Tech entrepreneur Reid Hoffman has apologized for comments he made about Donald Trump on Friday at Sun Valley Allen & Company Conference. Hoffman and frequent verbal sparring partner Peter Thiel exchanged words about the latter’s support for Trump — which culminated with Hoffman firing off, “I wish I had made him an actual martyr.”
Those words were taken out of context, LinkedIn cofounder and chairman Hoffman insisted in a lengthy tweet posted on X on Sunday following the attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania, which had led to extra scrutiny being placed on those remarks from the day before.
“First and everything: There is no place for political violence in our society. Assassination is not only categorically wrong, but is also the assassination of democracy,” Hoffman wrote. “It is abhorrent that anyone has tried to assassinate President Trump. Everyone, on all sides of this election, should condemn political violence loudly and publicly. This includes President Biden, who last night said, ‘There’s no place in America for this kind of violence.’”
“It also includes President Trump,” he continued, turning toward a critique of the former president. “Instead of calling the January 6th insurrectionists ‘heroes’ whom he intends to pardon and even hire into government, he should speak out against political violence. When he warns against consequences of him losing the election, he should not predict a ‘bloodbath’ in a way that might incite future protesters to violence against his political opponents. He should clearly indicate, which he never has, that political violence is evil and unacceptable – even if the perpetrators are trying to do it to benefit him.”
“The beauty and importance of democracies is having political conflict be only speeches and ballot boxes,” Hoffman wrote. “This is the importance of having a society governed by the rule of law, which holds everyone accountable to an independent judiciary and by juries of our peers. It is what I stand for, and what I advocate for everyone to stand for.”
After that preamble on the news of the moment, Hoffman took to clearing up his Friday remarks.
“A point of clarification on a recent comment of mine that has been reported out of context,” Hoffman said. “At a recent business conference, Peter Thiel said that my lawsuit work against Trump was ‘turning a clown into a martyr.’ In that context, I replied that I wished that Trump would martyr himself — meaning let himself be held accountable — for his assaults on and lies about women.”
“Of course I meant nothing about any sort of physical harm or violence, which I categorically deplore,” he added. “I meant and mean accountability to the rule of law, such as unanimous guilty felony verdict by 12 jurors on 34 counts and an $84 million judgment for slander and lies about his sexual assault.”
“I am horrified and saddened by what happened to former President Trump and wish him a speedy recovery,” Hoffman concluded.
The attempted assassination of Trump on Saturday prompted a shareholder group to revisit the exchange between Thiel and Hoffman. The group demanded that Hoffman resign his seat on the Microsoft board of directors. Ithas also called for Hoffman’s removal from the Defense Innovation Board, which is currently chaired by Michael Bloomberg.
On Friday, Puck News reported that Hoffman was onstage with Palantir CEO Alex Karp during a panel moderated by Andrew Ross Sorkin when he was asked about his relationship with Thiel. Hoffman explained that the pair had a falling out over a “moral issue” — Thiel’s support of Trump. Thiel, who was seated in the audience, responded and eventually sarcastically thanked Hoffman for funding lawsuits against Trump, which he said turned the former president into “a martyr.”
Hoffman fired back, “Yeah, I wish I had made him an actual martyr.” The words soon took on a different meaning in the wake of the attempt on Trump’s life.
Elon Musk joined the conversation surrounding Hoffman and Thiel’s exchange on Sunday. He posted a link to Puck’s reporting on the verbal exchange and wrote on X, “The Reid Hoffmans of the world got their dearest wish … but then the martyr lived.”
Hoffman isn’t the only person whose recent comments about Trump have been reexamined. Political reporter Sahil Kapur tweeted an explanation on Sunday for a message President Biden sent donors that included the sentence, “It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye.”
“Full context of the recent Biden ‘bullseye’ remark to donors that’s making the rounds, per transcript obtained from a person on the private call. Source says the message was about turning the focus off Dem infighting post-debate and getting Trump to answer questions,” Kapur wrote.
A number of Republican politicians, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and potential vice presidential pick Sen. J.D. Vance, were among those who quickly attacked Democrats and Democratic rhetoric in the wake of Saturday’s shooting.
