> I think that he's saying that foreign countries may be free to sanction or block US internet firms, but that the US should respond forcefully to such actions.

My read on that is he's obtusingly saying that "US (old) leaders" are prevented by the US Constitution from doing stuff they'd like to do .. and so instead they use five eyes allies and partners to do these things about the globe with a view to normalising them and bringing them to the US seemingly without direct US involvement.

It's commonly held that the US | UK | AU agencies spy on each others citizens in order to have clean hands and truthfully state that they don't spy on their own.

Presumeably he wants to champion Trump as someone to clean house, etc. but I have my doubts about the machinations of Thiel .. he's more complicate than most via the panopticon of Palantir .