Billionaire Investor to Back Donald Trump 2024

Nelson Peltz, founding partner of Trian Fund Management LP., speaks at the WSJD Live conference in Laguna Beach, Calif. on Oct. 25, 2016. Mike Blake/Reuters

Billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz plans to vote for former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race, citing President Joe Biden’s mental condition and immigration policies.

“It will probably be Trump and I’m not happy about that,” he told the Financial Times in an interview, adding that Biden’s “mental condition is really scary.” Furthermore, Mr. Peltz expressed his concern regarding the porous U.S. southern border, which has turned into a hot-button issue for both Republicans and Democrats in the election season.

“We can’t go on letting everyone into this country . . . We have an immigration problem—it’s not a Republican or Democrat problem,” said Mr. Peltz. He expressed opposition to stopping immigration altogether but “I want some boundaries put on it so we know at least who we’re bringing in,” he said, according to the outlet.

Illegal immigration has been a thorn in the side of Democrats, with the Biden administration’s policies being criticized for the massive amounts of inflows across the southern border. Former President Donald Trump said at a recent rally that one of the first things he would do once elected would be to end every single “open border policy of the Biden administration.”

“That border was a tiny fraction of what this border is,” President Trump said. “This is the worst border in the history of the world.” Since President Joe Biden took office, there have been an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants who have crossed the border.

Mr. Peltz is the founder of Trian Fund Management, an investment management firm with offices in New York and Florida. According to Forbes, the firm has $8.5 billion in assets under management, with Mr. Peltz currently worth around $1.7 billion.

The billionaire is among President Trump’s neighbors in Palm Beach but has not spoken to the former president “in quite a while,” reported FT.

Regarding President Biden’s mental acuity, “I don’t know what he knows and I don’t know what he doesn’t know.” said Mr. Peltz. “I don’t know who’s speaking for him and that’s troubling.” It is not clear whether he will donate to President Trump’s campaign.

Mr. Peltz has been involved with activist investments for some time. In 2017, he fought and won a seat on the executive board of consumer goods conglomerate Proctor and Gamble. Currently, his focus is on Disney.

Peltz Versus Disney

Mr. Peltz’s investment firm Trian has been involved in a proxy battle with Disney for instituting the investor along with former Disney executive Jay Rasulo as board members. Trian currently holds approximately $3.5 billion of Disney stock. The media behemoth and the billionaire investor have been engaging shareholders for the requisite votes needed for the seats.

Disney movies have been underperforming at the box office lately. Mr. Peltz says he wants to “restore the magic” in the company and outlined his visions in a detailed 133-page memo released earlier this month.

Published by Trian to convince shareholders at the company’s annual meeting next month, the memo said that “Disney is the most advantaged consumer entertainment company in the world,” the company “lost its way” with a deterioration in financial performance, and ultimately loss amounting to tens of billions in shareholder value.

“We believe the root cause of Disney’s underperformance is poor oversight from a Board that lacks focus, alignment and accountability.”

The memo detailed how Disney competitors like Netflix and Amazon were faring much better with their content, and return on invested capital and margins.

Trian blamed Disney for showing “no interest in meeting or inviting Nelson Peltz to interview with the Board or Governance and Nominating Committee.”

Disney responded in a 66-page regulatory filing that Mr. Peltz and Mr. Rasulo were “not what Disney needs right now.” The company said their suggestions “are nothing new” and they did not understand the company’s challenges nor had the skills to promote Disney in its current situation.

However, Mr. Peltz has been known to be persistent in achieving his objectives, as was revealed in 2006 with Heinz, in 2015 with Dupont, and in 2017 with P&G.

Biden’s Mental Criticisms

President Biden’s mental capabilities have been increasingly in the spotlight during the election season. His common gaffes and slurring of speech have raised concerns about his age even among those who supported him in 2020.

According to a New York Times/Siena College poll, 61 percent of respondents believed President Biden was “just too old” to be an effective commander-in-chief.

A February special counsel report described the 81-year-old president’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.”

The Robert Hur report noted that President Biden could not recall defining milestones in his own life such as when his son Beau died or when he served as vice president.

In response to reporters’ questions about his memory, President Biden disputed the report’s statements and said he’s “the most qualified person in this country to be president.”

The White House also pushed back on the characterizations of President Biden’s memory in a Feb. 5 letter from the president’s lawyers that was published in Hur’s report. The letter argues that the president’s “inability to recall dates or details of events that happened years ago is neither surprising nor unusual,” particularly about when certain documents were packed or moved.

“We do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate,” the letter said. “The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events. Such comments have no place in a Department of Justice report.”

“If you’re too senile to stand trial, then you’re too senile to be president. Joe Biden is unfit to lead this nation,” said Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesman for Make America Great Again Inc., the main super PAC backing Trump’s candidacy.

The Associated Press contributed to the report.