Private equity and real estate giant Blackstone Group chairman and CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman announced late Friday (May 24) that he would support the re-election bid of former US President Donald Trump this November.
Axios made the exclusive report, saying that the Blackstone boss decided to go Republican for this year's election as a "vote for change."
Schwarzman, a lifelong moderate Republican, also said that he would be planning to donate to Trump and several GOP Senate candidates, which was a reversal to his previous stance that he would not support a primary candidate and was instead calling for "a new generation of leaders."
Despite Schwarzman's personal support, however, Blackstone remains highly bipartisan, with president and COO Jon Gray supporting Joe Biden as the firm's most senior Democrat donor.
Meanwhile, Tom Nides, a former Biden appointee as US Ambassador to Israel, joined Blackstone in January as vice chairman for strategy and client relations.
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Schwarzman's Reversal of Stance due to Antisemitism
Being a businessman himself prior to the presidency, Trump recognized the endorsement as an access to a strong network of Republican donors Schwarzman cultivated. The Republican candidate could also convince some of the business leaders who are connected with Schwarzman but are reluctant to back him.
Schwarzman previously called on Trump to move on from his election defeat in 2020 while the former president's supporters hastily attempted to overrun the results, which ended with the January 6 incident the year after.
According to Reuters, what made Schwarzman change his mind was because of the economic, immigration, and foreign policies under the Biden administration.
Another factor that saw him embracing Trump was his concern about rising antisemitism across the country due to the war between Israel and Hamas.
A third reason why the Blackstone boss backed Trump was due to the infighting within the Democratic Party regarding the perennial conflict between the Jewish State and its Arab neighbors and Islamist extremists in the Middle East.
However, Trump also came under fire for associating himself with several antisemitic individuals and for attacking Jewish voters supporting Biden.
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