Confirming that he has, indeed, taken a top job at Palantir, a $72 billion high-tech weapons firm and military contractor, former Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) is publicly acknowledging that he is looking to trade on his government contacts to create profits in his new role overseeing Palantir’s defense business.
In other words, he didn’t just go through the revolving door. He’s proud of it.
Gallagher, who oversaw the hawkish House Select Committee on China and led the congressional push for a bill requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company to divest or face a ban on the app in the U.S., is directly cashing in by going to a company whose CEO, Alex Karp, told The New York Times that the U.S. will “very likely” end up in a war with China, Russia and Iran and endorses “scar[ing] the crap out of your adversaries.”
Having spent much of his time in Congress doing exactly what Karp describes — Gallagher also pushed for Taiwan to be armed “to the teeth in the cyber domain” and supported massive military aid packages for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan — Gallagher says he’s looking to enrich his new employer, Palantir, using the connections in government he formed over seven years as the representative from Wisconsin’s 8th congressional district.
In an interview published this morning by Defense One, Gallagher said::
"I've spent almost a decade now immersed in that world, from the perspective of a legislator. But a lot of my work on the [House] Armed Services Committee was focused on defense innovation, how we create an ecosystem where more companies can succeed. And so my hope is to leverage the network that I built for a decade and apply it to my work at Palantir."
Gallagher concluded the interview by emphasizing that he sees a natural progression from his work as a public servant to his new role, on the other side of the revolving door, working for a multi-billion-dollar weapons firm.
“I just look forward to working with the Defense Department to strengthen and grow the work that's already underway with Palantir,” said Gallgher. “And so it's a really exciting opportunity again, as I said at the outset, a way in my mind to continue the mission that's guided my service in the Marine Corps and in Congress.”
