Hedge fund billionaires Ken Griffin and Paul Singer met with Trump about donating to his campaign despite past criticism
Ken Griffin and Paul Singer, Republican billionaires who have criticized Donald Trump, met with the former president to discuss donating to his White House bid, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Neither Singer nor Griffin has made any commitment and no decision has been made about whether to contribute to Trump’s reelection, according to the people who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Griffin met with Trump two weeks ago at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, a suburb outside Washington, DC, one person said. Singer has also had a separate meeting with Trump in recent weeks, people said.
A spokesman for Citadel’s Griffin declined to comment. Representatives for Singer, who founded Elliott Investment Management, did not respond to requests for comment.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has donated a significant amount to a Trump-aligned super political action committee. Converting Griffin and Singer into donors would be another massive financial and symbolic victory for Trump.
The two hedge fund managers are among the GOP’s most prolific backers and they have never contributed to Trump’s other presidential runs.
They’ve both been highly critical of the former president. Singer warned in 2016 Trump’s trade ideas would guarantee a “global depression” and Griffin called the former president a “three-time loser” in 2022, after Republicans had a poor showing in that year’s midterm elections.
Griffin said in May he was waiting to see who Trump would pick for vice president before deciding if he would back his candidacy. Trump is expected to name a running mate in the coming days.
The presumptive Republican nominee’s fundraising operation struggled in the early days of his campaign, but has received a deluge of campaign contributions in recent weeks on the heels of his felony conviction and stumbles from President Joe Biden, who is facing calls from Democrats to bow out of the race.
Both Griffin and Singer are among the biggest political donors in US history, according to OpenSecrets. Since 2015, Griffin has given $233 million to federal elections, while Singer has given $89 million.
They’ve often supported the same super political action committees and candidates, including at the presidential level. Both gave $5 million to former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s allied super PAC, supporting her unsuccessful challenge to Trump for the Republican nomination.
They both also donated to Florida Senator Marco Rubio, one of the possibilities for Trump’s running mate, when he ran against Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. Singer also donated $2.5 million that year to a super PAC attacking Trump in a last-ditch effort to persuade GOP primary voters to pick another candidate.
Griffin is worth $41.8 billion, while Singer is worth $4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
