Trump Defecting GOP Megadonor Predicts Shake Up in Presidential Race: It’s Still ‘Pretty Volatile’

Republican megadonor and Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman told Bloomberg News on Tuesday that he expects a shakeup in the 2024 presidential contest, citing historic volatility in the nominating process.

In November of 2022, as Trump announced his bid for a third White House run, Schwarzman made clear he would not support the former president as he had in the past.

“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 Wall Street billionaire said at the time.

“You’re asked very frequently about who you’re supporting for the GOP, and I don’t want to ask you that because I know you frequently say ‘I’m looking towards the next generation.’ I want to ask about the next generation. Do you see that rising stars? Are you optimistic that there are those there who can carry the mantle?” Schwarzman was asked.

“I’ve learned there’s always people who appear who you had no expectation. So when Barack Obama was elected a senator and I wasn’t even within a year we started running for president and he became president soon thereafter. You know, there are other people who will come and do that,” he replied, adding:

American politics, I’ve found at the presidential level, is pretty volatile. The people you think are going to win, whether it was Hillary in 2016 and they didn’t win. Are there other people who were no place, you know, they end up winning. And, you know, in 2015, about where we are now for a presidential election for the Republicans, you had the governor of Wisconsin in first place. You had Jeb Bush in second place. You had Rudy Giuliani in third place. And by the time there were two or three primaries, they were all gone. And somebody named Donald Trump, one who wasn’t even in the game.

And so I think all the straight-line predictions of what’s going to happen, I sort of just sit back and say, I’ve seen a lot of volatility in my life of what the public wants. You know, apparently the public is not that interested in really older people. Right. I think there was a survey that said 77% of these people didn’t want Biden to run again. And so when you have that kind of situation, usually something else happens.

Schwarzman has donated to both Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in the GOP primary so far, but is currently pausing his donations to DeSantis.

Watch the full clip above.

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