Wall Street Cash Buoys DeSantis

摘要

When it comes to the likely Republican presidential candidates in 2024, Wall Street's money is on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis-not former President Donald Trump, who's been teasing another run at the White House. A fifth of the $55 million that DeSantis has raised this year came from hedge fund billionaires, private equity bankers, investment managers, and other finance industry donors. Trump, who got less than 2% of his 2020 reelection funds from Wall Street, has raised the bulk of his $100 million war chest from small-dollar donors. "Ron DeSantis is my favorite man," says Thomas Peterffy, 77, the billionaire chairman of Greenwich, Conn.-based Interactive Brokers, who gave $250,000 to DeSantis's political action committee in April. Although he donated hundreds of thousands to Trump in 2016 and 2017, he says he would rather the former president sit out 2024. Compared with the impulsive Trump, DeSantis "does much more substantial planning," Peterffy says. "He thinks about how he wants to implement things."