Another Billionaire Megadonor Defects From Trump After 2024 Launch—As Party Heavyweights Stray From Former President

Schwarzman, who also serves as chairman and founder of the private-equity firm, said he plans to support a 2024 Republican presidential candidate who is part of a “new generation of leaders,” he said in a statement to Axios.

Schwarzman, who advised Trump on issues including trade during his time in the White House, did not give to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, but donated at least $3 million to the Trump-aligned super PAC America First Action Inc. during the 2020 campaign cycle, among more than $27 million he spent supporting Republican-linked PACs that year, Reuters reported.

Ken Griffin, the founder of the Citadel hedge fund–who publicly cheered Trump’s White House policies and donated more than $100 million to GOP 2022 midterm candidates, including millions to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), CNBC reported–endorsed DeSantis last week for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, though DeSantis has yet to formally declare his candidacy.

Hours before Trump’s Tuesday announcement that he will run for president for a third time, Griffin called him a “three-time loser” at a Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in Singapore, referring to Trump’s 2020 presidential loss, Republican midterm losses in 2018 and the string of Trump-backed candidates defeated in consequential midterm races last week.

Rupert Murdoch and his media empire, which boosted Trump as he launched his political career, have also turned on the former president: the Murdoch-owned New York Post covered his 2024 announcement with a headline on the tabloid’s front page that read “Florida Man Makes Announcement” and the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal called him the GOP’s “biggest loser” in an editorial published the day after the midterm election.