As Trump readies possible 2024 White House run, GOP megadonors back

A growing group of Republican megadonors are backing a fresh crop of GOP presidential contenders for 2024 — even as Donald Trump readies his own likely bid for the White House— blaming the former U.S. president for the party’s lackluster performance in the midterms last week.

Some of the nation’s wealthiest GOP donors have been eyeing Florida’s and Virginia’s Republican governors, Ron DeSantis and Glenn Youngkin, as more rational — and more importantly, electable — candidates for the White House in 2024. Although neither man has formally announced his candidacy, they have both started to put in place the fundraising teams and infrastructure that would be necessary to explore a presidential bid.

Trump has railed against the rising GOP stars as they steal away the party’s attention, and campaign donations, further driving away some of Trump’s most loyal backers.

“I’m not going to give (Trump) a f—ing nickel,” said New York-based businessman Andy Sabin, who donated $120,000 toward Trump’s failed 2020 reelection bid. Sabin contributed $55,000 this year to a pro-DeSantis PAC, Friends of Ron DeSantis, which supported the Florida governor’s successful bid for reelection, according to state campaign finance records. And he plans to back DeSantis if he jumps into the next race for president.

Trump, meanwhile, has scheduled a primetime announcement Tuesday night, heavily hinting that it will be his presidential campaign launch. Trump’s PACs have largely relied on small dollar donors. Save America, one of Trump’s PACs, has raised over $36 million in the 2022 election cycle from individuals who have given $200 or more, according to data from OpenSecrets.

Sabin blames Trump for the party’s poor showing on Election Day. Democrats maintained control of the Senate after a key victory by Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev. While Republicans are projected to pick up a few seats as well as control of the U.S. House of Representatives, it’s not by the wide margin many expected and certainly not the “red wave” Trump and others predicted.

“At the end of the day, people stayed away because of Trump,” Sabin told CNBC. At a campaign rally for Republican candidate J.D. Vance the day before he won the Ohio Senate seat last week, Trump said he planned to make a “very big announcement” on Nov. 15. That didn’t help other campaigns, Sabin said.

Trump also “endorsed candidates who were not necessarily qualified unless they said ‘I love you Donald,'” Sabin added.

In the three-dozen elections labeled “toss up” by Cook Political Report, Trump endorsed six Republicans. Five of them lost, according to a CNBC analysis. Trump also endorsed dozens of winning House candidates, but many of those Republicans were in firmly red districts without a serious competitor. Almost all of the Trump endorsed secretary of state and gubernatorial candidates within key swing states have lost. Many of those candidates pushed false claims about the 2020 election being stolen from Trump.

In a…