In case you missed it, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin had some kind words for former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley over the weekend, just days before the third Republican presidential debate kicks off on Wednesday in Miami.
Griffin, a prolific Republican donor who has signaled he wants the party to move on from former president Donald Trump, has stayed on the sidelines in the presidential race thus far. That could change soon.
Haley “has the foreign policy experience that we need right now,” Griffin said in a Friday interview with David Rubenstein at the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, Bloomberg scooped. “She’s somebody I’m really paying attention to. There’s a lot of strength from her.”
The interview was a particular burn to Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who is struggling to fend off Haley’s recent rise in the polls in the race for second place behind Trump.
Griffin notably gave $5 million to DeSantis’s 2022 reelection effort, and said in November of last year that “our country would be well-served by him as president.” But Griffin declined to back DeSantis’s presidential campaign, telling those close to him earlier this year that he was troubled by the Florida governor’s decision to sign a six-week abortion ban in his state and characterize Russia’s invasion in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute,” according to the New York Times.
“I don’t know his strategy,” Griffin told CNBC in September. “It’s not clear to me what voter base he is intending to appeal to.”
Correction: A prior version of this article misstated Griffin’s 2022 donations to DeSantis’ reelection effort.