Former U.S. President Donald Trump waves to his supporters as he departs to attend his second civil trial in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit against him, outside Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York City, Jan. 26, 2024.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
A top advisor to Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign has a message for some of the wealthiest Republican donors in the country: Don’t take the former president’s divisive rhetoric too seriously.
Susie Wiles made the pitch Tuesday at a private gathering of the American Opportunity Alliance, a group of Republican megadonors led by Elliot Investment Management founder Paul Singer.
Speaking at the luxurious Four Seasons hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, Wiles encouraged the powerful donors to essentially ignore Trump’s more offensive remarks and focus instead on the fact that the former president is in pole position in the Republican primary for president, according to people familiar with her remarks.
Wiles conceded to the donors that Donald Trump is going to say things people don’t like. But she countered that the former president is poised to lock down his party’s nomination, and that he is the GOP’s best hope to defeat incumbent President Joe Biden, according to a person familiar with her remarks.
Wiles’ effort to draw new donors into Trump’s fold came just days after the former president threatened people who had donated to his rival, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley.
“Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to [Haley], from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them,” Trump posted Jan. 24 on Truth Social.
Some of these same Haley donors were in the room Tuesday as Wiles made her pitch, according to the person, who was granted anonymity to describe the private meeting.
Wiles’ message to donors, to just ignore Trump’s hyperbolic rhetoric, is reminiscent of the spin from White House staff while Trump was president. As the single most powerful person…
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