8VC Founder and Managing Partner Joe Lonsdale is supporting former President Trump in the upcoming 2024 election, laying out his reasoning in an article for The Economist in June.

In an interview with Josh Lipton on Market Domination Overtime, the Palantir (PLTR) co-founder says he is "more focused... on policies and rule of law than I am on the personalities" of the candidates and that he is "tired of this incompetence in government."

Lonsdale finds Trump to be more bold in his interactions with geopolitical leaders, whereas the Biden administration is "more focused on virtue signaling... buying votes with student debt relief than actually doing things that are rational and logical for the economy."

Trump has campaigned on raising tariffs on imports into the US, a topic another Trump ally and rumored Secretary Treasury candidate Scott Bessent spoke to Yahoo Finance about.

"There are probably certain areas where we've had free trade, where it's great for us on Wall Street and not as great for certain communities that are competing against the rest of the world," Lonsdale says on Trump's proposed tariff policies. "I understand where he's coming from. It's not crazy. And it is potentially the right thing to do sometimes to protect some of these communities."

Lonsdale then weighs in on potential picks for Trump's vice president, Silicon Valley's sentiment toward Biden, and what he envisions for the VC space if Biden does secure a second-term victory.

"Generally the value of our investments, the value of like being able to disrupt things in the economy aggressively with AI and create wealth, that that's all going to work better with more free market policy, with less law from the regulators, with less of the administrative state randomly harassing people... The sad thing is as a venture investor, if Biden wins, we'll probably spend a lot more time and money hiring people to go to DC to argue our cases for things..."

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination Overtime.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

Joe Lonsdale, co founder Punier and is the managing partner at A VC, a venture capital firm.

He recently wrote in the Economist about why he is backing Donald Trump, noting the only candidate in this race whose administration is likely to restore competence to government is Mr Trump.

Joe.

Joe joins us now to talk more about why he is supporting Trump in this presidential election.

Joe, it is always great to have you on the show.

Um You know, in that, in that piece of the economist, Joe, you lay out a different reasons, you're backing Trump, but you know, y'all finance Joe, we got a lot of traders, investors, business people listening.

Um So I wanna focus on that, Joe, why, why do you think Trump is the better option for the American economy, Joe and the American business community?

Thanks Josh.

You know, I, I guess I'm a lot more focused myself on policies and rule of law than I am on the personalities.

I, I respect people with different views on this.

We live in a pluralistic country.

We all work with people with different views.

But you know, on my side, I'm, I'm sick and tired of this incompetence in government.

Right.

We spend $7 billion got a handful of chargers.

We have $42 billion at the FCC for broadband.

They can't get anything done.

Of course, they could easily connect all these things with, with spacex, but they cancel the contract they're gonna do with Starlink, uh, because they don't like Elon.

Right.

It's a political thing.

Uh, and then, and then meanwhile they, you know, start suing Elon with the Doj for not hiring enough, you know, non-residents when the dod tells them not to.

And, and you just see this like again and again and again, like the Chips Act, for example, I think it's actually, you know, I'm not a big fan of industrial policy, but I think it makes a lot of, in a lot of ways for our country.

It's a bipartisan act and they push the ships Act ahead and there's like 19 de I things in it.

We're literally not building plants right now, Josh, because we can't find enough female construction workers.

I mean, this is a joke.

It's like there's like Children in charge of the country we need, we need, we need basic common sense back.

And why do you think Joe, you know, a Trump administration, you know, rectifies that changes course cleans it up.

I mean, you just have to be direct about what actually works in the world and not afraid to offend people by doing what's Right.

Like you don't, the Trump administration is not gonna have plants not being built because there's not enough female construction workers.

Like, listen, I, I think our government in general is not a competent thing and I think the people who are going to be around Trump, whether it's Vivek Ramaswamy, whether it's, it's all my other friends who are close to them from the tech world who are getting more involved.

They're gonna, they're gonna be cutting back on this waste.

They're going to be just calling things as they are.

And that, that's, that's true for domestic policy.

It's true for strength around the world.

One of the things I just shared on X today I saw, you know, when, when Trump was talking to the Taliban and was, was, was planning to do things there.

He says if you give like me one bit of trouble, here's a picture of your house, you know, not to do it.

I, I don't think Biden is, is cogent enough or, or bold enough to interact with things in those common sense ways.

I think, I think he's just very, very carefully, he's too politically correct.

He's, he's never run anything in his life.

So I think this administration is full of people who are more focused on virtue signaling and not focused on actually getting things done.

You know, they're more focused on buying votes with student debt relief than actually doing things that are, that are rational and logical for the economy.

T talk about rational, logical, Joe, you know, 11 economic policy, we know Trump believes in tariffs and, and he continues to hammer the table on that in your opinion, Joe, uh as someone who's supporting Trump, uh here, tariffs, smart, effective policy tool in your opinion, you know, overall, overall, Josh III, I joined most economists and being a fan of free trade, free trade has created a lot of wealth in the world.

