It’s “time for the Republican Party to embrace a new generation of leaders,” Schwarzman, CEO of private equity giant Blackstone, told Axios on Wednesday. Ken Griffin, founder of the hedge fund Citadel, had previously stated that he wanted to support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis instead of Trump.
DeSantis is considered a promising contender for a presidential candidacy and should officially express interest at the latest next year when the primary elections start. According to the New York Times, Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder empire, has also decided not to donate to Trump anymore.
The exodus of mega donors is the latest signal that parts of the conservative camp in the US are breaking away from Trump. The ex-president is working on his comeback and is running for the most powerful office in the world for the third time in a row – a first in modern US history.
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Trump was the loser in the US congressional elections. He funded nearly 300 candidates at the midterms, but Republicans fared significantly worse than forecast.
The independent Cook Report calculated that more than 200 candidates supported by Trump won. However, this affected constituencies that are already clearly Republican in character. In states where it came down to changing majorities in Congress, Trumpists overwhelmingly lost to Democrats.
Trump was never the richest in the race
Trump increasingly seems to be perceived as “Yesterday” – one who is increasingly becoming a liability for the party. It was different recently: Schwarzman, Griffin and Lauder are among the major donors who have long been loyal to Trump. Schwarzman is one of the top ten Republican donors, the Blackstone CEO advised Trump as President in the trade war against China.
The cosmetics billionaire Lauder also had a close relationship with Trump. According to a book by journalist and Trump insider Susan Glasser, Lauder put the idea in Trump’s head that the US should buy Greenland.
Citadel CEO Griffin is the third largest political contributor in America. According to the Open Secrets platform, which evaluates reports from the American elections supervisory authority, he gave the Republicans 68 million US dollars in the midterms.
>> Read here: Midterm elections decided: Democrats hold Senate – Republicans win majority in House of Representatives
Only two men donated more: The mail order company Richard Uihlein, who donates almost exclusively to right-wing politicians and right-wing organizations, spent 80 million dollars on the Midterms. The top spot is left-liberal billionaire George Soros, who donated $128 billion to the US Democrats in the midterm elections.
right funder
80
million dollars
was donated by entrepreneur Richard Uihlein for the US midterm elections.
It is not clear whether Trump will harm the distancing of the super-rich. According to the business magazine “Forbes”, Trump invested just $66 million in the 2016 elections – the only elections he has ever won so far. The sum is a fraction of what unsuccessful competitors like Mike Bloomberg or Tom Steyer spent.
And even today, Trump’s money-raising machines, the Political Action Committees (PACs), are fed largely from small donations. According to data from Open Secrets, Trump’s Save America PAC raised $36 million during the midterm campaign, most of it from comparable splurges.
Trump won in 2016 not because he was the richest, but because he attracted many protest voters as a political career changer. Trump now wants to move back into the White House with a similar recipe. He spoke for an hour in front of supporters on Tuesday when he announced his candidacy at his golf club in Mar-a-Lago.
Trump on Angela Merkel: “No one remembers her”
The ex-president gave a taste of his campaign, which is largely aimed at addressing fears that the US is being drowned out by the “totally insane, insane, radical left”. Trump stated that Joe Biden was neither mentally nor physically able to control the fortunes of the nation. A second narrative that is emerging is opposition to the green energy transition. Biden and the Democrats gambled away the energy supply of the USA, Trump complained.
In this context he also mentioned Germany. “Do you remember Angela? Nobody remembers her anymore,” Trump said of former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Germany, the ex-president falsely claimed, was building “new coal-fired power plants” given its dependency on Russia.
All in all, his priorities sounded almost exactly the same as always: he campaigned against China, invoked a booming economy, a sealed border with Mexico and a lot of nationalism.
>> Read here: Comment: Even more dangerous than Trump himself is to underestimate him
Trump continues to claim that the 2020 election was rigged and Biden lost, a whole movement in the country is rallying behind this conspiracy theory. The fact that Trump does not want to let go of this lie may be one reason why some major donors are turning away.
“We need someone rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” Schwarzman said of his decision. In the Republican Party there is a whole range of politicians who are pursuing a kind of “Trumpism light”, who are considered more rational and could therefore possibly be more capable of winning a majority.
Next to DeSantis is Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. Ex-Vice President Mike Pence, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Tim Scott, Senator from South Carolina, are also getting ready.
The governor of Florida has a good chance of running for president.
(Photo: AP)
How rich Trump really is and how dependent he is on outside money is difficult to say. “Forbes” estimates Trump’s personal wealth at $3.2 billion, but the ex-president keeps his tax returns secret.
There could be new costs coming up in the near future. Almost ten different investigations are running in parallel against him, his family or his real estate company The Trump Organization. Sometimes it’s about suspected tax fraud, sometimes about the betrayal of state secrets, elsewhere Trump’s attempted coup on January 6, 2021 is being investigated.
The Republican party headquarters had previously assumed part of the legal and legal costs because they relate to Trump’s time as president. It’s over since Trump declared his candidacy. “We cannot financially support any candidate,” said party leader Ronna McDaniel.
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