Key Trump allies and Musk on leaked list for secretive Peter Thiel retreat

A leaked participant directory from the secretive Dialog retreats, founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, has exposed a global network of senior politicians, tech executives, and foreign officials who have attended the invitation-only gatherings since 2006 [1]. The list was discovered in the source code of Dialog's website and preserved in an Internet Archive snapshot dated 15 June [1]. The Guardian independently verified the information. Dialog has been described by Forbes as "Bilderberg [...] meets Silicon Valley salon" and maintains no public website or officially disclosed membership [3]. The organization was co-founded by Thiel and entrepreneur Auren Hoffman [3]. The directory includes Trump administration figures such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent [5] and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll [6], as well as sitting senators Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey [1][7]. Two Democratic governors, Wes Moore of Maryland and Jared Polis of Colorado, also appear. Spokespeople for both governors distanced them from the group. Polis's spokesperson stated he "does not know why his name is associated with the organization in any way" [1]. International names on the list include Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, the kingdom's former intelligence chief and ambassador to Washington [4], and Kuwait Petroleum CEO Sheikh Nawaf Al-Sabah [1]. British Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat and Matt Clifford, chair of the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency, are also listed. Clifford told the Guardian the document was "an invite list rather than an attendee list" [1]. Thiel, whose net worth was estimated at $27.5 billion as of December 2025, has been a major donor to right-wing causes and maintains close ties to Donald Trump and JD Vance [1][2]. Emails released by the House Oversight Committee in 2026 revealed that Thiel's Valar Ventures accepted $40 million from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and that Thiel corresponded with Epstein for five years [2]. Separate reporting indicated that Hoffman invited Epstein to the 2014 Dialog conference [1]. Janine Wedel, co-director of the Corruption, Networks, and Transnational Crime Research Center at George Mason University, said such gatherings represent a challenge to democratic accountability. "It is in these sorts of gatherings – where you have financial, tech and political power coming together – that we’re increasingly seeing agendas being set and opinions being shaped," Wedel said [1]. She added: "There do seem to be a growing number of fora involved in precisely this – transnational gatherings of the most powerful financial, tech and political elites, coming together. So I think it’s a problem for democracy, in essence" [1]. Retired General Stan McChrystal, who attended two Dialog events about a decade ago, defended the format. "My experience was all positive – a gathering of thoughtful people across the political spectrum," McChrystal wrote in an email, adding that non-attribution was "applied simply to encourage candor" [1]. Wedel responded that "this shaping of opinion has a great deal of impact on the rest of us who aren’t participating in it" [1].