Peter Thiel, Trump Adviser, Has a Backup Country: New Zealand

Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire, was revealed to have become in 2011 a citizen of New Zealand, a country he has long admired. Andrew White for The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Peter Thiel is a billionaire, the biggest Donald J. Trump supporter in Trump-hating Silicon Valley and, above all, someone who prides himself on doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing.

So it makes perfect sense that right after President Trump proclaimed that “the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America,” Mr. Thiel was revealed to have become in 2011 a citizen of a small country on the other side of the world: New Zealand.

In these uncertain times, it may be smart to have a backup country. But the news that one of the richest citizens of New Zealand was a naturalized American who was born in Germany set off an immediate furor in the island nation, with questions being raised about whether being a billionaire gets you special treatment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/technology/peter-thiel-new-zealand-citizenship.html