There are probably certain areas where we've had free trade where it's great for us on Wall Street and not as great for certain communities that are competing against the rest of the world.

And so, you know, II I think protecting certain things domestically is a populist right policy that's very popular.

Uh It's not necessarily where I'm coming from, but I, but I understand where he's coming from.

It's not crazy and it is potentially the right thing to do sometimes to protect some of these communities.

Let me ask you Joe as a Trump supporter.

Now, any thoughts on who you would like to see as his VP, any thoughts there, Joe Vance, Ruby Huckabee Sanders, I'm friends with like four or five of these people and I think they're all really competent.

I think Vance is awesome.

I think, I don't think it's gonna be a Vivek, but I think he's a really important figure for why do you say Joe?

Why, why do you say Vance is awesome.

What do you like about Vance?

You know, he's someone I, I, he worked for Peter Thiel when I was working for him before.

He's smart.

He's thoughtful.

He's bold.

I, I loved his book.

He comes from a background where he really, really understands the struggles of a lot of people in America who come from the working class, who come from that background.

Yet he also understands the innovation world and, and, and having been in the innovation world, like that's what is the best in the world at.

That's the thing that like, no one else can compete with us saying if we wouldn't have the innovation world, you know, we'd probably look a lot more like Europe, we'd be a lot poorer, we'd be a lot more broken, like, like being able to harness the innovation world while also being able to, to care about like the least.

Well off, I think it's an awesome combination, Joe.

So, so you're back in Trump?

What if though in November um doesn't work out that way as you hope for Biden wins as a venture investor, Joe, would that change where you want to invest, what you want to invest in?

You know, I think overall the, the fortunately defense has been a relatively nonpartisan area of our economy.

And obviously, I think you have a little bit more a peace through strength and kind of stronger defense stuff on the right.

But II I, fortunately, I don't think that that goes totally away either.

You know, you know, America is going to be strong, I think either way.

So, so I think, I think that part is strong.

I think generally the value of our investments, the value of like being able to disrupt things in the economy aggressively with A I and create wealth that that's all going to work better with more free market policy with less law from, from the regulators with less of the administrative state randomly harassing people.

Uh I mean, you know, the sad thing is as a venture investor.

If Biden wins, we'll probably spend a lot more time and money hiring people to go to DC to argue our cases for things.

It's gonna be a lot more crony looking world as, as we're improving these industries, we probably look more a lot more like China, a lot slower, disrupt and fix things.

So, so I'm really hoping you have a more free economy instead, Joe, you're not based in Texas but you, you, you're a Bay area native, you got deep roots in Silicon Valley.

Uh I'm curious to get your take about a trend or, or what's talked about as a trend in May.

The New York Times publishes a story, Joe, the headline, some of Silicon Valley's most prominent investors are turning against Biden.

They talked about some big names.

Um Mark Andriessen, Chama, Papa, of course, David Sachs is, you know, now supporting Trump.

I'm just curious though, Joe in Silicon Valley.

Are you really seeing that?

Is that, is that an actual trend or just a few big bold faced names?

It's a big trend, Josh, I'm on a chat with about 100 and 50 people who are Silicon Valley investors and leaders and these people are fed up.

The FTC is doing crazy things that are not legal to block deals.

You know, one of my deals I sold opened up for $1.8 billion.

One of the companies I started this year, one of the biggest deals in the last couple of years.

Thanks to Lina Khan blocking the bigger ones I should thank her.

I'm on the record board only because of her blocking bigger stuff.

You know, the sec harassing people meeting with Sam B free but not meeting with other crypto CEO s who didn't donate to the left, right.

This goes, goes down the list.

It's just like law farre and corruption and waste and idiocy and coming out of the state and, and you know, when Obama was president, like I was in the White House sometimes talking with them like all these guys are in the White House that they want to hear from the tech world, they want to hear from you.

Even if you disagree that I'm not saying Obama was someone I always agreed with, but at least there was competent people just talking with us this administration has no idea what they're doing and they're not interested in talking and hearing from the competent people in the innovation world.

And that's a disaster.

And you know, those people you're talking with on those chats, are they more comfortable now saying they support Trump than maybe they would have been a few years ago.

A lot of them are comfortable saying they're against Biden and a lot of them are comfortable saying to us how frustrated they are with him.

Uh I think it takes a little extra bit of courage to come out and, and write that, that you're actually supporting Trump because of it because obviously we have two flawed people and you have no perfect choice here.

And I think they're still very scared to come out in public about it.

But as a leader, it's my job to, to set the tone and to put out what other people are afraid to say, Joe Great to have you on the show as always.

Thanks for making time for us.