Short-notice damage control does not suit Alex Karp
The Democratic landslide was not good news for Palantir CEO Alex Karp, who just spent two years cozying up to a right-wing regime. He attempted to spin this by sitting down with POLITICO reporter Adam Wren and former Montana senator Jon Tester, who has just signed up as a Palantir advisor. You can watch the full thing on YouTube.
I made fun of Karp’s last nutty press appearance on CNBC back in July. If that one was reminiscent of the “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this any more!” scene from Network, the POLITICO interview was more like an episode of Between Two Ferns – ad-libbed and cringe-inducing.
First off, the setting. The three of them perched uneasily on tiny chairs around a tiny table. The room didn’t exactly scream big-tech confidence – windows on every side showed NYC scaffolding and made everyone look backlit, plus a few sad plants on windowsills made what I supposed was a failed effort to soften the vibe. I can only assume this venue was thrown together at the last moment, because if a comms person picked this on purpose, they should be fired. Seriously, look at this screenshot. It’s weird, right?
Seriously, what is this?
Alex Karp’s only flaw is his excessive humility
Despite Karp’s relentless adulation of American military might, he seems to have forgotten Teddy Roosevelt’s maxim to speak softly and carry a big stick. He couldn’t stop boasting about himself:
“I've been the most out there of big AI executives, if you want, that's what you want to call me, on economic justice.”
“I have 100 million fans. Probably I have a ton of fans and anti-fans, but so I'm probably the most, I'm definitely the most popular.”
“I know more about being a progressive than almost anybody on the planet.”
“I'm not running for office, despite what people want.”
Why would Karp do this? Maybe he thought he was warning the Democrats not to mess with him, because he has a political base of his own. But as Margaret Thatcher once said, "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." It is equally plausible that he really just has a gigantic, untrammeled ego and can’t help humble-bragging every five minutes. Either way, arrogant braggadocio is not going to improve his image with a public who just voted overwhelmingly against data centers and corporate power.
If Alex Karp says it, you should believe him, whether or not it’s true
Karp’s obvious priority in choosing to talk to POLITICO was to distance himself from his financial and rhetorical support for the current presidential regime, in hopes that the new Democratic congress won’t haul him in to testify and take away all his government contracts. There are a few ways Karp could have gone about this. Praise for the democratic process? Enthusiasm for collaborating with the new congress? Reflecting on what this moment means for the country? Hope for the future? Anything that shows he’s received new information to prompt a change of course?
Nah. He chose gaslighting.
Karp had the nerve to try to convince us he’s simultaneously apolitical, has balanced political beliefs, and is a committed progressive. “Part of the reason I resist these kind of questions— Mamdani, Hegseth— is we are not a political organization.” “I’m very balanced, and everyone in the political arena knows it.” “My giving is equal Democrat, Republican.” But also “I’ve been a Democrat my whole life. I grew up in a far-left environment.” “I’m still an economic progressive.”
Not only is this almost entirely bullshit, it’s easily-disproven bullshit.
Karp has been talking about his populist and nationalist views for years. And while he used to be more aligned with the Democratic party, he took a hard turn to the right after the 2024 presidential election. Here’s a smattering of Karp quotes and articles from the past two years. Whatever you think about the views expressed, hopefully you agree this is not a neutral or even progressive voice:
“We love disruption, and whatever's good for America will be good for Americans and very good for Palantir… This is a revolution. Some people are going to get their heads cut off… we're pretty optimistic about the U.S. environment.” (Palantir earnings call, February 2025)
“Palantir CEO Alex Karp said Trump is ‘brilliant’ at rejecting paradigms that lead to ‘stupid’ outcomes.” (CNBC interview, February 2025)
“Palantir CEO claims company is first to be 'completely anti-woke,' backs Trump admin's bombing of drug boats” (Fox News, November 2025)
“Karp, who calls himself a Democrat but has said he’d disown the party if its progressive wing takes over, has said he is an ‘immigration skeptic.’ (Fortune, April 2026)
“I think the DSA [Democratic Socialists of America], my words, not yours: they like to gaslight Jews and segregate Blacks.” (from the POLITICO interview!)
Even his long-time advocacy for improving the lives of working-class Americans is entangled with anti-intellectualism, a well-known pillar of fascist politics: “I care about the actual raising the standard of the average person in this country, not the person who got an anthropology degree at Yale.”
Karp’s turn to the right is also financial. Look at his FEC records. For years before the 2024 presidential election, Karp’s giving was mostly Democratic ($927,700 D versus $379,000 R). But after the election, he swung hard right, and at much higher levels ($4,074,115 R vs $174,400 D). That includes $1 million each to MAGA Inc. and the presidential inauguration committee. Plus Palantir donated another $10 million to the new White House ballroom.
Alex Karp stumbled into defending a serial adulterer who probably compromised national security
Karp’s final embarrassment was his unqualified support for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, two days before he resigned under pressure from his board. This was so easily avoided. Assuming Palantir has a half-competent comms team, Karp would have been warned that a question about the Huang scandal was coming, so he could figure out a polite way to dodge it until all the facts came out. Hell, the advisor sitting next to him (Senator Tester) gave him this advice live, minutes beforehand, when talking about the Hegseth impeachment: “I would advise Alex not to say anything. Let this play out.” And yet Karp was so unprepared, he ended up firmly on Team Huang despite the national security implications:
Look, Jensen is a titan in our industry. I— arguably one, if not one of the most important people in the AI industry. I, I know him. I know him quite well. I respect him. He's going through a very tough time. I really feel for him. I, I'm glad he's taking the steps he's taking to be transparent, and his importance to all of us in the industry cannot be underestimated, and I'm, I'm, I, I, I, I'm definitely providing support where I can.
Read that again. Alex Karp, Mr. “Dedicating our company to the service of the West, and the United States of America,” went on the record that he is “providing support where I can” to the CEO of a strategically important American company who was in a secret romantic relationship with someone suspected of spying for an adversarial government and systematically evading export controls. Is sleeping with a suspected spy really just “a very tough time”? This would cost you your security clearance in most government roles. Does Karp think talent and power excuses recklessness with regards to national security? Or, perhaps, is he so arrogant that he thinks he can just say whatever comes into his head without thinking it through?
C’mon, Alex. Do better. You are entitled to be proud of your education and confident in your raw intellect. But if you had rolled into class at Haverford, Stanford Law School, or Goethe University Frankfurt with answers this self-aggrandizing, misleading, and explicitly contrary to your previously-stated beliefs and actions, you would have been shredded, and you know it. You are great at business, I am not disputing that. But billions of dollars of market cap doesn’t justify showing up unprepared and running off your mouth.
Nobody is forcing you to do these interviews. You could easily spend your time helping Palantir continue to grow like gangbusters. But if you insist on putting yourself out there, put in at least a little effort on preparation? That way, the next time you try to curry favor with a new regime, you won’t end up sounding like a gaslighting egomaniac who’s taking the side of a national security risk who’s about to go down in flames.
Ideas? Feedback? Criticism? I want to hear it, because I am sure that I am going to get a lot of things wrong along the way. I will share what I learn with the community as we go. Reach out any time at [email protected].
