A billionaire donor is reportedly considering shifting his support from President Joe Biden to GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump for the upcoming election.
Recently, the Financial Times reported that Bill Ackman, the billionaire manager of a hedge fund, plans to endorse Trump on the social media platform in the near future.
Ackman has given a lot of money to Democratic candidates in the past. But, people close to him told the Times that his “dislike for Biden far outweighed his ambivalence for Trump.”
The 58-year-old Ackman signaled that he supports Trump even after the former president was found guilty of all 34 criminal charges in the Manhattan business fraud case last week. This was evident in his response to what Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said following the verdict.
Last week, DeSantis said:
“Today’s verdict represents the culmination of a legal process that has been bent to the political will of the actors involved: a leftist prosecutor, a partisan judge and a jury reflective of one of the most liberal enclaves in America — all in an effort to ‘get’ Donald Trump.
“That this case — involving alleged misdemeanor business records violations from nearly a decade ago — was even brought is a testament to the political debasement of the justice system in places like New York City. This is especially true considering this same district attorney routinely excuses criminal conduct in a way that has endangered law-abiding citizens in his jurisdiction.”
Responding to those comments on X, Ackman wrote:
“I think any objective person would have to agree with @GovRonDeSantis here.”
This represents quite the flip in attitude by Ackman. Only three years ago, he said that Trump “should apologize to all Americans” after the riot at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.
He’s not the only major donor who has actually signaled their support of Trump in the wake of his conviction.
Miriam Adelson, an Israeli-American casino billionaire, will reportedly announce a major donation to the Trump campaign at some point this week. Sources said that she’s expected to give to the Preserve America political action committee, which will have the ability to support Trump with millions of dollars in ad campaigns and other outreach efforts.
Some media outlets such as Politico have reported that Adelson’s donation is expected to be more than the $90 million that she and her late husband Sheldon gave to Preserve America ahead of the presidential election in 2020.
Last week, David Sacks, an investor in Silicon Valley, wrote on X that there “is now only one issue in this election: whether the American people will stand for the USA becoming a Banana Republic.”
Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya are planning to hold a Trump fundraiser in San Francisco this week, with attendees being asked to contribute up to $300,000
And Steve Schwarzman, the CEO of the Blackstone Group, announced that he’d be supporting Trump this fall.
