Palantir Hires Former Democratic Senator and Braces for Political Backlash

Palantir just hired a former Democratic Senator as an adviser as the company faces the possibility of increased scrutiny when the Democratic Party takes control of the House and Senate next year. Jon Tester, the former Democratic Senator from Montana, told NPR that his agreement with the controversy-ridden tech company is “advisory in nature” and “not lobbying.” He will be focusing on the government services side of the business, he said. Palantir has garnered serious controversy under the Trump administration, with critics voicing concerns that the company is powering mass surveillance, though Palantir denies the claims. The company reported nearly $2 billion in revenue from the U.S. government in 2025, with much of that business coming from the Department of Defense. Palantir’s AI-powered targeting system Maven is deployed across key Pentagon teams. According to a Bloomberg investigation, overreliance on Maven by members of U.S. Central Command was one of several failures that contributed to a U.S. military strike on an Iranian elementary school in February that killed more than 150 people, including at least 123 children. In March, more than 120 House Democrats wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, demanding information on the role Palantir’s Maven played in the strike. But the company has perhaps received the most scrutiny from Democrats over its deals with the Department of Homeland Security, and specifically the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The tech giant built a surveillance platform called ImmigrationOS to aid the mass deportation efforts of ICE. Amnesty International has previously warned that Palantir’s technology could be used to unfairly target pro-Palestinian non-citizens in the United States. ICE also relies on Palantir technology to identify neighborhoods with concentrations of potential deportation targets, under a program that was first unveiled in a 404 Media report earlier this year. Asked how he reconciles his previous anti-surveillance positions with his new job, Tester defended Palantir, saying the company doesn’t build massive databases or trade in private information. “This is an organization that believes in privacy,” he told NPR. A group of Democratic lawmakers, led by Sen. Ron Wyden and Reps. Dan Goldman and Nydia Velázquez, demanded answers from Palantir earlier this year in relation to its work with the DHS and ICE. Wyden’s office told NPR that he was not satisfied with Palantir’s response to the request and that he intends to send another request next year. Driven by backlash over the company’s work with ICE, several Democratic candidates also pledged to reject campaign donations from Palantir employees, and promised to donate any amount already received to immigrants’ rights groups. Congressional Democrats have also promised to hold the tech companies that donated millions to Trump’s ballroom to account. Democratic New Mexico Rep. Melanie Stansbury specifically named Palantir as a potential future target of investigation at a shadow hearing in July, according to Bloomberg. Palantir, along with several other tech giants like Microsoft, donated $10 million for the construction of Trump’s ballroom. Apple, which reportedly gave $25 million to the ballroom, is also facing scrutiny on the issue from Democrats and reportedly hired a former aide to Nancy Pelosi and a former Biden administration senior official to join its lobbying efforts in D.C. in preparation for a Democratic win in the midterms. Though once more aligned with the Democrats, both Palantir and its co-founder and CEO Alex Karp have since shifted alliances and swung closer to Republicans and specifically Trump. “If Democrats, my former party or current party, or however you want to look at it, ran someone who agreed with me, even in private, they would win. So, you know, maybe you should stop winning in the faculty lounge and start winning,” Karp said at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit roughly a year ago. “We’re apparently not supposed to say anymore, but we always said we’re cold in the streets and hot in the sheets. Democratic Party should think about that a lot.” Tester will likely be a key figure as Palantir tries to regain the sympathies of the Democrats. Prior to hiring Tester, Palantir also hired Mark Begich, former Democratic Senator from Alaska, as a lobbyist. “Perception is reality in Washington, D.C. and in politics in general,” Tester told NPR. “But the fact is, I think Palantir has got a good story to tell, and they need to tell it. And hopefully folks will be receptive to it.” Tester represented Montana in the Senate from 2007 to 2025, but lost his bid for reelection in the 2024 general election. Though a Democrat, he broke from his party’s stance when it came to immigration and was the first Senate Democrat to co-sponsor a version of the Republican-led Laken Riley Act in 2024. Trump signed the legislation into law shortly after returning to the White House in January 2025. Immigration activists and lawyers claim the law has denied immigrants their right to due process.