Chuck Darwin<p>During this year's Republican primaries, Peltz gave $100,000 to a super pac supporting Tim Scott, <br>the South Carolina senator, <br>but Scott dropped out before a single G.O.P. vote was cast. </p><p>By the time of Peltz’s dinner, it was clear that Trump would secure the Republican nomination for an unprecedented third consecutive election. </p><p>Peltz, who was no longer on speaking terms with the ex-President, opened the discussion with a blunt assessment of the race. </p><p>🔥“I don’t like Donald Trump,” an attendee recalled Peltz saying. </p><p>“He’s a terrible human being, but our country’s in a bad place, and we can’t afford Joe Biden.” </p><p>So, Peltz concluded, however much they might dislike it, ❌“we’ve all got to throw our support behind him.”</p><p>Some of Peltz’s guests remained skeptical, <br>holding to the view, as the attendee put it, that <br>“Trump’s a terrible person<br>—I’m going to focus on the Senate.” </p><p>Most of the donors, however, adopted a more pragmatic approach to the ex-President. </p><p>Many of them had been granted significant access to the White House during his four years in office. </p><p>Some were expected to be considered for senior roles in a second term: </p><p>Trump has personally floated the name of the hedge-fund tycoon <a href="https://c.im/tags/John" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>John</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Paulson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Paulson</span></a>, for instance, as a potential Secretary of the Treasury, touting him as <br>💥“a money machine.” </p><p>“They know how transactional he is,” the attendee told me. </p><p>“They’re hoping to have some influence over the course of appointments and therefore the direction of his Administration.”</p><p>A few of Peltz’s guests were all in. <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/Steve" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Steve</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Wynn" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Wynn</span></a>, the Las Vegas gambling titan, has known Trump for decades; </p><p>his wife, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Andrea" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Andrea</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Hissom" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hissom</span></a>, is close to the former First Lady, Melania, and the two couples have spent time together in Palm Beach. </p><p>And then there was <a href="https://c.im/tags/Elon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Elon</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Musk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Musk</span></a>, the world’s richest man, who had reportedly got to know Peltz through Peltz’s son <a href="https://c.im/tags/Diesel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Diesel</span></a>, a tech entrepreneur. </p><p>At the time, Musk had said that he would NOT back a candidate in the Presidential race. </p><p>♦️By the fall, he would enthusiastically endorse Trump, spending $75 million to support him through a new super pac, <br>-- and spreading pro-Trump lies and conspiracy theories on his social-media platform, X.</p><p>Trump, the richest man ever to serve in the White House, is himself a billionaire, <br>though the extent of his wealth has long been in question. </p><p>(As of mid-October, with stock in Trump’s social-media venture, Truth Social, experiencing a pre-election bounce, Forbes estimated his net worth at about $5.5 billion.) </p><p>In 2016, Trump hardly bothered to court big donors. </p><p>He was shunned by much of the G.O.P. élite and largely self-funded his Republican primary campaign. </p><p>He lambasted Jeb Bush, the brother and son of Presidents, as a tool of the moneyed class. </p><p>👉“Super pacs are a disaster,” Trump said in a 2016 debate. <br>“They’re a scam. They cause dishonesty. <br>And you’d better get rid of them, because they are causing a lot of bad decisions to be made by some very good people.”</p><p>⚠️But in 2020, as an incumbent President, Trump embraced super pacs and their funders. </p><p>The two main super pacs supporting his campaign raised <br>💥$255 million on his behalf that year; </p><p>his total fund-raising came to more than<br>💥 $1 billion. </p><p>However, Biden, like Hillary Clinton four years earlier, raised even more than Trump, <br>bringing over-all spending in the 2020 Presidential race to a record🔥 $5.7 billion.</p><p> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Nelson" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Nelson</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Peltz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Peltz</span></a></p>