September 15, 2016
Does Trump Wants Gay Billionaire Peter Thiel On The Supreme Court?
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
If GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is elected president this November, he wants to make history by reportedly nominating the first openly gay person to the Supreme Court, according to a report by The Huffington Post.
Sources told the news site Peter Thiel, the openly gay billionaire who co-founded PayPal and was instrumental in the takedown of Gawker.com, has been telling his friends Trump is eyeing him for the position.
Another source told HuffPo, Trump "deeply loves Peter Thiel," and those connected to his inner circle are talking about Thiel as a Supreme Court nominee. The news site writes, the "source, who has not spoken to Trump directly about Thiel being nominated to the Court, cautioned that Trump's offers often fail to materialize in real life."
HuffPo adds, "it's not clear whether Trump has indeed offered to nominate Thiel -- only that Thiel has said Trump would nominate him and that Trump's team has discussed Thiel as a possible nominee."
Hope Hicks, Trump's press secretary, denied that he offered Thiel the SCOTUS decision or that the campaign was throwing his name around, HuffPo reports.
"There is absolutely no truth to this whatsoever," she told the site.
Thiel's spokesman Jeremy Hall also commented on the report.
"Peter hasn't had any conversations about a Supreme Court nomination and has no interest in the job," he said.
Of course, if Trump's alleged plan comes to fruition, the decision will likely be controversial. Thiel secretly funded wrestler Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker.com, who was suing the site for posting a sex tape of him. Thiel wanted revenge after Gawker outed him years ago.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-peter-thiel-supreme-court_us_57d80d57e4b09d7a687f9b03|HuffPo notes if Thiel were to be nominated, he would be the richest Supreme Court nominee today, as he is worth about $2.7 billion.
Back in May, Trump released a list of his 11 potential Supreme Court nominees, which was made up of sitting state and federal judges who all have plenty of experience. Trump did say, however, the list wasn't a sure thing and that it was more of a "guide" meant to be "representative of the kind of constitutional principles I value."
Thiel, who supports marriage equality, is a self-described libertarian, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-peter-thiel-supreme-court_us_57d80d57e4b09d7a687f9b03|according to HuffPo, which writes the tech businessman "would be a radical departure from the nominees on Trump's list, but his nomination would be in keeping with Trump's willingness to make unorthodox, contradictory decisions."
Thiel is deeply conservative, however, and his more fanciful ideas can sometimes obscure his support for broadly mainline Republican policies and candidates. Thiel has given millions of dollars in total to candidates like Ron Paul, Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina. Like Trump, Thiel's core political belief appears to be that his financial success validates his ideas.
Read the full Huffington Post report by clicking here.
