The Firebrand Investor Who Can Explain Trump’s Rise in Tech

“You’ve been here before?” asked the guard at the gate, a pistol fastened to his belt. I shook my head no. “If you go past the red Tesla,” the guard said, waving my Uber through, “you’ve gone too far.”

After a few minutes of Texas shrubland, we arrived at Joe Lonsdale’s back door, where another armed guard ushered me out of the 100-degree heat and into a Spanish-style villa complete with a pool, wine cellar and full-size basketball court. I found a multiperson film crew setting up camera equipment in a marble-top barroom: Lonsdale planned to record a video for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library later in the day, part of his duties as a trustee for the archives.

Lonsdale likes to make a joke about his position at the library. “It’s the only place I could qualify as a diversity candidate,” said the tall, blue-eyed Lonsdale, 42. “I’m younger than everyone else.”