Trump's fellow billionaires boost his presidential bid
Former President Trump's 2024 presidential campaign is getting a financial boost from a group of billionaires as he looks to close the fundraising gap with Democrat rival President Biden.
Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, announced on Friday that he will back the former president in the 2024 race after he previously called for the Republican Party to turn to a "new generation of leaders."
Schwarzman, who is worth an estimated $39 billion, said he shares many Americans' concerns "that our economic, immigration and foreign policies are taking the country in the wrong direction" and added that the "dramatic rise of antisemitism has led me to focus on the consequences of upcoming elections with greater urgency."
His announcement comes as other billionaires have rallied to support the Trump campaign as it closes in on the Biden campaign, which had been outpacing Trump in monthly fundraising until April, when the former president's campaign led for the first time this cycle. Mounting legal bills have also strained the Trump campaign's finances.
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As of April, Biden's campaign had about $84.5 million in net cash while Trump's had $48 million, according to a report by the New York Times.
That figure for the Biden campaign was relatively flat from the prior month, while the Trump campaign's coffers grew by about $3 million from March.
The support from Schwarzman and other billionaire benefactors could help the Trump campaign further narrow that gap. Billionaire hedge fund founder John Paulson hosted a fundraiser for Trump's campaign at his Palm Beach, Florida, home in early April. Guests were asked to contribute $814,600 per person to serve as a "chairman" contributor who could sit at Trump's table, or $250,000 to be a "host committee" contributor.
Billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah Mercer, were listed as co-chairs of the Paulson fundraiser. The two were major Trump boosters in 2016 but had mostly sat out his 2020 re-election campaign.
Oil magnate Harold Hamm, the founder and chair of Continental Resources who helped pioneer fracking techniques in extracting shale oil, was also listed as a chair of the event.
Casino mogul Steve Wynn was another billionaire listed as a co-chair of the event, as was Todd Ricketts, Chicago Cubs co-owner and a member of the TD Ameritrade board of directors who previously served as the RNC's finance chair.
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The Paulson fundraiser in early April netted the Trump campaign over $50 million, the campaign indicated.
In a campaign swing through Texas last week, Trump attended a fundraiser in Houston hosted by Hamm and other billionaires, including Jeff Hildebrand, founder of Hilcorp Energy, which is the largest closely held oil firm in the U.S.; George Bishop, founder of GeoSouthern Energy; and Kelcy Warren, head of pipeline firm Energy Transfer Partners.
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The Houston luncheon fundraiser was followed by a roundtable with a group of about 45 executives. A second fundraiser was held in Dallas on Wednesday evening.
FOX News' Andrew Mark Miller, Paul Steinhauser, Bradford Betz and Reuters contributed to this report.