Palantir

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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“We’re headed to a surveillance state”: Right-wing figures and podcasters are protesting the Trump administration’s relationship with Palantir

Palantir is coming under greater scrutiny even from Trump’s allies

Written by Noah Dowe & Ben Van Bloem

Published

The Trump administration’s deepening ties to data analysis firm Palantir has caused a surge in discontent in the conservative media sphere. Figures ranging from right-leaning podcasters like Theo Von and Tim Dillon to MAGA allies such as Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson have warned Palantir’s “spy network” is a step toward a “police state.” Other figures on the far right, including white nationalist commentators Nick Fuentes and Stew Peters, have also railed against the tech company’s CEO and its ties to billionaire Trump-backer Peter Thiel. 

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  • The Trump administration is contracting Palantir to work with ICE

    • Palantir makes software that searches through and organizes large datasets — and as a U.S. government contractor, that could include sensitive information about every American. Wired notes, “The software firm's work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Department of Defense, and the Israeli military has sparked numerous protests in multiple countries.” [Wired, 8/11/25; Inc., 11/3/25]
    • In May, Palantir made a $30 million deal with ICE to provide the agency with “near real-time visibility” into how migrants move in the United States. This comes at the same time that ICE is adopting more technology for surveillance, including facial recognition, to create biometric databases on populations of immigrants and people who interact with law enforcement. [NPR, 5/5/25, Brookings Institution, 10/6/25]
    • Trump chose Palantir to help “share data across agencies,” creating the possibility of a “master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power.” The apparent goal of the administration is to have Palantir compile a merged database that would include — but not be limited to — a person’s student debt, wages, bank account number, biometric data, and disability status. That information is currently siloed in different agencies, and experts warn that a merged database could be used by government actors to target political enemies, dissidents, and marginalized communities. [The New York Times, 5/30/25, 4/9/25, The Guardian, 6/30/25]
    • Palantir was co-founded by Peter Thiel, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump who supported his 2016 campaign and is also closely tied to Vice President JD Vance. Thiel hired Vance to his investment firm in 2017 and donated $15 million to a super PAC supporting the future vice president’s 2022 Ohio Senate campaign. [CBS News, 7/16/24; Mother Jones, 7/23/25]
    • The company and its CEO have also donated to the Trump inauguration fund and the construction fund for the ballroom replacing the East Wing of the White House. CEO Alex Karp donated $1 million to the inauguration, and Palantir is on a list of companies contributing to the estimated $300 million construction budget of the ballroom. [Brennan Center, 7/1/25; Axios, 10/23/25]

  • Right-wing figures and right-leaning podcasters have been critical of the Trump administration for working with Palantir, saying the collaboration “should scare everybody”

