GOP mega-donor no longer supporting Trump

A GOP mega-donor said that he would no longer support former President Trump after his announcement of a third presidential bid on Tuesday night.  

Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO and co-founder of the investment firm Blackstone, told Axios in a statement that the Republican Party should nominate someone else in 2024 who will represent a new generation of leaders. 

“America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” he said. 

“It is time for the Republican Party to turn to a new generation of leaders and I intend to support one of them in the presidential primaries,” he continued. 

Schwarzman had been closely engaged with Trump on trade issues and had considerable influence in the Trump administration, Axios’s Jonathan Swan reported. 

Schwarzman is the second major Republican donor to announce he would not support Trump in the past two days.

Ken Griffin, the founder of the investment firm Citadel, said on Tuesday at Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in Singapore that Trump is a “three-time loser” who should step aside in the 2024 race. 

Axios reported that the donors’ announcements could give more cover for elected Republicans to break with the former president. 

Trump has received blame for the GOP’s performance in last week’s midterms, in which the party failed to win a majority in the Senate and is likely to only win narrow control of the House. 

Polls have shown Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has been rumored to be considering a run for president and is seen as the top alternative to Trump, making gains on the former president in hypothetical 2024 primary match-ups in the past week. 

Some Republican officials, including former Trump adviser Larry Kudlow, called on the former president to delay his 2024 announcement for fear that it would negatively impact the Georgia Senate runoff between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Republican Herschel Walker.

However, Trump announced his intentions for 2024 on Tuesday night.