Former United States President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference announcing a class action lawsuit against big tech companies at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 7, 2021 in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Michael M. Santiago | fake images
Several of the GOP’s most important and influential donors are signaling that they do not plan to help fund former President Donald Trump’s political operation, at least not yet.
Wealthy financiers like Stephen Ross and Larry Ellison have opted instead to spend money on the GOP’s efforts to win back Congress during next year’s midterm elections, or have shown support for potential 2024 presidential candidates like Senators Marco. Rubio from Florida and Tim Scott from South. Carolina.
Donors are also concerned about how the Trump organization is spending the piles of money it has raised from smaller donations.
“Big money, sophisticated people are just losing interest in this bullshit show,” said a longtime adviser to Trump’s allies in Silicon Valley. Many donors are tired of seeing the former president use his resources at rallies during which he often makes false claims, including that his elections were stolen, this person said.
Trump has not ruled out running for president in 2024 and has not made any official announcements. His political action committees have raised a great deal of money through email appeals and text messages to supporters who often criticize President Joe Biden’s performance, including, most recently, his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Trump’s PACs had more than $ 100 million available after the first half of 2021. CNBC previously reported that its PACs spent almost $ 8 million in legal fees other more than $ 200,000 on his own properties earlier this year.
“Donors do not contribute with the kindness of their heart. And right now they are being asked to donate to an organization that has no other purpose than to inject cash into someone who does not need it and is not using it,” said one strategist Republican who represents financiers on Wall Street. “They have better things to do.”
Donor consultants who spoke to CNBC declined to be identified in this story to avoid retaliation from Trump and his supporters.
A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again Action, which raised more than $ 1.5 million in July and August, is not without wealthy donors, according to new documents released by the Federal Election Commission. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who is an avid spreader of false claims about the 2020 election, is among its donors. Like businesswoman and former Republican senator Kelly Loeffler, Texas banking executive Andrew Beal, and casino mogul Phillip Ruffin.
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But larger forces in Republican fundraising are focusing instead on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the Republican Party leadershipefforts to retake the House and funding of pro-Republican Party redistricting efforts such as the National Republican Redistricting Trust. Others are helping the re-election campaigns of potential 2024 presidential contenders like Scott, Rubio and the governor of Florida. Ron DeSantis.
Several former Trump supporters recently held a fundraiser for DeSantis’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign in the Hamptons of Long Island. the invitation The July event shows that event co-hosts included former Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, along with billionaire investors Stephen Ross, John Paulson and Ken Griffin.
Paulson was one of the few Wall Street donors who endorsed Trump’s bid for the presidency in 2020 during the final stretch of the campaign.
Stephen Ross, who also owns the Miami Dolphins, was criticized in 2019 when he hosted a fundraiser in the Hamptons for Trump. Ross and other directors of Related Cos. we are investors in the luxury fitness brand Equinox. SoulCycle and Equinox estranged themselves from the Trump event as customers threatened to boycott.
Wilbur Ross and a representative for Paulson did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Stephen Ross declined to comment.
Neither Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison nor Oracle CEO Safra Catz have given large sums of money to Trump’s PACs after the election. They both helped raise funds for Trump’s re-election campaign. Ellison’s house in California was the site of a Trump fundraising event last year. However, in June of this year, Ellison donated $ 5 million to a super PAC that supported Scott’s re-election efforts in South Carolina.
A spokesperson for Catz and Ellison did not respond to a request for comment.
The Republican Jewish Coalition, whose PAC supported Trump During last year’s election, he will co-host a New York fundraiser for Rubio’s 2022 reelection campaign in September, according to an invitation. The RJC board of directors includes a host of influential Republicans, including Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, former Trump adviser Jason Greenblatt and former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.
Nor could Trump enlist the financial help of Miriam Adelson, a mega donor and widow of the late casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who died at the beginning of this year. The couple were among the few business leaders who supported Trump during the last election. They gave millions to a pro-Trump super PAC in the last months of the campaign.
Since her husband’s death, Adelson has privately indicated to her allies that for now she has no immediate plans to use much of her money on politics. That could change as the midterm elections approach. Records show Adelson contributed $ 5,000 in June to the PAC Stand for America, a committee founded by potential 2024 contender and former Trump ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
A spokesperson for Adelson’s company, Las Vegas Sands, declined to comment.
Another key funder of Trump and the Republican Party is in legal trouble. investor Tom barrack was arrested on charges of illegally pressuring then-President Trump on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. Barrack has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Even if he had no problems with the feds, Barrack had indicated that he might not have ended up supporting Trump, his longtime friend, for a career in 2024.
“Today it seems like it’s a divisive campaign, which I’m not interested in,” Barrack told Bloomberg News before being arrested.
A Barrack spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah were strong Trump supporters during the 2016 campaign, but there is no indication that they will endorse him in 2024. CNBC reported in 2018 that the Mercers were planning to reduce their financial support for Trump.
Records show that the Mercers have not issued significant checks to any of Trump’s PACs after his presidency.
For the moment, they are backing a new face in Republican politics: “Hillbilly Elegy” author and venture capitalist JD Vance, who has taken several Trump-style nationalist political stances after criticizing the former president in the past.
Robert and Rebekah Mercer donated a combined $ 150,000 in March to a super PAC supporting Vance’s bid for the United States Senate seat for Ohio that will be left vacant with retired Republican Rob Portman.
Representatives for the Mercers did not respond to requests for comment.
