“Can He Pivot?”: Inside the Minds of GOP Donors

I spent some quality time with some top Republican donors recently. I got asked to meet with some who just wanted my take on the lay of the land headed in 2024. They had concerns about their 2020 and 2022 spending. They had concerns about consultants, including a few their money men had directed them towards. They had concerns about Trump. They had concerns about winning. They had a lot of concerns.

I don’t know who else they met with. I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, but was granted permission to talk generally about our exchange and share a few quotes. A few had vetted the candidates in Florida. Some had been in New York. It was a pretty good cross section of large donors, mostly male with some significant women involved.

Most were enamored with the idea of DeSantis. Some did not find him their cup of tea. A few, given their strong evangelical leanings, want Pence. Two were intrigued with Haley, but not yet committed. Most were perplexed by Ramaswamy. A handful had been major Trump donors and I expected some of those would still be with him. They are not.

“Can he pivot?” asked one of the women at the event. She is a top donors who many had expected to be on the 2024 sidelines for most of the primary. She gave Trump money. She was asking about DeSantis. She finds him, in her words, “intriguing.” To her and many others in the room, they view DeSantis as the closest to Trump, but with a penchant for pulling the pin on the grenade and throwing it instead of putting it in his mouth.

The pivot is this major donor’s concern. She wants to hear about…