Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman will back Trump
Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman announced on Friday that he will back Donald Trump in the 2024 election, giving the former president the support of one of the biggest names on Wall Street.
Schwarzman, the billionaire co-founder and chair of the world’s largest private equity firm and a GOP megadonor, said in a statement that the “dramatic rise of antisemitism has led me to focus on the consequences of upcoming elections with greater urgency.”
Like many top Wall Street donors to Trump, Schwarzman distanced himself from the former president shortly after the 2020 election and subsequent attempts to overturn its results.
But Schwarzman says he now shares “the concern of most Americans that our economic, immigration and foreign policies are taking the country in the wrong direction.”
His decision to endorse Trump comes amid signs that some major donors to the former president are returning to the fold. Trump is also finding fresh support from leaders in the technology and financial industries.
Other billionaires, including oil and natural gas executive Harold Hamm, Wall Street investor Nelson Peltz and hotel tycoon Robert Bigelow are also backing the former president after previously issuing statements condemning his actions in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Trump’s momentum with megadonors comes as President Joe Biden’s fundraising efforts have showed signs of sagging. Earlier this week, the Biden team reported that it brought in less money in April than Trump’s campaign says it raised alongside the Republican National Committee.
Biden still has support among members of the investor class that backed him in 2020, however. Even within Blackstone, the firm’s President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray is among the president’s top donors. The administration’s former ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, is now the firm’s vice chair.
Meanwhile, Trump’s courting of high-dollar donors has sparked an investigation by Senate Democrats, who are seeking information on any promises that may have been extracted at a dinner where the former president sought $1 billion in campaign donations from oil industry executives.
Schwarzman’s announcement was first reported by Axios.