Vinod Khosla publicly opposes Keith Rabois’ comments on the ICE shooting

For a sense of how a Trump loyalist is feeling after United States Customs and Enforcement shocked the nation this week by shooting an American citizen in Minneapolis, look no further than Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois.

Rabois’s public support for ICE’s involvement in the murder of Alex Pretti, produced through X-Files, was so strong that Khosla Ventures partner Ethan Choi and co-founder Vinod Khosla both declined.

Rabois said that Pretti was guilty, writing that the defendant was committing “errors.” One of the Rabois posts said“(N)o the authorities have shot an innocent person. he said: “(H) tried to pull out his weapon without question. In another post that discussed the ability of citizens to exercise their First, Second and Fourth Amendment rights, VC he answered wrote: “(Y)ut interference with the legal profession is not protected by the amendment.”

Among other comments, Rabois he continued to say he does not believe that the Minneapolis police can be trusted in the investigation. “(I) don’t think you have to ask law enforcement officials in MN. But I’m open to reading opinions from other municipalities.” He instead guilty city ​​police in this case. “Because the refusal of the MN police to cooperate is what is causing the deception (for everyone).”

And so on.

X did as you would expect. Some Trump supporters cheered for Rabois, while opponents of ICE’s actions clashed and criticized the representative.

Things got so bad that when one person thought that the founders remove Khosla from their tables cup together, Khosla’s friend Choi pipe up away alone.

Choi has been sent: “I want to make it clear that Keith does not represent anyone’s opinion here at @khoslaventures, especially not mine. What happened in Minnesota is very wrong. I don’t know how you can see it differently.

Then the founder of the company, Khosla himself, stood next to Choi. “I agree with that @EthanChoi7 . Macho ICE vigilantes are running (amok) empowered by ignorant supervisors,” he said in a statement. post on X.

In normal times, political opposition can be a strength for a VC firm. Whatever one may think of Rabois’ politics, he has been very successful in supporting companies such as DoorDash, Affirm, Faire, and Stripe, as well as the founders of Opendoor, among other startups.

But sometimes it’s confusing inside.

Sequoia faced controversy over the comments made by its colleague Shaun Maguire in opposition to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Maguire (who comments at the end of the week on ICE join Rabois’) remains as an investor in Sequoia. But their leader at the time of the conflict in Mamdani, Roelof Botha, resigned from his post general manager in November. Botha was replaced by Alfred Lin and Pat Grady (neither of whom weighed in at the weekend).

Because of this, differences between Khosla’s friends were lost in the open. But note that Khosla did not directly criticize Rabois. (The company did not respond to our request for comment.)

When Khosla Ventures hired Rabois in 2024, the company knew it was bringing in a well-known “opponent” of people who like to accuse the “woke” respect President Trump. For Rabois’ part, he knew he would be working for a Trump opponent (Vinod Khosla has made his views on Trump clear for years).

Will there be a further fall? Maybe – but only if founders start throwing Khosla Ventures off their tables.