Behind the Curtain: The Billionaire and the Nationalist Leading Double Lives, While Shaping the New Age of Right-Wing Ideals.

Delilah Tanner
Feb 27
4 min read

Alice Weidel and Peter Thiel: The Politics of Hypocrisy

In an era where political figures brand themselves as ideologues of so-called “traditional values,” few exemplify the contradictions of their own rhetoric better than Alice Weidel and Peter Thiel. Both are prominent figures in right-wing politics—Weidel as the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), and Thiel as a billionaire venture capitalist with deep ties to Trump-era conservatism and global authoritarian movements. They present themselves as warriors against immigration, multiculturalism, and LGBTQ+ rights, yet their personal lives tell a very different story. Their brand of hypocrisy is not just ironic—it is calculated, profitable, and deeply cynical. They are what some may call, the ‘same person, different font’ trope—made even more glaring by their digital footprints, which make these contradictions impossible to ignore.

Alice Weidel: The Far-Right Leader with a Multicultural Household

Alice Weidel’s political rise has been built on nationalism, anti-immigration rhetoric, and the rejection of progressive social policies, all while leading a life that openly contradicts those positions. As the co-leader of the AfD, Weidel has championed strict immigration policies, decrying the so-called “Islamization” of Germany and advocating for the deportation of immigrants. Yet, she herself does not live according to these principles.

Weidel is in a long-term relationship with a Swiss-born Sri Lankan woman, Sarah Bossard, with whom she raises two adopted children. She splits her time between Germany and Switzerland, benefiting from the very cross-border freedoms she denies others. If Weidel’s policies were applied to her own family, she and her partner would likely be targeted as foreigners living outside of “traditional” German family values.

What makes Weidel’s hypocrisy even more unsettling is her personal motivation for entering politics: she has expressed a desire to honor the legacy of her grandfather, a known Nazi. While she publicly denies Nazi sympathies, her party openly courts neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and Holocaust revisionists. The AfD has called for an end to Germany’s culture of Holocaust remembrance, dismissing its Nazi past as a mere footnote in history. For a woman who seeks to restore her family’s ideological legacy while living in a liberal, multicultural household, the contradictions could not be starker.

Peter Thiel: The Libertarian Oligarch Funding Both Sides

If Alice Weidel is the face of European right-wing populism, Peter Thiel is the ultimate American puppet master of reactionary politics. Thiel has built a financial empire profiting from seemingly opposing forces—funding populist nationalism while thriving in the globalized economy he claims to reject.

A longtime Trump supporter, Thiel has backed candidates who seek to dismantle government oversight while simultaneously profiting from government contracts. His company, Palantir, has worked extensively with U.S. intelligence agencies, making millions from surveillance programs used by the very “deep state” that his political allies claim to despise.

Like Weidel, Thiel rails against the so-called decline of Western civilization due to immigration, yet he himself is an immigrant, born in Germany, growing up in South Africa. Despite promoting nationalist policies, he is a global citizen, holding multiple citizenships, including New Zealand’s, which he purchased in an attempt to secure a luxurious escape route should global instability (which he profits from) come to a head.

Thiel’s personal life is another glaring contradiction. He is a gay man married to Matt Danzeisen, with whom he has adopted a child. Yet he has funneled millions into politicians and policies that actively restrict LGBTQ+ rights, including Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and signaled a willingness to revisit marriage equality. Thiel’s wealth protects him from the consequences of his own political maneuvering, allowing him to enjoy the freedoms he helps strip away from others.

The Politics of Performance

The cases of Alice Weidel and Peter Thiel highlight a larger trend in right-wing politics: leaders who champion exclusionary ideologies while living privileged lives exempt from their own rhetoric. Their hypocrisy is not incidental—it is integral to their power. They sell their followers a fantasy of cultural purity and economic self-sufficiency while actively relying on and benefiting from the very systems they claim to oppose.

For Weidel, this means demonizing immigrants while building a life with an immigrant partner. For Thiel, it means funding reactionary politics while profiting from globalization and government intervention. Both have built careers on a foundation of deceit, knowing that their wealth and status will shield them from the policies they impose on others.

At the end of the day, their political movements are not about principle, but power. And their contradictions are not just hypocrisy—they are the lifeblood of a political machine that thrives on deception and at the end of the day that’s just nothing short of repulsive.

To be clear, the issue isn’t that Alice Weidel and Peter Thiel benefit from the rights and opportunities they enjoy—marriage equality, adoption, immigration freedom—these are things that should be available to everyone. The problem is that they actively work to deny those same rights to others while shielding themselves from the consequences of their own politics. This isn’t just hypocrisy; it’s a calculated, self-serving grift. The real question is: why would anyone support leaders who build their power on deception, stripping away freedoms they would never give up themselves?