Founded by Joe Lonsdale, a venture capitalist who co-founded Palantir with billionaire Peter Thiel, the Cicero Institute is one of the main right-wing think tanks promoting state-level bans on “unauthorized street camping,” otherwise known as sleeping in public while unhoused. Lonsdale and one of Cicero’s senior advisors suggested on Lonsdale’s podcast that the public should return to calling homeless people as “vagrants,” “bums,” and “tramps.”
Koch Network
Stand Together Trust, a well-known Koch Network group, gave the Cicero Institute $250,000 in 2022. The Charles Koch Foundation additionally gave the group $150,000 in 2021.
