The group of billionaires who co-hosted a fundraiser for Donald Trump on Saturday included a business magnate who was previously at the center of a sexual misconduct scandal and a someone who has compared tax increases to Nazism, Newsweek analysis shows.
Trump, having amassed vast legal bills and struggling to rake in as much cash as his rival, President Joe Biden, turned to the group of billionaires to help boost his presidential coffers.
On Saturday, the former president held an event at billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson's home in Palm Beach, Florida, raising $50.5 million according to his campaign.
Newsweek obtained a copy of an invitation to the event which lists the co-chairs, some of whom have had their attendance reported by other outlets.
Those listed included, but were not limited to:
John Paulson
Paulson, who hosted the event, is a hedge fund manager who has indicated in the past that he wants to switch social security to a "defined contribution" system.
Robert Bigelow
Bigelow runs an extended-stay apartment chain called Budget Suites of America. He notably filed 46 eviction actions at the height of the COVID pandemic. He has provided financial support to organizations investigating UFOs and previously supported Ron DeSantis's White House campaign.
Howard Lutnick
Lutnick is the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial group. The group has the cryptocurrency Tether as a client. Tether has been linked to several groups, including Hamas, as well as North Korea and Chinese fentanyl suppliers according to reports by the Wall Street Journal.
In October 2023, Tether announced they had frozen 32 wallets tied to "terrorism and warfare," according to a Reuters report.
Mike Hodges
Hodges is a payday lender. In 2019, The Washington Post reported he was recorded saying he could influence decisions on the regulation of the payday lender industry by making donations to Trump.
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Robert Mercer
Mercer is a New York hedge fund manager who has also invested $10 million in the far-right news publication Breitbart.
Pepe Fanjul
Fanjul is a sugar baron. In 2010, he came under scrutiny after he refused to fire his executive assistant, Chloe Black, when it was revealed she was the ex-wife of former KKK leader David Duke, and had then married Don Black, a former KKK grand wizard and member of the American Nazi Party.
Steve Wynn
Wynn is a real estate developer, casino mogul and founder of Wynn Resorts. In 2019, an investigation overseen by the Nevada Gaming Commission fined the resorts for ignoring complaints about "sexual conduct with subordinate employees." Wynn resigned from his post as RNC finance chair and paid a $10 million fine.
Todd Ricketts
Ricketts is the co-owner of the Chicago Cubs and was previously the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. According to records obtained by The Chicago Tribune, he avoided paying taxes on his home for nearly a decade.
Harold Hamm
Hamm is the chairman of an oil company, Continental Resources. He has lobbied for tax breaks on oil companies.
John Catsimatidis
Catsimatidis runs Gristedes Stores which has paid out millions of dollars to settle lawsuits over allegations of unfair labor practices and consumer safety violations, according to The New York Times.
In 2021, he compared plans to increase taxes on the wealthy to the Nazis. "We can't punish any on group and chase them away," he said. "We—I mean, Hitler punished the Jews. We can't have punishing the '2 percent group' right now."
Trump's big event came after Biden amassed approximately $26 million for his campaign at a fundraiser at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, lauded as the biggest political fundraiser ever.
Meanwhile, the incumbent president and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) are nearly doubling their Republican rivals, with the DNC boasting some $97.5 million in cash compared to the $44.8 million for the Republican National Committee (RNC).
And according to figures released by the two campaigns, Biden ended March with $192 million cash on hand, more than double the Trump campaign's number.
"This has been some incredible evening before it even starts because people—they wanted to contribute to a cause of making America great again, and that's what's happened," Trump said to reporters as he arrived at the event with his wife Melania Trump.
Meanwhile, at the event, Trump said he would keep billionaire's taxes low if elected as the president in November's election, according to a Trump campaign official speaking to NBC News. Newsweek was unable to verify the veracity of this claim.
The Biden-Harris campaign's Senior Spokesperson Sarafina Chitika told Newsweek: "Donald Trump's billionaire donors are just like him: hellbent on gutting Social Security and ripping away seniors' earned benefits while lining their own pockets with tax giveaways to the wealthy. When Trump says he wants to cut seniors' earned benefits – just like he tried to do every single year that he was in office – we should believe him. His billionaire buddies certainly do."
Newsweek contacted a representative for Trump by email to comment on this story.
Trump is to hold another fundraiser on Wednesday in Atlanta.
Update 4/9/24, 5:25 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to clarify that Tether is a Cantor Fitzgerald client.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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