The Wall Street Journal reported last night that two venture capitalists are in the running to be deputy secretary of defense in the incoming Donald Trump Administration. One of them is Trae Stephens, a partner at Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund venture-capital firm. The other, apparently named previously, is billionaire investor Stephen Feinberg, who led the president’s intelligence advisory board in the first Trump administration. Feinberg is co-chief executive of Cerberus Capital Management, which has invested in a number of in a number of defense companies. Stephens co-founded Anduril Industries, which is run by Palmer Luckey, who like Alex Karp of Palantir, is a protégé of Thiel. The Journal comments: “The selection of either investor could come as welcome news for the hundreds of new defense startups that have entered the military market in recent years.”
Feinberg is a longtime Trump supporter and co-chief executive of Cerberus Capital Management, which has invested in a number of defense companies. A spokesman for Feinberg said he hadn’t been offered any job in the administration. Stephens and a spokeswoman for Founders Fund declined to comment. Spokespeople for Trump didn’t return requests for comment. In other words, it’s all in the realm of rumor until Trump makes an announcement.
