A top GOP donor said Monday he wouldn’t back Donald Trump if he ran for president again in 2024.
“I think it’s time for America to move on,” hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin said during an interview with Bloomberg’s Erik Schatzker at the Economic Club of Chicago.
Griffin spent more than $60 million to boost conservatives in the 2020 elections, placing him among the top five political donors in the election cycle, though he has never directly supported Trump’s campaigns, a point he noted during Monday’s discussion.
“The four years under President Trump were so pointlessly divisive it was not constructive for our country,” he said.
He praised Trump’s economic policies, describing them as “pretty damn good,” but said that overall, the U.S. needed to put that chapter of its history behind it.
Trump has heavily teased a 2024 run since leaving office, hosting events around the country and aggressively fundraising with campaign-style rallies. It’s unclear, however, if he will actually go ahead.
And despite his chaotic departure from the White House in January, he has retained his influence over the GOP and remains the biggest fundraiser for the party.
His advisers have privately urged him to hold off on officially announcing if he will run in 2024 in order to avoid blame if Republicans fail to win back the House and Senate in the midterms, according to a Washington Post report on Monday. Trump has instead settled on a “wink and nod” unofficial candidacy until he decides what he’s doing, the Post reported.