Goldberg: Why is Peter Thiel, a GOP megadonor, buying a Maltese passport?
Hedge fund billionaire Peter Thiel is one of the greatest supporters of right-wing causes and ideas in America. Since the early ’80s, Thiel has given nearly $1.2 billion to causes ranging from gay rights to stem cell research to immigration. He also supports the far-right ideology that claims to preserve and protect America’s Judeo-Christian “American dream,” but in fact offers nothing but the destruction of the American dream for tens of millions of white Christians.
In April of 2012, Thiel and his wife, MacKenzie, applied for a new passport in their native country of Malta, in a move that has become more controversial in recent days following the publication of a documentary by Austrian filmmaker and self-proclaimed anarchist Armin Mueller-Stahl.
The passport in question, a Maltese one, was issued last year to Stahl by the Immigration Department in Malta using his father-in-law’s old passport, with an address in the United States. The new passport, issued to Stahl via his family, has an address in Malta.
Thiel’s donation of $10 million to the Freedom Fund – a “conservative activist group that has attracted criticism for its outspoken political positions” — may be a case study for right-wing politics and philanthropy in America, who will likely be on the receiving end of Thiel’s cash.
That money is being used by the Freedom Fund to help “get America back on it’s feet economically,” said Thiel. “They’re doing that by challenging and taking on public sector unions, which is something we agree with.”
Thiel’s support of the anti-government ideology, however, does not appear to be rooted in a desire to fight for the rights of people who are not white. While his donations to “cattle prod” liberal politics have no doubt changed the world for the better, his support for immigration
