I don’t know if Donald Trump will spend a day in jail after the Manhattan jury’s guilty verdict in that ridiculous hush-money case. I can say with pretty good confidence that Trump is not the kind of guy who is particularly worried about the outcome. In fact, he thinks it will put him back in the White House.
That was the impression I got from the billionaire and multi-million dollar Republican donor class hanging out with the former president, and likely president-elect, and now-convicted man, at his Upper East Side mansion just hours after Thursday’s abuse of the justice system.
The well-funded group of about two dozen people, some of whom were initially reluctant to support Trump for a variety of reasons, including his January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill debacle, included private equity boss Steve Schwarzman, real estate mogul Steve Witkoff, Jeff Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which manages the New York Stock Exchange, and his wife, former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, NFL New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Palantir’s Jacob Helberg, supermarket and media entrepreneur John Catsimatidis and hedge fund billionaire John Paulson.
The two met at the request of Pepe Fanjul, the South Florida real estate and sugar tycoon who owns the posh venue.
Trump, who arrived a little late (for obvious reasons) accompanied by his son Eric but reportedly smiling rather than grim, began by joking with guests about what had happened in the lower Manhattan courtroom before getting down to business about how he plans to overturn the corrupt elements of Bidenism if re-elected.
All of this was discussed over a ravioli appetizer and a dinner of steak and fish (Trump, a legendary meat eater, ordered steak, although it’s unclear whether he added ketchup, his favorite condiment).
Biden’s open border fiasco garnered attention. Trump’s running mate was also a hot topic, with many endorsing his old foe Nikki Haley. Then came the administration’s weak response to the military and economic threat from China, its wokeism in supporting children in the “transition,” Biden’s apparent indifference to the continued inflation that is decimating the working class, and the rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses and in public spaces due to the Democratic Party’s left wing, which Sleepy Joe has actively supported for four years, despite his reputation as a moderate.
Addressing the issue
Trump took it all in. People were said to be outraged that a left-leaning Manhattan district attorney could interfere in a national election. Trump’s other legal problems, and the possibility that some of them may end up before the Supreme Court, were also discussed.
He offered some typical Trumpian details about how he plans to address the issue, which, despite his insane “Truth Social” feed, nobody argued given his track record of peace and prosperity so far.
“We spoke for two hours,” one attendee said, “and all explained that, given the dangerous direction the country is taking under Biden, we need Trump to win, and we said we’re prepared to do whatever we can to support him.”
Donors have flocked to the Trump campaign (and have pledged an estimated $30 million to the campaign) not only because they see the lawsuit brought by left-wing District Attorney Alvin Bragg (which essentially turned 34 false charges into felony charges) as a politically motivated smear campaign, but also because they view the other cases against Trump in the same light of a political witch hunt. They are increasingly ready to fight back with their bank accounts on the line.
What they fear most of all is the alternative: an ill-fated administration of Sleepy Joe Biden, an existential threat to the nation.
Again, the attendees were not necessarily Trump supporters. Schwarzman, a longtime Republican donor, was until recently a Trump skeptic after Jan. 6. As this column first predicted, it was campus anti-Semitism, fueled by parts of the Democratic Party and by Biden’s merely reluctant support for Israel’s eradication of Hamas fanatics after Oct. 7, that turned Schwarzman into a born-again Trump supporter.
He said it at the dinner. And so did everyone else there. They think the prosecutors’ case is a farce, the trial a sham, a non-criminal case about hush money to porn stars, brought before a left-leaning judge by a bad prosecutor funded by Soros who cut police budgets, all to bring down the Democrats’ most hated target.
They also genuinely believe Biden has succumbed to evil, left-wing elements in his party. Biden needs to resign, as does his foolish vice president, Kamala Harris, whose fragile mental health means that if re-elected, she will likely serve out a full term as a barely conscious president.
Meanwhile, the former president is acting as if he plans to run for president again. Bragg’s ruling has galvanized public support and money is pouring in from donors big and small. The Trump campaign expects to raise an estimated $150 million in the coming days.
Even before the verdict, Mr. Trump had been talking to his inner circle — a dozen or so business and political figures who are even closer to him than he normally is to Elon Musk — not about what food would be like in prison, but about who would help him run the government once he reclaimed the White House.
It was once thought that Trump’s erratic personality and erratic behavior as president would cause experienced voters to flee from him if he were re-elected. And so, January 6th came.
The opposite is happening now. Four years of Sleepy Joe will make that happen.
Charles Gasparino is the author of the upcoming book “Go Woke, Go Broke: The Inside Story on the Radicalization of Corporate America.”
