Former President Donald Trump may have lost the support of Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman but a super PAC that will back Trump’s latest run for the White House has quietly amassed a small group of megadonors that could be key to financing their efforts to bolster his 2024 campaign.
Make America Great Again Inc., a super PAC run by former Trump aides and allies, recently raised over $40 million, mostly from a massive donation from Trump’s PAC, Save America, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.
Yet, the latest disclosure, which shows fundraising for the super PAC from Oct. 20 through Nov. 28, also lists nine other individual contributions totaling over $900,000. A separate FEC filing showing donations from earlier in October lists seven donations from six business leaders and one corporation totaling more than $3 million in support for MAGA Inc. Wealthy businessman Timothy Mellon contributed $1.5 million to the super PAC on Oct. 5, according to the records.
This small group of megadonors arrived in support of the super PAC just prior to other influential financiers deciding they will not back Trump’s 2024 candidacy for president. The donors walking away from helping Trump’s campaign include Schwarzman, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, New York businessman Andy Sabin and billionaire Ronald Lauder.
Trump, who was twice impeached by Congress and is currently under investigation by the FBI for his handling of classified documents, declared his candidacy on Nov. 15. The super PAC’s latest FEC disclosure shows it has over $54 million on hand. A spokesman for the PAC did not return a request for comment.
The recent big individual donation, outside the $40 million from Save America in November, was a $500,000 contribution from BPH Properties, an Alabama-based business run by real estate titan Luther S. Pate, IV. Pate, who also goes by Stan Pate, did not return a request for comment. State business records list Pate as BPH Properties’ president.
Pate published photographs of Trump and himself on the Alabama businessman’s Facebook page just days before the November midterm elections. Pate wrote in a Nov. 5 post that he was with Trump at his private club Mar-a-Lago and said that the highlights of the discussion were “the upcoming midterm elections on Tuesday, voter fraud, stolen elections, 2024 and more. MAGA!”
The contribution from BPH Properties was received by the pro-Trump PAC on Nov. 9, just four days after Pate published the photographs, according to the FEC filing.
FEC records show that Pate has also donated to at least one other pro-Trump PAC in previous election cycles. Pate has not registered a six-figure contribution over the past decade toward a federal campaign like the one his company recently gave to the new super PAC backing the former president.
During Trump’s first run for the White House in 2016, Pate financed the anti-Trump super PAC We The People Foundation. The PAC, according to FEC records, ended up spending over $160,000 to try to…
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