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Citadel’s Griffin Says Expectation Is Trump Wins US Vote

Ken Griffin Photographer: Bryan van der Beek/Bloomberg (Bryan van der Beek/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Ken Griffin expects the race to the White House will be close, but Donald Trump will ultimately win.

“The expectation today is that Donald Trump will win the White House,” the billionaire founder of Citadel said on a panel at Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative summit. “We are at that moment of peak uncertainty. It is a race that Trump is favored to win but it is almost a coin toss.”

Griffin has donated $100 million to pro-Republican Political Action Committees in this presidential cycle, according to campaign finance monitor OpenSecrets. 

The financier was joined at the FII by the likes of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive David Solomon and BlackRock Inc.’s Larry Fink, who have become regulars at the annual summit. Discussions this year centered around a variety of topics — including private credit and conflict in the region — though upcoming elections in the US dominated many panels. 

Blackstone Inc.’s Steve Schwarzman also weighed in, but less directly. “I don’t know who’s going to win the presidency,” he said, adding that compared to 2016, Trump “is in a much better base of knowledge of how that job works and how to be efficient and effective in doing it.”  

Earlier, Goldman’s Solomon also touched upon the broader impact of next week’s vote. 

“We do have an election and there will be policy decisions coming out,” he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “Those will have an impact on the trajectory in 2025 and 2026,” he said, adding that the bank is well-positioned to support either administration and its clients in either outcome.

Polls show Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump are in a dead heat leading up to Nov. 5. Harris is set to make her closing argument Tuesday night from Washington’s historic National Mall, looking to cast Trump as a man consumed by grievance and retribution in the hope that Americans will prove willing to turn the page.

“You will see investment liberalization,” if Trump were to win, Apollo Global Management Inc.’s Marc Rowan said.

--With assistance from John Gittelsohn.

(Updates with details on Griffin’s donations in 3rd paragraph)

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