Billionaire Joe Lonsdale Urges Return of Public Hangings to Restore 'Masculine Leadership'

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has gained an outspoken ally from the tech world after announcing a strike on a drug-smuggling boat. Joe Lonsdale defended Hegseth, saying public hangings should be revived after 'three violent crimes'. In his post on X, he described it as bringing back 'masculine leadership'.

Critics condemned Hegseth's actions as outrageous, but Lonsdale argued that 'killing bad guys' is part of the job. He later offered virtual praise for the Secretary of War, saying he should 'brag more' about the decision.

Palantir Co-Founder Slammed for 'Public Hanging' Ideas

In his post, Lonsdale, with an estimated net worth of £2.7bn ($3.6bn), states that if he were in charge, he will hang men after three violent crimes in public to deter others.

By masculine leadership, Lonsdale may be referring to an iron-fist-type of leadership to 'protect our most vulnerable'. The macho point, however, was not met with the same energy as his X post. Many in the comments accused him of being too authoritation in his approach to reduce crime.

According to the Daily Mail, journalist Gil Duran said Lonsdale is only calling for removing 'due process' to institute public executions to maintain 'masculinity' in leadership, and not really on bringing justice to the vulnerable. 'Public fantasies of state violence are entering a more dangerous and desperate phase of radicalization', he stated.

Author Steve Tally expressed similar concerns, going so far as to call Lonsdale 'a clear and present danger to the citizens of the United States'.

A former Obama-era National Security Council staffer joked that he was 'glad the US government is investing in this guy's big-data surveillance company and not in his military ideas'. Palantir is a surveillance software company that develops tools that facilitate the work of governments and corporations with large data sets. It is currently partnering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the United States.

There's a Reason Why There is No Public Hanging Anymore

Journalists call londale 'crazy' for even thinking of public hanging as an ideal execution and pointing back to far-left as the 'crazy ones' for not normalising public executions. Critics shared that the West stopped doing public executions because the world have moved beyond barbarism.

Lonsdale, who's backing the University of Austin, was also mocked for not knowing the history of public hanging in the US. Some also accuse the billionaire of 'taking pleasure' in fantasising about public executions, and with his current role in the US government, it would be disturbing to see him assert control over people's punishment.

Lonsdale's 'Masculine Leadership'

Some people have criticised Lonsdale's idea of 'masculine leadership'. Taulby Edmonson, a history and culture professor at Virginia Tech, said on BlueSky that Lonsdale's words about public hangings could be worrying. '"Masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable" is how lynch mobs are described, not state-sanctioned executions', he explained.

Physicist Sean Carroll also criticised Lonsdale, saying his remarks demonstrated 'performative masculinity' — in other words, pretending to be strong while actually being immature. Carroll added that, despite the criticism, Lonsdale defended himself by claiming people had misinterpreted him and insisting that his position was even 'moderate'. He thinks some cases have gone too far, giving the example of a criminal being released 70 times and then killing a girl, and says that policies need to be more reasonable and sensible to prevent such extreme outcomes.