The co-founder of PayPal and first investor in Facebook, entrepreneur Peter Thiel.

If you don't follow Silicon Valley closely, this might have been your first introduction to Peter Thiel.

I build companies and I support people who are building new things from social networks to rocket ships.

He charged onto the stage of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland,

under a giant graphic reading Make America One Again.

Delegates on the floor went nuts.

I'm not a politician, but neither is Donald Trump.

He is a builder, and it's time to rebuild America.

One of the people watching that night was Max Chaffkin, a reporter and editor at Bloomberg Business Week.

It's just very weird to see somebody who has been operating in a world that has

seemed small and not significant on some kind of big historical level, like suddenly

step onto the world stage, as it were.

Max has been covering tech for more than 15 years, and he's watched Teal play on bigger and

bigger stages. As a founder of PayPal,

a venture capitalist who could make or break companies, and a guy who seems to enjoy playing

the villain.

Last year, Max published a book about Teal called The Contrarian, and it's true, Teal is hard to pigeonhole. I am proud to be gay. I am proud

to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American. Teal has been a stalwart Republican

donor for years, giving more than a million dollars to get President Trump elected.

But now, he wants something more.

He wants to be the patron to the Trumpist wing of the Republican Party.

Teal is turning away from Silicon Valley.

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