Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman says he won't support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential primary
- Blackstone CEO and GOP megadonor Steve Schwarzman says he won't support Donald Trump in 2024.
- Schwarzman and his wife donated $3 million to a Trump super PAC in 2020.
Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire CEO and cofounder of private-equity powerhouse Blackstone, said he will not support Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
"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," he said in a statement to Insider. "America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday."
Axios first reported the news about Schwarzman's defection.
Schwarzman and his wife, Christine Hearst Schwarzman, are Republican party megadonors. In 2020, they donated $25 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC committed to electing a Republican Senate, and another $3 million to America First Action, a super PAC dedicated to electing Trump, according to OpenSecrets.
He joins major GOP donor Hedge-fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin in defecting from Trump. Griffin has already endorsed Florida's Ron DeSantis as his candidate of choice.
Even Trump's own daughter, Ivanka, said she would not "be involved in politics" moving forward.
"While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena," she wrote on Instagram.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that he would be seeking reelection in 2024.
The announcement came just a week after a number of candidates who the former president endorsed lost crucial elections in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada.
Schwarzman had previously criticized the January 6 Capitol rioters and did not support Trump's false claims that he had won the 2020 election.
"The insurrection that followed the President's remarks today is appalling and an affront to the democratic values we hold dear as Americans," he said in a statement to Insider at the time. "I am shocked and horrified by this mob's attempt to undermine our constitution. As I said in November, the outcome of the election is very clear and there must be a peaceful transition of power."