'Their heads explode': Major GOP donors are flipping out as Trump closes in on nomination

Republican Party fundraisers are running into major roadblocks when they approach big-money donors they have counted on in the past because there is little interest in seeing a 2024 GOP ticket headed by Donald Trump again.

According to a report from the New York Times, wealthy conservatives who gave freely in 2016 and 2020 with Trump as the presidential candidate are balking at coughing up any money for his 2024 run that seems "inevitable" based upon polling.

Recently a key GOP donor, Eric Levine, fired off an email to contributors and GOP lawmakers expressing dismay at the prospect of Trump 2024, writing: "I refuse to accept the proposition that Donald Trump is the ‘inevitable’ Republican nominee for President. His nomination would be a disaster for our party and our country.”

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According to the Times' Rebecca Davis O’Brien, "Many of the Republican Party’s wealthiest donors share that view, and the growing sense of urgency about the state of the G.O.P. presidential primary race," adding, "That has left major Republican donors — whose desires have increasingly diverged from those of conservative voters — grappling with the reality that the tens of millions of dollars they have spent to try to stop the former president, fearing he poses a mortal threat to their party and the country, may already be a sunk cost."

O'Brien wrote that interviews with donors, fundraisers and insiders, "revealed hand-wringing, magical thinking, calls to arms and, for some, fatalism."

According to a Texas-based Republican fund-raiser, who is uncommitted and asked to be kept anonymous, telling donors Trump will be the candidate they'll be saddled with is not going over well.

"Intellectually, their heads explode,” they explained before adding that many of them are also “backing off” donating to Trump's GOP rivals.

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Writing, "Large-dollar Republican donors, even those who enthusiastically or reluctantly backed Mr. Trump in 2016 and 2020, have made no secret of their wish to move on in 2024," O'Brien added, "Some donors expressed incredulity that Mr. Trump would be able to run for president while fighting off the charges. He faces a busy calendar of trials next year that is likely to grow only more complex."

According to wealthy donor Andy Sabin, who is backing the longshot campaign of Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), "I don’t see how he’s going to deal with these huge legal problems. I don’t really care about his numbers. I think he’s got enough other stuff going on. All of these trials start — who knows? We are in uncharted territory.”

Jay Zeidman, a fundraiser for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), added, "I believe that Republican primary voters need to understand the opportunity they have to win a very winnable presidential election.”

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