Free Republic

By KIMBERLY LEONARD 04/06/2024 09:38 PM EDT HOLLYWOOD, Florida — Ron DeSantis is making nice with his most loyal donors and, at least over the weekend, ignored Donald Trump. During a retreat in South Florida for the governor’s donors that featured golf, cigars and spa time, and little mention of the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, DeSantis thanked and wooed the people who most avidly supported his presidential run. Part of the weekend was also to brainstorm how he could keep Florida front and center in the conservative movement with more than 2 and a half years left as governor. Robert...

The systemic institutional antisemitism exposed by Rep. Elise Stefanik’s grilling of former Harvard President Gay is turning out to be a catastrophe for the oldest and formerly most prestigious university in the United States. The backlash of donors withholding funds appears to have created a cash flow crisis, forcing the university into the bond market at a time when interest rates are five times higher than the last time it issued bonds – to cover building projects -- in 2022. Kudos to Sidney K. Lee and Thomas J. Mete of the student-run Harvard Crimson for breaking this important story:Harvard announced...

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is attracting thousands of donations from people who gave to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign as she tries to cobble together a coalition of anti-Trump voters. More than 5,200 donors to Biden’s 2020 campaign have backed Haley financially, including roughly 1,600 who gave more than $500,000 in January alone, according to a POLITICO analysis of Haley’s most recent fundraising report, filed Tuesday night with the Federal Election Commission. That report lists donors who give at least $200 total, and Haley’s campaign reported raising money from more than 55,000 such “large-dollar” donors in the month of...

This shouldn’t even be a question. A great party is trying to produce its presidential nominee. Donald Trump is the leader in the contest so far, and looks likely to be the victor. But the cycle has just started (61 delegates allocated, 2,368 to go) and the party isn’t united, it’s split, roughly 50/50 pro-Trump and not. Nikki Haley is right to stay in and fight. No one has the right to shut her down.... “You alone now carry the banner. Speak up for all the Republicans who have been demeaned, diminished and threatened by Trump. He can no longer...

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will likely be hard-pressed to continue her doomed presidential campaign as large-money donors have begun to abandon ship.CNBC reported Wednesday that notorious Billionaire LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman decided that he had wasted enough money on the Haley campaign and is closing his wallet. As TGP readers know, Hoffman has cut big checks to Joe Biden’s reelection effort and also donated $250,000 to a super PAC backing Haley.The Daily Mail notes Hoffman previously wrote on his Linkedin page that donating to Haley was worth it to stop Trump because America would “survive’” her presidency even...

Billionaire donors who helped fuel Nikki Haley's rise to a third place finish in Iowa and second in New Hampshire are pulling back from her effort to go one-on-one against Donald Trump in South Carolina. LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who has helped bankroll Democrats and cut big checks to Biden's reelection effort, but also gave $250,000 to a super PAC backing Haley. Also bailing out is metal magnate Andy Sabin, who told Fox Business host Neil Cavuto he was ready to 'walk away' from Haley. He had contributed $1.7 million to GOP campaigns over three cycles. 'Haley needs to drop...

The donor class began to cut off all future funding of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s campaign after she lost the critical Republican primary in New Hampshire, multiple advisers to political megadonors told the Washington Post Wednesday. The desertions represent the beginning of the end for Haley’s ability to remain in the race. Haley was the donor class’s choice candidate to block former President Donald Trump, but after his historic victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, Haley’s financial backers apparently see the writing on the wall. Democrat billionaire donor Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, paused donations to pro-Haley PACs....

NIKKI HALEY AND HILLARY CLINTON HAVE THE SAME DONORSAnother donor to @NikkiHaley’s 2024 Presidential campaign is Reid Zeising. Zeising is the founder of Gain Services @gainservicing , and he also serves on the Board of an organization called Cherokee Funding @CherokeeFunding. Zeising has given Haley a total of $16,500 in 2024. Zeising also funded Hillary Clinton’s run for President in 2016 against then-candidate DonaldTrump. See evidence of Zeising’s donations to Nikki Haley and Hillary Clinton below… Nikki Haley is a Democrat. NIKKI HALEY’S DONORS EXPOSEDI have obtained the next months worth of @NikkiHaley fundraiser invites. I’m going to be doing...

Nikki “Birdbrain” Haley is very bad for the Republican Party and, indeed, our Country. Her False Statements, Derogatory Comments, and Humiliating Public Loss, is demeaning to True American Patriots. Her anger should be aimed at her Third Rate Political Consultants and, more importantly, Crooked Joe Biden and those that are destroying our Country - NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL SAVE IT. I knew Nikki well, she was average at best, is not the one to take on World Leaders, and she never did. That was up to me, and that is why they respected the United States. When I ran...

