WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – (This Nov. 16 story has been corrected to fix the fourth paragraph by deleting reference to most of Trump’s endorsed candidates losing and saying instead that some of Trump’s endorsed candidates lost in key battleground states)
Blackstone Inc Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman, who has been one of Wall Street’s biggest donors to Donald Trump’s election campaigns, said on Wednesday he will not back the former president in 2024.
Trump announced he would run in the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Tuesday, launching an early bid to become the Republican nominee in an effort to pre-empt potential rivals.
Schwarzman said it was time for new party leadership and that he would back a different Republican in the presidential contest. “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 said in a statement, which was first reported by Axios.
Schwarzman, 75, is a prominent Republican donor. He spent $35.5 million to support Republicans ahead of last week’s midterm election. Republicans are still one seat short of capturing control of the U.S. House of Representatives and have failed to take over the U.S. Senate. Some of Trump’s endorsed candidates in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona lost their races.
“America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” Schwarzman said.
The vast bulk of Trump’s fundraising comes from small donors. Since he left office, about 90% of the people donating to his political groups have given less than $650 per calendar year, according to a Reuters analysis of disclosures filed by WinRed, the dominant Republican donation portal.
Schwarzman is the latest Republican to announce support for other candidates besides Trump. Ken Griffin, billionaire founder of Citadel Securities, has endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who handily won re-election in the Nov. 8 election.
(Writing by Susan Heavey and Chibuike Oguh, additional reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jonathan Oatis)
