Chuck Darwin on Nostr: The ex-President arrived with his son Eric, stopping to shake hands and exchange ...
The ex-President arrived with his son Eric,
stopping to shake hands and exchange pleasantries with each of the approximately two dozen guests,
a “AAA list” of the G.O.P.’s top funders,
as #John #Catsimatidis, the billionaire supermarket owner, put it.
Such events, another attendee told me, often feel like a birthday dinner for the host,
except that “there’s a lot of money being given to someone who isn’t the host
—making Donald Trump the birthday boy, so to speak.”
Trump was seated at the head table, between #Fanjul
—a major Republican donor going back to the early nineties
—and #Stephen #Schwarzman,
the C.E.O. of Blackstone, the world’s largest private-equity fund,
who had endorsed Trump the previous Friday.
Securing the support of Schwarzman was a coup for the Trump campaign.
In 2022, he had said that he would not back the former President again,
because it was time for “a new generation of leaders,”
and, during the primaries, he had given $2 million in support of Chris Christie,
the former New Jersey governor,
who had repeatedly called Trump “unfit to be President.”
In a statement explaining the reversal, Schwarzman said that Biden’s “economic, immigration and foreign policies” were “taking the country in the wrong direction.”
At the dinner, Trump reprised his public rant about the “biased” legal proceedings brought against him,
but an attendee who spoke with me was struck by how “calm and confident” Trump seemed for someone facing prison time.
“He has this very strong internal capability to push those things aside and still feel good about things,” the attendee said.
At the end of the evening, Trump went around the room and solicited opinions on whom he should pick for his running mate.
Haley, Scott, and Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota and a wealthy businessman, were mentioned;
-- a couple of the attendees expressed a preference for J. D. Vance,
the young populist senator from Ohio, whom Trump would ultimately choose.
The donors appeared to relish the chance to help select a Vice-Presidential candidate.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” the attendee marvelled.
🔸Trump raised about $50 million at the event.
stopping to shake hands and exchange pleasantries with each of the approximately two dozen guests,
a “AAA list” of the G.O.P.’s top funders,
as #John #Catsimatidis, the billionaire supermarket owner, put it.
Such events, another attendee told me, often feel like a birthday dinner for the host,
except that “there’s a lot of money being given to someone who isn’t the host
—making Donald Trump the birthday boy, so to speak.”
Trump was seated at the head table, between #Fanjul
—a major Republican donor going back to the early nineties
—and #Stephen #Schwarzman,
the C.E.O. of Blackstone, the world’s largest private-equity fund,
who had endorsed Trump the previous Friday.
Securing the support of Schwarzman was a coup for the Trump campaign.
In 2022, he had said that he would not back the former President again,
because it was time for “a new generation of leaders,”
and, during the primaries, he had given $2 million in support of Chris Christie,
the former New Jersey governor,
who had repeatedly called Trump “unfit to be President.”
In a statement explaining the reversal, Schwarzman said that Biden’s “economic, immigration and foreign policies” were “taking the country in the wrong direction.”
At the dinner, Trump reprised his public rant about the “biased” legal proceedings brought against him,
but an attendee who spoke with me was struck by how “calm and confident” Trump seemed for someone facing prison time.
“He has this very strong internal capability to push those things aside and still feel good about things,” the attendee said.
At the end of the evening, Trump went around the room and solicited opinions on whom he should pick for his running mate.
Haley, Scott, and Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota and a wealthy businessman, were mentioned;
-- a couple of the attendees expressed a preference for J. D. Vance,
the young populist senator from Ohio, whom Trump would ultimately choose.
The donors appeared to relish the chance to help select a Vice-Presidential candidate.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” the attendee marvelled.
🔸Trump raised about $50 million at the event.