Following another mediocre debate performance by Ron DeSantis, a Republican consultant aligned with the Trump campaign announced that the Florida governor's top donor was considering switching his support to Donald Trump.
Now, that GOP megadonor has made it official.
Las Vegas hotel magnate Robert Bigelow endorsed Trump on Thursday, but will wait until the former president's legal problems clear up some before providing financial support.
During the first half of 2023, Bigelow donated $20 million to DeSantis' White House bid, making him the campaign's leading contributor. However, the businessman now says DeSantis is not “strong enough” to lead the United States.
“At this point in time, we need the guy in the White House who scares the hell out of every other leader in the world who intends to do harm (to) this country,” Bigelow told the Las Vegas Review-Journal Wednesday.
As Jessica Hill from the Review-Journal reports:
The hotel mogul, who had bankrolled Republican Joe Lombardo's campaign for governor, said in August he had an interview with Reuters where he talked about things DeSantis should change, such as his conservative outreach efforts and his strict position on abortion.
DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban into law in Florida, though many women are just finding out they're pregnant at the six-week mark, Bigelow said. Bigelow expressed those concerns in the article, but he never received a phone call from DeSantis, he told the Review-Journal.
Trump lost Bigelow's support after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Bigelow told Time in April. Despite Trump's “bombastic and egotistical” personality, Trump has proven himself as president, Bigelow said Wednesday.
“He was a really good commander … which is what this country needs,” Bigelow said.
However, when asked if he would back Trump financially, Bigelow said he needed to see the GOP front-runner “get out of the kangaroo court problems that he's involved in” and avoid prison first.
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