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Hedge Fund Billionaire Bill Ackman Likely to Support Donald Trump
Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman is leaning toward supporting Donald Trump in the U.S. election, according to a person briefed on his thinking, while some of Wall Street’s top figures back the former president.
ackmanwho supported Trump’s Republican rivals, including Nikki Haley, in the party’s primaries this year, is likely to support X, the social media platform controlled by Elon Musk in which he is a minority investor.
Ackman has donated money to Democrats, including Dean Phillips, who launched a primary challenge to President Joe Biden this year.
The person familiar with Ackman’s thinking said the billionaire does not believe alternative candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr, whose long-shot White House bid he also supported, are likely to win.
They added that Ackman’s dislike of Biden far outweighed his ambivalence toward Biden. Trump.
Pershing Square Capital Management founder’s expected endorsement follows last week’s ad by Stephen Schwarzmananother Wall Street billionaire, who would support Trump as a “vote for change.”
The Blackstone chief also cited the rise of anti-Semitism in the US as one of the reasons for supporting the former president.
Ackman, who has led a fierce campaign against US university chiefs who he says have tolerated anti-Jewish discrimination on campuses, had previously indicated he was considering changing his support to Trump.
Blackstone chief Stephen Schwarzman said last week he would support Trump as a “vote for change” © Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg
The growing support on Wall Street for the former president – including from donors who abandoned Trump after the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol – comes as the Republican candidate pledges to cut taxes and eliminate government regulation if he is elected.
Wall Street chiefs have criticized the Biden administration for what they describe as regulatory overreach, with private equity executives arguing that the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust agenda has suppressed trading.
“Wall Street is definitely moving in Donald Trump’s direction,” said Key Square Group founder Scott Bessent, who raised funds for the former president.
Schwarzman’s support would be a “clear signal to others who are on the fence,” he added.
An investment banker said the growing support for Trump reflects investors’ growing confidence that he will be able to regain the White House.
“Wall Street always wants to pick winners and most people think Trump will win – very simple,” said the banker.
Other billionaire donors, including Citadel founder Ken Griffin, who donated to Haley in the primary, remain on the sidelines.
Griffin said he could support Trump depending on his choice of presumptive running mate. Haley announced that she will vote for Trump.
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Tech venture capitalist Keith Rabois, who gave Haley’s campaign more than $1 million, declined to tell the Financial Times whether he would support Trump but said it was “inconceivable that I would vote for Biden.”
Separately, casino billionaire Miriam Adelson will direct her significant resources to the pro-Trump superpolitical action committee known as Preserve America, according to a person familiar with the matter.
In 2020, the group raised $105 million, including $90 million from Adelson and her husband Sheldon, who died in 2021. The super Pac hopes to surpass its 2020 fundraising mark, the person said. Politico first reported the news.
Some top Wall Street investors who leaned toward Trump said it remained socially awkward to publicly support the former president.
The Republican candidate awaits the verdict in a trial in New York regarding payments to pornographic actor Stormy Daniels and faces a series of other criminal charges.
A prominent New York investor said he considered it too risky to publicly support Trump despite the former president being the “obvious choice” for Wall Street, adding that his children attend a liberal school.
“Nobody likes Trump for his family values,” said the investor, “but he’s a more commercial type, our kind of people like that.”
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A senior corporate lawyer in New York said Trump was also making inroads with disillusioned Democrats on Wall Street.
“The message from the Democratic Party has been terrible,” said the lawyer, who asked not to be identified for fear of criticism from friends and colleagues.
“Wall Street Democrats are still pro-capitalism,” he added. “Unfortunately, there are many people on the far left who have hijacked the party. . . They don’t understand what it takes to conquer the country.”
Trump would be a “no-brainer for our industry. . . we will be richer if he wins,” said a private equity executive who manages tens of billions of dollars in the media, technology and retail sectors.
“But I can’t make my views public because I will be immediately cancelled. . . many of our customers would immediately begin boycotting the services and products sold by our portfolio companies,” the executive added.