Republican donors are REFUSING to give money to Trump’s rivals because they don’t believe they can win: ‘The cavalry’s not coming’

It is increasingly clear that Republican megadonors will not step in to save the storm of struggling campaigns vying to replace Donald Trump as the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nominee.

In 2016, billionaire business leaders wasted tens of millions of dollars trying to stop Trump from winning the nomination by backing competitors like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

They seem less eager to do it again this time, as the former president is still the leading frontrunner with just three months until the primaries start.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie have all failed to earn the same buy-in from billionaires who did in 2016 kept a number of campaigns against Trump alive.

One person who works closely with several donors in the financial industry predicted that their money would be largely absent from the presidential race. according to the Wall Street Journal.

Instead, the source notes, major donor money from the Republican Party could flow into an effort to gain Republican control of the Senate.

Financial disclosures filed this weekend also show that Trump’s campaign still far outpaced its competitors in the third quarter of this year – raising $24.5 million from small donors between July 1 and September 30.

DeSantis was the second highest earner at $11 million.

These numbers prove that outside groups, capable of funneling more than the $3,300 maximum donor limit to candidates, are critical if candidates want to have a chance of beating Trump.

Billionaire businessmen Paul Singer, Ken Griffin, Joe Ricketts and Stephen Schwarzman, among other wealthy donors, were able to donate millions to candidates through their super PACs.

It appears that Trump has been able to keep his fundraising so far ahead of his competitors by using the momentum of the past three months from his very first mugshot in prison, amid his litany of legal troubles.

The ex-president now has a war chest of $37.5 million – about as much as all the other Republican candidates combined.

The huge cash advantage will allow him to flood the airwaves with ads in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first states to vote in next year’s race, as he tries to eliminate his opponents early.

Senator Scott has the second largest amount of cash to spend at $13.3 million.

DeSantis, Trump’s closest rival in the polls, has $12.3 million in the bank, Haley $11.6 million and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy $4.2 million.

Ramaswamy, a multi-millionaire biotech entrepreneur, has a slight advantage because he can withdraw money from his own bank account. As the market rebounded over the summer, Ramaswamy was briefly one of the twenty youngest billionaires in the US.

While most major donors are reluctant to spend millions on a race they believe has already been decided, some are not sitting on the sidelines.

Wisconsin-based shipping magnate Richard Uihlein and his wife Elizabeth were one of the most generous donor couples during the 2016 Republican primaries. In the spring, they gave DeSantis’ super PAC $2 million. Las Vegas hotel and space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow also donated $20 million to DeSantis’ super PAC Never Back Down in March.

In addition, Billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who said he is all in on Scott’s campaign, has donated $30 million to a Scott super PAC.

The latest figures from the Federal Election Commission show that DeSantis raised $11.2 million between July and September, but spent almost the entire amount.

That included spending $1.5 million on private jet rentals.

Most of the flights, made on six private jet companies, were between Florida and Iowa, where he is increasingly focusing his campaign.

DeSantis has curtailed spending, using just $1.3 million in September, down from $6 million in July.

He has scaled back campaign staff and moved about a third of his remaining people to Iowa.

Over the three-month period, Trump raised about the same amount as Joe Biden.

His take was $7 million higher than what he had collected in the previous three months.

More than $2 million — most of it in donations of less than $50 — flowed into Trump’s campaign within 24 hours of his mugshot being released on August 24.

The mugshot was taken in a Georgia prison as he was charged with alleged crimes, which he denies, stemming from his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

His campaign consisted of placing the mugshot on t-shirts and coffee cups to raise money.

David Kochel, a Republican strategist, said, “That’s his superpower. The more these accusers chase him, the more he says, ‘We’re in this together and I’m being attacked.'”

Over the past three months, Trump has spent just $9.5 million, less than DeSantis.

He has stated that DeSantis “will soon run out of money.”

Haley saw her donations increase in the wake of the two recent Republican debates.

The $11.6 million she has to spend is more than $7 million more than at the end of June.

She said her campaign has received money from 40,000 new donors in the past three months.

Her spokeswoman said: “We have seen a big wave of support and have real momentum. Nikki is emerging as the candidate who can move America beyond the chaos and drama of the past and present, and we have the tools we need to do that.”

Meanwhile, Mike Pence reported only $1.2 million in available funds and has $620,000 in debt to pay.