Despite a punishing loss in New Hampshire, Nikki Haley has nearly a dozen fundraisers scheduled between now and the South Carolina primary — and insiders are now wondering how many of these shindigs will actually happen. On Jan. 30 in New York City, billionaires including Leonard Stern, Cliff Asness, Stanley Druckenmiller, Ken Langone and Henry Kravis are co-hosting an event for the former South Carolina governor. On Feb. 6, Silicon Valley mogul Tim Draper is hosting Haley in Atherton, Calif. On Feb. 15, Haley also is slated to be feted in Dallas by real estate tycoon Harlan Crow, according to...

Salem, New Hampshire—The top echelon of the DeSantis campaign has begun having frank conversations with donors about whether the Florida governor should remain in the race, National Review has learned. In recent days people close to the governor have begun making calls to top donors laying out what the campaign sees as their options at this point, which include possibly dropping out of the race in the coming days. The campaign continues to tell reporters that their candidate will stay in the race through South Carolina, force rival and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley to drop out should she...

"I noticed that he threw -- um -- Vivek under the bus. I've seen a candidate run for an office and basically campaign for another candidate in the same race before, but that's what's happened. And the minute he wasn't useful they dropped the hammer on him. That's just the way they are. We're going to go forward as a party. We can go forward in a way that's focused on peoples' issues and a great agenda for America, or we can go forward with Trump, which will be focused, the 2024 election, on legal issues, criminal trials, convictions, on...

On the menu today: The cover piece in the newest issue of National Review has Ron DeSantis fans grumbling that it’s far too early for such a gloomy assessment of his campaign because not a single vote has been cast yet. Fine, but to believe that DeSantis has a shot of winning Iowa, we need to believe that his support is at least 15 percentage points higher than his highest numbers in recent polling and that Donald Trump’s support is at least 15 percentage points lower than his lowest numbers in recent polling. (If you simply take DeSantis’s best number...

A University of Pennsylvania donor is withdrawing a gift worth around $100 million to protest the school's response to antisemitism on campus. The big picture: The final straw for Ross Stevens, founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, was Tuesday's widely criticized congressional testimony by Penn president Liz Magill. Details: The gift from Stevens, a Penn undergrad alum, was given in December 2017 to help establish a center for innovation in finance.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will meet this week with high-dollar Republicans to try to cement their support for the newest political action committee supporting his presidential bid, his campaign manager, James Uthmeier, wrote in a memo on Monday morning. Back Down, the super PAC which has bankrolled much of DeSantis' sprawling ground work in early voting states like Iowa and has hosted the governor for dozens of events there. In a fraught moment earlier this month that was first reported by NBC News, two board members from Never Back Down nearly got into a physical fight during a private meeting...

Republicans on the Committee on House Administration are probing a prominent left-wing fundraising platform over its “lenient” donor verification practices that allegedly allow unlawful monies to fund Democrat political causes. Authored by Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., the letter sent to ActBlue Chief Executive Officer Regina Wallace-Jones requests information regarding the platform’s “lenient donor verification standards,” which Steil says have allegedly permitted “malicious actors” to “funnel unlawful funds to political committees” in key elections throughout the country. As noted by Fox News, ActBlue “amasses small-dollar donations … and then funnels them to various Democrat candidates and causes.” Months before the 2020...

Earlier on Thursday, a DeSantis spokesperson said the governor’s office had contracted cargo planes to send drones, body armor and helmets to Israel and worked to “get weapons and ammunition to Israel through private parties.” In an interview with Reuters, however, Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the Israeli consul general in Miami, said his office did not work with the governor to send any weapons or ammunition to Israel through private parties, though he had once been in contact with the governor’s office about a plane that was carrying rifle parts. “I am not aware and would find it very, very bizarre to...

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced that he is sending weapons, ammunition and drones to Israel, just a few days before the GOP presidential hopeful is set to speak at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, which includes major donors. The Republican candidate also announced two cargo planes with 85 pallets of donated supplies, as well as sanctions on Iran and "companies boycotting Israel," such as financial services firm Morningstar. DeSantis is scheduled to speak at the RJC gathering in Las Vegas on Saturday. The moves from the Florida governor come after he was previously accused by...

Top officials with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign made the case to a gathering of top donors opposed to Donald Trump on Friday that rival GOP candidate Nikki Haley could not defeat the former president in a head-to-head matchup. If they wanted to stop Trump, they argued, the Florida governor remained their best bet. In another presentation made to the same group, Haley’s team argued the opposite. DeSantis’ campaign had flatlined, they insisted, pointing to data that showed that the former UN ambassador was ascendent and, therefore, the logical choice for the anti-Trump crowd. Haley’s team, according to a person familiar...

The Energy Department is announcing a $325 million investment in new battery types that can help turn solar and wind energy into 24-hour power it said Friday morning. The funds will be distributed among 15 projects in 17 states and the Red Lake Nation, a Native American tribe based in Minnesota. Here is some of what is being funded, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021: A project led by Xcel Energy in partnership with long-term battery manufacturer Form Energy will deploy two 100-megawatt battery systems at the site of coal plants that are closing in Becker, Minnesota and Pueblo,...