“America does better when its leaders stick to today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday. It is time for the Republican Party to turn to a new generation of leaders, and I intend to endorse one of them in the presidential primary."
With those two sentences, the president of the investment bank Blackstone, Stephen Schwarzman, certified the closing of his financial faucet to the campaigns of Donald Trump. He did so in a note addressed to Axios after the former president announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections.
Schwarzman was one of Trump's top Wall Street donors. Having headed the White House Economic Advisory Forum during the Republican leader's tenure, the tycoon donated some $33.5 million to groups supporting his party in the 2020 election cycle, including $3 million to the America First fund. Trump action. In the mid-term legislative campaign on November 8, Schwarzman allocated $35.5 million in support of conservative candidates. And now he will continue to do so, but not including Trump.
The Blackstone boss's announcement followed the one made days before by the founder of the Citadel hedge fund, Ken Griffin, who directly and publicly said that he will support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis if he decides to run for 2024. The powerful politician from The 44-year-old, whom Trump called "Sanctimonious" or meapilas and later won re-election by almost 20 points over his Democratic rival, "has a great record as governor, and our country would be well served by him as president," Griffin argued. after having spent more than 57 million dollars in the endorsement of the Republicans in the midterms.
The move back from Schwarzman and Griffin is part of a broader movement in which financiers, Republican leaders, conservative media and influence groups are turning their backs on Trump in favor of DeSantis and other possible alternative 2024 contenders: a reversal staged during the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, held over the weekend in Las Vegas. There, the undisputed star was DeSantis. He starred in the latest and most important intervention, received with enthusiasm, while Trump spoke via satellite from his home in Mar-a-Lago without arousing the fervor to which he is accustomed.
The meeting in Las Vegas was attended by other donors who reneged on Trump. “I won't give him a penny,” said the New York businessman and until now a financier of former president Andy Sabin. "If he becomes the Republican seal, the party will be destroyed," said fellow New York donor Eric Levine.
The adverse turn for the former president may be temporary, the result of the poor performance of the candidates he supported in the legislatures and his problems with the law. On the other hand, most of the fundraising for Trump campaigns comes from small donors.
But the fact that big financiers terminate their contract with Joe Biden's main rival until now is a fact to take into account. Even if there are two years left for the presidential elections.
