Well, let’s take a closer look at how politics tends to work surely all of this is just coincidental. In late June 2025, Steve Schwarzman, the billionaire chair of Blackstone Group, donated $2 million to Pine Tree Results PAC, a Super PAC backing Senator Susan Collins. The very next day, on June 28, 2025, Collins cast a pivotal vote to advance the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” despite having previously opposed it.
Of course, it wasn’t Trump himself writing the check, and it wasn’t an explicit quid-pro-quo “payment for her vote.” The money was funneled through a Super PAC, which is technically “legal”, but certainly raises ethical questions.
So who is Stephen A. Schwarzman? An American billionaire investor best known as the co-founder and CEO of Blackstone Group. Schwarzman chaired President Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum during Trump’s first term and in May 2024 publicly re-endorsed Trump for president. He also played a behind-the-scenes role in trade negotiations leveraging his relationships with global leaders.
Before the donation, Collins declared: “My vote against this bill stems primarily from the harmful impact it will have on Medicaid, affecting low-income families and rural health care providers like our hospitals and nursing homes.” Yet within 24 hours came a sudden change of heart. And surely Senator Susan Collins wouldn’t sell out her constituents for $2 million it must be nothing more than an odd timing of events.
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