The Cicero Institute, started by Palantir co-founder and billionaire venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, has emerged as one of the most influential forces in the Trump administration’s push to criminalize homelessness.
The think tank presents itself as sharing bold policy prescriptions in areas of homelessness, public safety, and healthcare—but at the federal level, the nonprofit’s only lobbying activity is conducted under another name and could benefit Lonsdale’s investments in defense contractors, including Palantir, Saronic, Epirus, and Anduril.
The Cicero Institute paid more than $11.4 million from 2021 through 2024 to Arpinum, a company controlled by Lonsdale, for services and reimbursements, according to a Sludge review of tax returns. Arpinum, which is named as a related organization in Cicero’s IRS disclosures, is led by several of the Cicero Institute’s directors and was the employer of Cicero’s executive director as of 2024. Lonsdale is the sole member of the 501(c)3 Cicero Research and 501(c)4 Cicero Action nonprofits, giving him the power to elect and remove their boards.
At the same time, Cicero Action has quietly lobbied Congress and the Pentagon on defense spending and military procurement under the name American Phalanx, according to lobbying disclosures flagged in a research memo from the National Homelessness Law Center (NHLC). Its federal lobbying is conducted through the defense-focused firm Anchor & Arrow, which also represents Palantir and many companies backed by Lonsdale’s venture capital firm, 8VC. According to Virginia business records, Anchor & Arrow is another name for Arpinum.
In a January 2025 essay calling for an overhaul of Pentagon acquisition rules, Lonsdale pointed to companies he founded or invested in, including Palantir and Anduril, in arguing that federal procurement favors traditional defense contractors and blocks newer defense technology companies from growing. “But they need allies in the government,” Lonsdale wrote. The essay was co-written with John Noonan, an Anchor & Arrow lobbyist who Lonsdale described as helping defense companies navigate the federal bureaucracy. With Anchor & Arrow, Noonan lobbies for Palantir on “Issues related to defense acquisition reform and defense innovation,” according to disclosures, and Anduril has also called for the Pentagon to award more prime contracts to software and technology companies, shifting away from “cost plus fixed fee” awards.
“The Cicero Institute is the nexus for the rampant increase in anti-homeless laws that we've seen in cities and states, and now the federal government, during the second Trump administration's term,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, communications director of NHLC. He warns that Lonsdale’s financial interests aren’t confined to federal defense contracts—Cicero’s campaign to criminalize homelessness could also drive demand for surveillance and private security companies among 8VC investments, such as the location-based Citizen app. “Joe Lonsdale and his venture capital firm stand to profit off of the very laws of their passing,” Rabinowitz said.
The Cicero Institute did not respond to requests for comment on defense lobbying under its d.b.a. American Phalanx, or inquiries into its lobbying spending and payments to Arpinum.
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Cicero’s signature policy of criminalizing outdoor sleeping helped form the blueprint for President Trump’s July 2025 executive order on homelessness, which directed federal agencies to prioritize funding for states and cities that enforce bans on public camping and move away from the approach known as Housing First. The laws make public camping a crime, even in areas where shelter beds are not an option, and punish cities and localities if the ban is not enforced.
