According to a report in the Daily Beast, major donors who contributed to Donald Trump’s inauguration not only want no part of the president now, but are also contributing to possible Democratic presidential contenders.
The report starts off by noting, “15 such donors who collectively gave more than $700,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee but who have since contributed to the presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates including Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, Michael Bennet, John Hickenlooper, Eric Swalwell, and John Delaney.”
While many wealthy political campaign contributors are known to give money to both Democrats and Republicans as a way of hedging their bets and keeping the door open for access, many of the Trump donors are rock-ribbed Republicans who have tired of the president.
“It had only been a couple years since [Jennifer] Pritzker, the world’s only known trans billionaire and a Republican mega-donor, had chipped in a whopping $250,000 to President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee,” the report states. “But three months after publicly objecting to the GOP’s stance on trans issues, she gave $1,000 to Democrat Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign.”
According to Pritzker, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, her change of heart stemmed from the administration’s stance on trans rights.
“I’ve grown frustrated as I watch this Republican administration push to ban transgender military service. Anti-transgender platforms are causing me to evaluate my party support,” Pritzker wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. “I have hoped the Republican Party would reform from within and end its assault on the LGBTQ community. Yet, the party continues to champion policies that marginalize me out of existence, define me as an eccentric character and persecute me for using the public restrooms that correspond to my gender identity.”
The report notes that Pritzker has previously not only contributed to Trump , but also to Republicans Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich.
“Chrysa Tsakopoulos Demos, the chief executive of California land development company AKT Investments, is a longtime Republican donor who backed Sen. Ted Cruz’s bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. She donated $5,000 to the Trump inaugural, and continued donating to Republicans through 2018, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and Great America Committee, Vice President Mike Pence’s political group,” the G Beast report, before adding, “But Demos’ only federal political contribution so far in the 2020 cycle is the $2,800 she donated last year to Biden’s presidential campaign.”
The report states that Greg Maffei, the chief executive of the Colorado-based media company Liberty Media, was a “$250,000 donor to the Trump inaugural who is backing Democrats in 2020.”
“This time around, though, Maffei has supported the two Democratic presidential candidates from his home state. In March 2019, he gave the per-election maximum of $2,800 to Hickenlooper, the former Colorado governor,” the Beast reports. “Two months later, after a max-out donation to Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, Maffei donated $100,000 to a super PAC supporting Hickenlooper. After Hickenlooper withdrew from the race, Maffei donated the legal maximum to Bennet’s presidential campaign.”
You can read about more high dollar contributors bailing on Trump here.