OPINION:
Former President Donald Trump is a billionaire. His net worth is north of $2 billion, Forbes reported earlier this year.
But that’s not enough to run for president anymore — not even if you empty every account, sell everything. While the presidential candidates spent about $2.2 billion combined in 2016, that soared to $6.6 billion in 2020.
Plus, Mr. Trump doesn’t like to spend his money. (Why spend your own cash when you can spend other people’s?)
The race for the White House is really the race for the money. That’s why candidates spend four years getting their ducks in a row, which means lining up big-money donors to fund your run.
Even though Mr. Trump announced his candidacy back in November — and Ron DeSantis still hasn’t formally entered the race — the Florida governor is already wooing away some fat-cat moneymen to his looming campaign.
This week, yet another wealthy Republican financier said he’s bailing on Mr. Trump and instead backing Mr. DeSantis in the 2024 election. Hal Lambert, founder of Texas-based Point Bridge Capital, thinks the GOP needs to move on from the 76-year-old former president in favor of Mr. DeSantis, who is 44.
“I’m in for DeSantis this time. I plan to do a lot to help DeSantis win,” Mr. Lambert told the New York Post. “Ron is good at giving a message,” Mr. Lambert said, adding that the Florida governor’s wife, Casey, is amazing.
“She will be a real asset,” he said.
Mr. Lambert said Mr. Trump’s performance in a recent CNN town hall left him cold. “What voters who didn’t vote for Trump in 2020 are going to vote for him this time based on his performance? I don’t think anyone will,” he said.
“We can’t talk about things from four years ago that can’t be changed,” he said. “Trump is going to have a difficult time winning the general election. The election won’t be about Joe Biden’s bad record. It will be a referendum on Trump instead.”
Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Lambert said, would also offer a greater contrast to 80-year-old President Biden on the debate stage.
Mr. Trump is busy looking to the money whales to fund his 2024 run, but they’re busy swimming out to deep water.
“GOP megadonors Robert Mercer and Rebekah Mercer have no current plans to help former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign for the White House, according to people familiar with the matter,” CNBC reported earlier this year.
“The Mercers, a father and daughter who were among Trump’s major benefactors during his first run for president in 2016, are distancing themselves from the ex-president’s third White House bid and cutting back their overall campaign fundraising, these people said. The people who spoke to CNBC did so on the condition of anonymity in order to talk about private conversations.”
And more are bailing.
“Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, wealthy New York businessman Andy Sabin and billionaire Ronald Lauder are among the wealthy GOP donors opting against helping Trump’s latest campaign — at least during the Republican primary,” CNBC reported. “Some of the country’s wealthiest GOP donors do not believe Trump can win again and have argued for a new face to represent their party in the race for president.”
“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,” Mr. Griffin said at Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in Singapore, referring to the last three election cycles, The Hill reported.
Mr. Schwarzman was harsher.
“America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” he 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.”
The race is on for money. Mr. Trump has made it clear that those who cross him — fail to back him at the top of their lungs — face his wrath. Which makes it all the more unusual for donors to not only move away from Mr. Trump, but also talk openly about doing so. They’re not afraid of him anymore, and that is set to change the 2024 GOP campaign.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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