JD Vance could be the first tech guy in the White House. But it's way too early to say what that means.
- JD Vance, Donald Trump's vice-presidential candidate, could be the first tech VC in the White House.
- Vance's political views don't exactly align with Silicon Valley, but he has meaningful support from influential tech players — most notably Peter Thiel.
JD Vance, Donald Trump's vice-presidential candidate, is a former tech VC.
Does that mean a tech guy could be in the White House soon? And if so, what does that mean for the tech industry?
The answer to the first question is simple: Yes, JD Vance is very much a tech guy — a crypto-loving tech guy who's linked with other tech guys, including very important and rich ones like Elon Musk.
Vance's deepest connection to tech is Peter Thiel, an investor who has been backing Vance for years. Thiel, who was Donald Trump's most prominent advocate in Silicon Valley during his 2016 campaign, hired Vance to work at one of his funds, invested in Vance's own VC fund, and later funded Vance's Senate campaign in Ohio.
Vance's views on tech vary a bit from the standard Silicon Valley playbook: Most notably, he has praised Lina Khan, Joe Biden's antitrust enforcer, for her efforts to rein in very Big Tech companies like Google and Meta. And his pro-MAGA social views and rhetoric — he's more conservative than he is libertarian — would make him unwelcome at pour-over coffee shops throughout the Bay Area.
The bigger question is what having a pro-tech guy of any stripe would mean during a second Trump administration. And here we can't do much more than a shrug emoji: Donald Trump's views on tech change all the time, like when he was for a TikTok ban before he was against it. And when he does talk about tech, it just doesn't seem like something he cares about — just a means to an end. You can see and hear for yourself later this month when he's supposed to address a bitcoin conference in Nashville.
Nor is it clear what actual influence Vance would have in a second Trump White House, given that in the first Trump White House, the most important Trump advisors seemed to be whoever spoke with him most recently. (Vance's tech views may also turn out to be malleable: Vance previously called Trump an "idiot" and reportedly compared him to Hitler; maybe his views on tech regulation will change at some point as well.)
But as Nate Silver points out, the fact that Vance is a vice-presidential candidate today makes him much more likely to be a presidential candidate, and a president, down the line. And that's when Vance's views on tech could really matter.