    • Joe Rogan said that Palantir gathering “personal data of each American” is “kind of creepy.” [YouTube, The Joe Rogan Experience, 9/9/25]
    • War Room host Steve Bannon called Palantir “really the villain in the AI” space and expressed doubt that the company had actually “become MAGA, because then you see what they want to do.” Bannon later said convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s case raises “big questions about Palantir and some of these other companies today about the surveillance technology — exactly who’s financing it, who owns it, who controls it, all of it.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 6/30/25, 8/23/25]
    • Podcaster Shawn Ryan told a guest on his show that people were worried that Palantir is “spying on us.” Guest Trae Stephens, a venture capitalist deeply involved in Palantir and other Thiel-related projects, defended the company and said that the “misconceptions around Palantir are crazy,” claiming that “a lot of the hysteria, like philosophically, is really troubling.” [YouTube, The Shawn Ryan Show, 10/16/25]
    • Infowars host Harrison Smith said the administration’s work with Palantir was “probably the worst news I've heard all year, to be honest with you,” and described the company as “the backbone infrastructure of the Mark of the Beast.” [InfoWars, The American Journal, 6/2/25]
    • PBD Podcast researcher Brandon Aceto said that Palantir is “a straight-up CIA contractor that harvests our data. It’s probably the biggest data center in the world, so that’s scary for a whole bunch of reasons.” [YouTube, PBD Podcast, 6/3/25]
    • PBD Podcast panelist Vincent Oshana said Karp and his company “want to control everything.” Host Patrick Bet-David called Palantir’s history “very, very spooky.” [YouTube, PBD Podcast, 6/10/25, 6/10/25]
    • Timcast IRL panelist Ian Crossland decried “the rise of Palantir and the spy network that’s being built,” claiming, “There’s going to be, like, spy tech everywhere.” [Rumble, Timcast IRL, 9/13/25]
    • Far-right figure Enrique Tarrio said he is “completely against” Palantir contracting for the government, calling it “the more advanced version of the Patriot Act.” According to Tarrio, “The Palantir thing I don't know enough about but I do think that just by what I'm seeing, it is something I am completely against because it's true. It's a second — it's the more advanced version of the Patriot Act.” [Rumble, Lords of War, 6/4/25; Media Matters, 4/30/25]
    • Tucker Carlson said “the technology, not just Palantir but all the emerging technology … it could be used to enslave the population really easily.” Carlson declared, “Every person should be concerned about the centralization of power and the use of technology to strip basic rights from citizens.” [YouTube, The Tucker Carlson Show, 7/25/25]
    • Right-wing political strategist Roger Stone criticized Palantir and claimed he told Vice President JD Vance that he does not “want Big Brother knowing everything about me.” Stone said, “I told him I did not like the idea of the federal government having a database on every American. I don't like Real ID. I don't like these stated plans of Palantir. I don't want Big Brother knowing everything about me, including my spending habits and everything about me, because I think it leads to a social credit score like they have in China.” [BBC, 12/23/20, WABC, The Stone Zone, 10/2/25]
    • Conservative commentators The Hodgetwins asked, “Why are Republicans giving Palantir all this power? Turning us into a damn police state.” [Twitter/X, 6/4/25]
    • Comedian and podcaster Tim Dillon has repeatedly questioned the administration’s relationship with Palantir, saying it “should scare everybody.” Dillon claimed, “If you don't have any reservations about Palantir taking everyone's information, I don't know. I can't — I don't know if I could trust you.” Dillon has also accused Palantir of “exporting technology all over the world for the purposes of death,” adding, “They are building this with Trump, with taxpayer money.” [YouTube, The Tim Dillon Show, 6/7/25, 8/2/25, 8/16/25, 9/27/25]

  • Some podcasters expressed specific distrust for Thiel and Karp

    • Podcaster Theo Von said Palantir’s deal with the administration is “fucked” during an interview with Vice President JD Vance, called Peter Thiel a “dark lord,” and warned that “we’re headed to a surveillance state in America.” Von said, “This sounds crazy, dude. This sounds like we're only going to be human for, like, two more years. … They're going to have every — know everything about us. It makes you feel like you won't be a person anymore.” Von stated in a later episode “you won't be able to be a, like, hypothetically or on paper, illegal person in America in two years.” [YouTube, This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von, 6/7/25, 7/23/25, 9/5/25]
    • White nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes said that Palantir was “infiltrated from top to bottom by Israel” while criticizing Peter Thiel's connection to Vance. Fuentes said, “JD Vance, what do we know about him? He was mentored and groomed and basically a creation of Peter Thiel, the creator of Palantir, who is running Palantir with people like Alex Karp, infiltrated from top to bottom by Israel, and Trump picked him at the behest of Tucker and Musk.” [Rumble, America First with Nick Fuentes, 9/19/25; Media Matters, 10/2/25]
    • White nationalist podcaster Stew Peters called the Trump administration “a big joke,” claiming: “It's time to roll in Palantir and you know, put the final launching measures on this super surveillance state that our enemy wishes to deploy here in the United States — track, trace, and control.” Peters said, “JD Vance with his cryptic statement saying hey, you know, President Trump is in really good health but if tragedy strikes, I'm ready to lead. And then you see Peter Thiel right behind him smiling.” [Rumble, The Stew Peters Show, 9/4/25; Media Matters, 3/13/23]