Anxious to break with the Trump era and to weigh politically, the businessman who had contributed to the campaign of Barack Obama in 2008, now put on Ron Desantis, the Republican Governor of Florida, for the presidential election 2024.
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Billionaire Kenneth Griffin is, at 54, a “people” financier. The founder of Hedge Fund – or speculative investment fund – Citadel constantly defrayed the chronicle: this former Harvard graduate trade is known for His resounding divorce, in 2015, with the Franco-American Anne Dias . Fou with real estate, he has a superb villa in his native Florida in Palm Beach, on the side of Donald Trump, and in 2019 bought the most expensive apartment in New York, for 238 million dollars (210 million euros then). In 2021, this collector of paintings won a group of geeks, Bitcoin fans, a rare copy of the American Constitution. And his fortune, estimated at $ 30 billion (30.5 billion euros), never ceases to prosper, including during the fall of Wall Street.
But the billionaire is also a “political” financier. He became one of the first donors of the Republican Party for the November 8 elections, with, according to CNBC, more than 100 million donations paid to candidates in the running for the federal and state elections. According to the Opensecrets observatory, with more than $ 48 million in expenses at the federal level only, Mr. Griffin is only exceeded by the former financier who has become Philanthrope George Soros (127 million dollars paid to the Democrats), and by the ‘Conservative entrepreneur Richard Uihlein ($ 52 million).
New generation of king faisers
With M. Griffin, it is a new generation of king makers who tries to impose a more moderate line within the great Old Party. “Ken insisted with Republican leaders to increase talent and diversity within the party and make it more representative of our country, and he supported in the last two electoral campaigns of talented women, candidates from minorities and veterans, “said his spokesperson Zia Ahmed.
The financier seems to replace the Charles brothers and David Koch, former great donors of the Republican Party, which were accused of having pushed their economic interests – in chemistry or industry – via their political funding. “Too many American business leaders remain outside of politics today,” Mr. Griffin in the spring at the Wall Street Journal said: “They just can’t continue to be silent.”
Democrats pretend to worry while not worrying. An internal document of the party quoted by CNBC considers that “Ken Griffin wanted to play king’s makers in Illinois without success”. The billionaire in fact established in Chicago, where he founded in 1990 his Hedge Fund; The main metropolis of Illinois was then the capital of derivative products and competed with Wall Street.
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