OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump has landed a key donor as his campaign for the presidency approaches its zenith.
The CEO of the private equity firm Blackstone, Stephen Schwarzman, said in an interview with Axios that he will be supporting the former president.
“The dramatic rise of antisemitism has led me to focus on the consequences of upcoming elections with greater urgency,” he said to the news organization.
“I share the concern of most Americans that our economic, immigration and foreign policies are taking the country in the wrong direction. For these reasons, I am planning to vote for change and support Donald Trump for President. In addition, I will be supporting Republican Senate candidates and other Republicans up and down the ticket,” he said.
Before the Republican primaries the CEO called for “a new generation” of leadership in the Republican Party.
“America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” he said in November 2022. “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.”
But his shift could mark a new era for the former president in his quest for donors to take on President Joe Biden.
Breitbart News reported:
In his bestseller Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, Peter Schweizer describes Schwarzman as jokingly claiming he served both as the “unofficial U.S. ambassador to China” as well as the “unofficial Chinese ambassador to the U.S.”
Schweizer reported in the book that Schwarzman launched a $100 million plan to create a global education scholarship program in China to rival the Rhodes Scholarships offered at Oxford University. “A Wall Street financier worth billions, courtesy of the free market system, is funding courses in Marxism-Leninism and a program that preaches the superiority of Chinese communism over American capitalism,” Schweizer wrote.
Unlike some of Trump’s allies from America’s business community and the financial sector, Schwarzman stuck by the president following the 2017 violence in Charlottesville, insisting that reports that he was outraged at Trump’s remarks about the incident were not true.
The change of heart also came as former rival and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley vowed to vote for the former president.
“Trump has not been perfect on these policies. I have said that many, many times. But Biden would be a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump,” she said.
“Having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech. Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me, and not assume that they’re just going to be with him,” she said.
After his rally in the Bronx, NY the former president spoke to News 12 where he graciously accepted her endorsement and said he anticipates that she will be on his team.
“I appreciated what she said,” he said to the reporter after being asked about the former ambassador’s comments.
“Is there room for her on your team or, better yet, your ticket?” the reporter said.
“Well, I think she’s gonna be on our team because we have a lot of the same ideas, the same thoughts,” the former president said.
“You know, we had a nasty campaign; it was pretty nasty. But she’s a very capable person, and I’m sure she’s going to be on our team in some form. Absolutely,” he said.
The endorsements add to the tough news for President Biden as the former president continues to lead him in polls.
A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of registered voters, conducted from May 7th to 13th, found that Trump holds a four-point lead over Biden across all swing states. The former president leads by five points in Arizona, seven points in North Carolina, three points in Georgia, two points in Pennsylvania, and one point in Wisconsin.
Trump and Biden are tied in Nevada, while Biden holds a narrow one-point lead over Trump in Michigan.
