elaborate parties, and his inauguration event, held in his seven-bedroom home, included a hired juggler who rather than juggling, instead posed trivia questions to guests about US presidents. Snack cakes and other appetisers were passed around, and larger bites were served at stations. (The Mar-a-Lago station had shrimp, steak and salad with Thousand Island dressing; there was also a food delivery from McDonald’s.) Gift bags were filled with small bottles of Moët Champagne. There were, of course, red MAGA hats.
Donald Trump Jr. outside Thiel’s home. Photo / Jason Andrew, The New York Times
Prominent tech industry guests, among a heavily male list, included Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, crypto investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and after a brief period of haggling with security over the guest list, Alexandr Wang. Wang, who runs one of the most celebrated artificial-intelligence startups in the world, ScaleAI, was able to talk his way into the mansion, which Thiel purchased several years ago from Wilbur Ross, Trump’s former commerce secretary. Joe Osborne, a company spokesperson, said Wang had been temporarily unable to get in because the event was at capacity.
Silicon Valley’s politics have trended to the right since Trump’s election, and many of the main personalities of that movement were seen at the Thiel party. Guests included tech podcasters Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis and David Friedberg, hosts of the All-In show with Sacks; former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick; incoming administration officials such as Jacob Helberg, Ken Howery and Sriram Krishnan, all from Silicon Valley; and Senators Bill Hagerty, Ted Cruz and Dave McCormick.
Johnson described the party as “a lot of fun,” with the best part being “the company”. Cruz, who has worked to cultivate a relationship with Thiel over the years, said this was not, in fact, the best part of the weekend. That, he said, “is gonna be noon on Monday”.
