Billionaire Bill Ackman is reportedly leaning toward endorsing Trump

Brent D. Griffiths

Updated 31 May 2024 at 1:15 pm·2-min read

Pershing Square Capital Management CEO Bill Ackman is leaning to supporting Donald Trump.
According to multiple reports, Ackman is considering a public announcement backing Trump.
He would join a growing list of Wall Street titans that have lined up behind the former president.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is considering endorsing former President Donald Trump, according to multiple reports.

The Financial Times was the first to report that the hedge fund manager is leaning toward the former president.

Ackman, the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, previously donated $1 million to a super PAC supporting Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who mounted a long-shot primary challenge to President Joe Biden. Ackman also supported former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who recently endorsed Trump after her failed GOP primary run.

Ackman would likely make his endorsement on X, according to the FT. The hedge fund manager has become an outspoken personality on the Elon Musk-owned platform.

Bloomberg News also reported that a person familiar with Ackman's thinking sees Robert F. Kennedy, who is mounting an independent campaign, as unlikely to win — pushing the billionaire closer to Trump.

Ackman is the latest billionaire to show openness to supporting Trump, whose administration was at times at loggerheads with Wall Street. Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman told Axios last week that supporting Trump was a "vote for change.

Ackman has supported Democrats in the past, but has backed some conservative candidates more recently.

In January, he described diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as "racist."

"DEI is racist because reverse racism is racism, even if it is against white people (and it is remarkable that I even need to point this out)," Ackman wrote on X.

After Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, Ackman pressured Harvard, his alma mater, to take a more forceful stance against the attack and to protect students from antisemitism on campus.

Following Trump's conviction Thursday afternoon, Ackman shared a post on X from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis condemning the verdict. "I think any objective person would have to agree with @GovRonDeSantis here," he wrote.

After publication, a spokesperson for Pershing Square Capital declined to comment to Business Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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