Billionaire tech investor funding dating app for Trump supporters who can’t find love in liberal cities

Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel is putting his own money into a project to launch a dating app catering to conservatives, who have complained about finding themselves excluded from dating circles in large cities where liberals tend to live.

Axios reported on Tuesday that Mr Thiel is investing $1.5m into the project, dubbed “The Right Stuff”, which plans to launch later this year initially as an invite-only app.

Conservatives have complained throughout the Trump era and beyond of their difficulties interacting with their liberal neighbours in cities where they find their political views to be in the minority.

Dating, housing, and other basic facets of life have become political battlegrounds as online profiles are now much more likely to include requests for interested persons to be of a specific political background.

In late 2018, a former Fox News staffer named Pardes Seleh went viral in conservative circles after she complained of being rejected for potential co-living situations due to her work history.

“My second time this week being rejected from an apartment/house in D.C. because I worked at Fox,” she tweeted at the time.

Those conservatives could potentially find a community in The Right Stuff, if it manages to get off the ground and emerge as a viable alternative to mainstream options; such social media alternatives catering specifically to conservatives like Rumble have thus far not shown the ability to seriously compete with their big-name competition.

Mr Thiel was an investor in Rumble as well, which has grown in popularity among conservatives as its competition cracks down on disinformation.

The site recently failed to entice podcasting giant Joe Rogan to leave Spotify after Mr Rogan became embroiled in duelling controversies regarding his show’s existence as a platform where Covid misinformation is sometimes spread as well as his past use of racist language and discussion of racially charged topics.

Former President Donald Trump, whose former political aide John McEntee is behind The Right Stuff, is also launching his own social media venture dubbed “Truth Social”.