Trump endorses self - described Nazi - ish Texas Republican as Peter Thiel backs his bid for Congress

yahoo.com · Feb 20, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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A Texas Republican congressional candidate who has said critics might call his views “bigoted and backward and oppressive and Nazi-ish” got a high-profile boost this week from President Donald Trump and is already drawing financial backing from Peter Thiel, the out gay tech billionaire and co-founder of Palantir Technologies.Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.On Monday, Trump endorsed Jace Yarbrough, who is running in the Republican primary for Texas’s 32nd Congressional District, calling him an “America First Patriot” and “a Brave Air Force Veteran,” on his Truth Social platform.Trump wrote that “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”The district is currently represented by Congresswoman Julie Johnson, a Democrat and the first out LGBTQ+ person elected from the South. After Republican gerrymandering efforts last year redrew the electoral maps in the state, Johnson is running for reelection in the newly-drawn 33rd Congressional District.Federal Election Commission records reviewed by The Advocate show that Thiel gave two $3,500 donations on December 24, 2025, to Yarbrough’s campaign, one designated for the primary and one for the general election, for a combined $7,000, the maximum an individual can contribute under federal law when splitting donations that way. The contributions and Yarbrough’s remarks were first reported by The Guardian, which traced the donor network now coalescing around his candidacy.Related: How Elon Musk & Peter Thiel-aligned inexperienced tech bros took over the federal governmentYarbrough, a lawyer and Air Force reservist, drew attention earlier this month at a February 3 candidate forum, where he said opponents might describe his platform as “bigoted and backward and oppressive and Nazi-ish,” adding that he was “past trying to placate that in any way, shape or form," according to a video of the event.Yarbrough has also built a public profile through litigation against the military. In a federal lawsuit he filed in 2023 against the Air Force and Space Force in the Eastern District of Texas, he argues that he was improperly disciplined for off-duty remarks he delivered at a small retirement ceremony in Hawaii in June 2021, when he was acting in a civilian capacity, but wearing his formal uniform. In the complaint, Yarbrough describes giving examples of what he called “objective realities,” including that “men can’t birth babies” and that “boys should not be allowed in girls’ locker rooms.” He also said that forcing people to deny such beliefs “requires constant … self-deception,” which can “habituate [us] to dishonesty” and cause people to lose their “grip on objective reality,” making them “less capable and less effective in our world,” adding: “By making the lie a part of ourselves, we become incompetent.”The military issued him a Letter of Admonishment over the anti-trans remarks, characterizing the remarks as “insubordinate, disrespectful, and unbecoming of an officer in the military,” a description Yarbrough disputes. The most recent action in the case occurred during last year’s government shutdown, when the court stayed civil cases involving the federal government due to a lapse in Justice Department funding.Related: Rachel Maddow says JD Vance’s rise is thanks to gay billionaire’s influence, not skill or meritThiel’s contribution is modest by the standards of modern campaign finance, but large in symbolism. The billionaire investor has emerged as a central patron of right-wing ideology, using his wealth to back candidates and causes that reject what they view as consensus-driven conservatism. His earlier support for figures such as Vice President JD Vance helped accelerate a more populist and confrontational strain of GOP orthodoxy.Yarbrough’s donor list extends beyond Thiel. It includes Thomas Klingenstein, chair of the board of the conservative Claremont Institute, and Charles Haywood, an entrepreneur associated with far-right political networks, The Guardian reports. Together, the contributions point to a constellation of funders less interested in incremental policy change than in ideological rupture.That posture is reflected in Yarbrough’s platform. He has called for repealing the 1965 Hart-Celler Act, the landmark law that ended race-based immigration quotas, and has argued that immigration and cultural change have eroded a shared American identity.Watch Jace Yarbrough talk about his "Nazi-ish" policy viewpoint below.- YouTube youtu.be This article originally appeared on Advocate: Trump endorses self-described ‘Nazi-ish’ Texas Republican as Peter Thiel backs his bid for CongressRELATED