Is Trump A Misfit? Republican Donor Flags A 'Real Concern' About The Ex-president's Candidacy But Sees One Workaround

As Donald Trump leads the Republican presidential primary fray, a mega donor for the party on Friday delved into the dynamics that are playing out in the run-up to the 2024 general election.

What Happened: The vice president picks are “massively important,” given the age of Trump and Joe Biden, said Hal Lambert, the founder of investment advisory firm Point Bridge Capital, in an interview with CNBC this week.

Lambert backed Texas Governor Greg Abbott as Trump’s potential running mate. “I’m actually currently recommending … publicly that … he picked and look at closely Governor Greg Abbott Texas,” he said.

Lambert said that the Texas governor is doing “a great job” and “understands the border and Mexico.” He also noted that Texas is the eighth-largest economy in the world and has a lot of energy reserves.

Given the U.S. is the largest energy producer in the world, Abbott understands what is really important, Lambert said.

“He would open the door into a lot of donors that are turned off by Trump right now,” the fund manager said.

“So I think Abbott would be a great choice.”

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Real Concern About Trump: When Lambert was asked why he previously threw his support behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, he said he thought it was going to be more difficult for Trump to win the general election than DeSantis.

“He turns out the base of the Democrat party like nobody else can, including Bernie Sanders. So I think that’s a big problem,” the Republican donor said.

“They may not be happy with Biden, in fact that no one can tell. But I think many of them will turn out just to vote against Trump,” he said, adding “So that was a real concern of mine and still is.”

After his electoral loss in the Iowa GOP primary, DeSantis bowed out of the race and has since endorsed Trump.

Lambert, however, did not think Trump is unfit for the presidency, saying that a lot of attacks on the former president are “really political,” he said.

“He [Trump] certainly did some things that then egged it on, you know, not turning back over the documents at Mar-a-Lago; he could have just turned it back over and avoided that, he didn’t do it,” Lambert said.

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