Why Republican donors on Wall Street are abandoning Donald Trump

WALL STREET is turning its back on Donald Trump. In recent days financiers who had donated hundreds of millions to the Republican Party have publicly withdrawn their support for the former president. On November 16th Stephen Schwarzman, chief executive of Blackstone, a private-equity company, said he would back someone from a “new generation” of Republicans in 2024. The same day Thomas Peterffy, founder and chairman of Interactive Brokers, said the party needed a “fresh face.” Ken Griffin, chief executive of Citadel, a hedge fund, was bluntest. On November 15th he branded Mr Trump a “three-time loser” and announced his support for Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. Why are donors deserting the former president—and how much will it matter?

The party’s lukewarm performance in midterm elections on November 8th is an important factor. Republican donors blame Mr Trump for the failure of a widely expected “red wave” to materialise. The party took the House of Representatives by only a wafer-thin margin, and failed to regain the Senate after candidates Mr Trump had backed lost important races in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Nor was it the first time the former president had stumbled. Besides losing the presidency in 2020, the Republicans also lost the Senate in 2021 (after a run-off election in Georgia) and the House in 2018—hence Mr Griffin’s epithet for Mr Trump.