The Allen & Company Conference, Herb Allen’s annual high-altitude, midsummer summit in Sun Valley, Idaho, for tech entrepreneurs, media chiefs, and other masters of the universe, is almost always an easygoing and amicable affair. The sun shines; the aspens quake; the programming impresses—Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos shared the stage here on Friday—families are invited, and well cared for; recreational activities abound; dinners are relaxed; and above all else, attendees have ample time to meet and scheme with one another, free from office retinues and buoyed by the pride of knowing that they are members of a very exclusive club of people with real power, money, and influence. 

Alas, in the summer of a highly fraught presidential campaign season, even this idyllic retreat is not immune from the tensions roiling the rest of society. And, at one point, things took a decidedly tense and awkward turn when former Stanford classmates Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel began sparring over Biden and Trump, with the entire conference looking on.