“And I’m curious where you land. Do you think that President Trump is a fascist?” “Of course not. I think that’s stupid, honestly. And you know what? Again, you can go all day on this stuff. It’s honestly idiotic. I grew up half my life in Germany. I spent time with actual fascists. I went and talked to lots of former Nazis, this like — we have a democratic society. And he won in a landslide. I don’t see any sign of him being — look, of course, I don’t agree. Like, it’s like I don’t know what the point of these — it’s like —” “Well, the reason I was asking it was because you did study this. This was your thesis. And there’s a lot of people who have different views about this. Let me just ask you this: So originally the C.I.A. — do you remember this — was an early investor. In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm, was an early investor in Palantir. This is why I’m asking the question, actually, because I think there’s a lot of people who are looking right now at the industrial policy of the country. The country is taking stakes in businesses that they think are important — national security issues and the like —” “But isn’t that a classically social democratic view?” “Well, maybe it is. But my question to you, it was just going to be if the White House came to you and said, ‘Look, hey, Alex, we really like you. We think you’re important to this country. You’re a very important part of this. And we, if we’re going to continue to give you these contracts, we want a piece of the action.’ What — how, you would think of that?” “I mean, we’ll cross that road when we get there. My understanding is people who are in dire trouble, go to the White House and ask for money. And they say, ‘We’ve made terrific business decisions and we want your help.’ Why wouldn’t the American people participate?”
