GOP megadonors turn on Trump, look for 2024 alternatives after Jan. 6

On Jun 30, 2022

A video of former U.S. President Donald Trump from his January 6th Rose Garden statement is played as Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the Trump administration, testifies during House Select Committee a public hearing to investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, at the Capitol, in Washington, June 28, 2022.

Shawn Thew | Pool | Reuters

Support from some of the Republican Party’s biggest donors for a 2024 White House run by former President Donald Trump is dwindling, especially after damaging new details of his actions on Jan. 6, 2021 were revealed at a hearing Tuesday by the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Republican financiers and their advisors have been privately meeting since the committee started to release the initial findings of its ongoing probe in a series of public hearings earlier this month, according to interviews with top GOP fundraisers who have helped the party raise millions of dollars. Most of the people asked not to be named because they didn’t want to provoke retribution from Trump or his allies. They’ve been discussing the upcoming 2022 midterms and who they’re going to support in 2024. One name that doesn’t often get brought up as a potential candidate they want to back for president again is Trump, these people explained.

“Donors are very concerned that Trump is the one Republican who can lose in 2024,” Eric Levine, an attorney and longtime GOP fundraiser, said after the Hutchinson hearing. “I think donors were already moving away from Trump,” he noted. Levine is co-hosting a fundraising event for the Trump-endorsed former TV host and current Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz in New York in September, according to an invite reviewed by CNBC.

For Trump, it’s a similar theme to his first run for president. Many corporate business leaders backed other Republican candidates like Jeb Bush early on in the race only later to back Trump when it was obvious he was going to capture the GOP nomination.

‘The silence is deafening’

A person close to some of the biggest real estate executives in New York who backed Trump during both of his runs for the White House said this time is different. Their view is he’s taken “major hits” during the Jan. 6 hearings. None from that group are coming to defend him, at least for now.

“The silence is deafening,” this person added.

The lack of interest in Trump by some of the wealthiest Republican donors could boost fundraising efforts for other GOP presidential hopefuls. Multiple Republicans could run in 2024, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. and Sen. Tom Cotton R-Ark. Scott is up for reelection in 2022 but recently headlined an event in Iowa, a key state for candidates running for president. Cotton reportedly huddled with donors to discuss a possible 2024 run for president.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative…