Although some Wall Street Billionaires While most public company executives are openly supporting Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House, that’s a different story, according to Pangea Policy founder Terry Haynes.
The former president’s conviction by a New York jury on 34 counts would lead to a “measurable but small shift away from Trump” among the overall electorate, he said. Bloomberg TV on Friday after he told clients it would also make it more difficult to attract serious financial and political support on Wall Street.
This is despite billionaires such as Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and Miriam Adelson supporting Trump, and Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman criticizing the hush money trial. reportedly leaning toward supporting Trump too much.
But Haynes drew a distinction between such billionaires and the heads of most other large public companies.
“If you’re looking for the average Fortune 500 CEO or executive who has to answer to shareholders, they’re going to be very careful about how they position themselves and whether they present themselves at all.” He said. “I mean, I think they don’t want to risk public criticism for supporting Trump.”
Meanwhile, the verdict sparked a surge in fundraising as the GOP’s WinRed platform briefly collapsed under the weight of grassroots donors on Thursday. Trump’s campaign said Friday night that he had raised nearly $53 million in the 24 hours after the verdict, setting a new Republican record and closing the fundraising gap with President Joe Biden.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee on July 14.
Regardless of what Trump’s verdict is, Haines expects there will be “a very high level of momentum” at the convention, which could help energize the Republican base.
“But I think it discourages a lot of the independent candidates that Trump needs to win the general election,” he added. “I think this could be a problem for him.”