The unhinged and divisive rhetoric being spouted by Donald Trump is apparently turning off big-money GOP donors.
Though news of an impending indictment for the disgraced twice-impeached ex-President has rallied the MAGA base, those with small and deep pockets alike are holding back.
“If small-donor fundraising was his superpower, he seems to have lost it,” Puck News wrote.
The former President’s political and financial woes are nothing new. In 2020, The New York Times reported on the dwindling star power of Trump within the Republican inner circle.
The ketchup was written on the wall as far back as 2020 when Trump’s presidential war chest had been exhausted.
“Mr. Trump’s financial supremacy has evaporated. Of the $1.1 billion his campaign and the party raised from the beginning of 2019 through July, more than $800 million has already been spent. Now some people inside the campaign are forecasting what was once unthinkable: a cash crunch with less than 60 days until the election,” The New York Times wrote in September of 2020.
But donors and voters are tired, as evidenced in the aftermath of indictment claims and multiple civil and legal investigations that could ultimately derail the former President’s dreams of returning to the White House in 2024.
According to The Hill, billionaire donors are jumping ship and hitching their anchor to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R).
“I’d like to think that the Republican Party is ready to move on from somebody who has been for this party a three-time loser,” hedge fund manager and GOP donor Ken Griffin said.
Despite previous donations to a pro-Trump super PAC, Griffin has donated upwards of $5 million in support of rumored 2024 Republican frontrunner, Ron DeSantis.
Griffin isn’t alone.
“America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” Steven Swartzman, CEO of Blackstone, said in a statement. “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.”
Donald Trump’s continued whining about a stolen election has worn out its welcome with many in the right-wing world. The former President’s failure to bring in the big bucks is part and parcel of the course.
While big-money donors changing course is a huge deal, the fact that small-money donations are also shrinking is an indication of the trajectory of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign – and it isn’t upward.
From our perspective that can only be good.
Original reporting by Tara Palmeri at The Hill.
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick
