Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel plans to defend his support for Donald Trump in a speech and then a question-and-answer session with reporters at the National Press Club in Washington. Since 'coming out' in support of the Republican nominee, NY Times reports, Thiel has been accused of promoting racism and intolerance, faced demands that Facebook drop him from its board of directors and that Silicon Valley’s leading start-up incubator, Y Combinator, sever ties with him.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Thiel revealed that he was donating $1.25 million to support the election of Donald J. Trump. As these things go, it was a small gift. Dustin Moskovitz, a founder of Facebook, is giving tens of millions to support Hillary Clinton. But the news made Mr. Thiel a pariah in much of the tech community.

“I was surprised by the intensity,” Mr. Thiel said. “This is one of the few times I was involved in something that was not a fringe effort but was mainstream. Millions of people are backing Trump. I did not appreciate quite how polarizing the election would be in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.”

In an interview on Friday, he outlined his thinking. “Ideally, this will have the give-and-take of debate,” he said. “Obviously, I’ll get some very tough questions about Trump. But I thought the best way to advance the discussion was not to have some completely contrived format. The future of this country depends on us engaging with the tough questions.”