Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 2, 2023.
Andrew Harnik/Associated Press
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Andrew Harnik/Associated Press
Tech companies expect a wave of scrutiny from Democrats over the industry’s ties to the Trump administration when they take over Congress in January. In anticipation, many are hiring former Democratic lawmakers and aides to make their case to the incoming House and Senate majorities.
Among the latest to take that step is Palantir, which hired former Sen. Jon Tester, a colorful Montana Democrat who is also an organic farmer.
“My agreement with Palantir is advisory in nature, it’s not lobbying,” Tester, who lost re-election to the Senate in 2024, told NPR in an interview.
The secretive American software and artificial intelligence company has drawn the ire of Democrats in Congress during President Trump’s second term. Palantir – Named by billionaire founder Peter Theil in honor of JRR Tolkien’s mythical “seeing stone.” The Lord of the Rings – has been accused of inciting mass surveillance of Americans and immigrants.
“Perception is a reality in Washington, D.C. and in politics in general,” Tester said. “But the fact is, I think Palantir has a good story to tell, and they need to tell it. And I hope people are receptive to it.”
Palantir has long denied claims that it aids mass surveillance of the American public, saying it does not collect or manipulate data at all, but instead creates tools for government agencies and private companies to organize and optimize their own information. The company has said it is committed to “protecting privacy and upholding liberal democratic values.”
Earlier this year, while in the minority, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., along with 30 other Democratic lawmakers demanded answers about Palantir’s contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and whether its tools are part of the federal government’s efforts to surveil Americans. Palantir denied the allegation and said it “does not conduct or enable mass surveillance of American citizens,” but Wyden was not completely satisfied with its response, according to his Senate office.
“Senator Wyden has a number of questions about Palantir’s work to facilitate abuse of government data by Trump and Vance that he intends to raise again as Chairman of the Finance Committee,” Wyden’s staff wrote in a statement to NPR. “If Palantir does not respond next year, mandatory processes will be on the table.”
It’s no coincidence that tech companies are turning to Democrats to help burnish their reputations, said Aya Ibrahim, a senior fellow at the AI Now Institute and a former State Department official.
“I think at the end of the day, these companies have an excessive amount of money and they will try to put it where they can to avoid any real liability,” Ibrahim said.
During Trump’s second term, Palantir CEO and co-founder Alex Karp, a self-described liberal, has been highly critical of Democrats on issues such as immigration and artificial intelligence.
“I would tell my Democratic friends, of which I still have, I hope there are many,” Karp said in an interview with Axios in 2025, referring specifically to his support for much more restrictive immigration policies. “It takes courage because a lot of these people actually agree with me privately.”
During his 18 years in the Senate, Tester was an outspoken critic of the PATRIOT Act, which passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks and expanded the Justice Department’s surveillance powers. When asked if his concerns about government surveillance remain and if he has the same concerns with his new employer, Tester said Palantir is different and that the company does not create “large databases” or trade in private data.
“I wanted to eliminate the Patriot Act because it was about privacy,” Tester said. “It was about making sure that no one, including Big Brother, was watching me. And by the way, I’ve talked to a lot of people inside Palantir. They believe the same thing as I do. This is an organization that believes in privacy.”
Last year, more than a dozen former Palantir employees criticized the company for its $30 million contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to create a tool that would provide “near real-time visibility” into the movement of migrants. The former employees argued that the company violated its own code of conduct by working with the Trump administration on such products.
Valued at more than $350 billion, Palantir currently holds federal contracts worth $2 billion, according to government records. Most of it is in the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and State, but the software company also works with the Departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services.
Tester said he will focus on the government services part of Palantir’s work.
The former Montana senator called the midterm election results a blue “tidal wave” after two years of a Congress that brought him “a great disappointment.”
“It’s going to make a difference in terms of the policies that are advocated,” Tester said of the next Congress. “I don’t think we’re going to see the kind of aggressive tactics that ICE adopted in the future.”
