Republican mega-donor Hal Lambert is urging Donald Trump to get out of the GOP presidential primary now. The Point Bridge Capital founder said during an interview on Fox Business Channel that he believes it is time for the Republican Party to move on to younger leadership. Lambert was a big donor for Trump but now he is endorsing Ron DeSantis for president.

With DeSantis officially launching his campaign today, look for more donors to speak out. In Lambert’s case, he said he has many reasons for his opinion and he is putting forward two reasons why Trump should get out of the race.

“There’s a number of reasons,” Lambert said on “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” on Tuesday. “One, Donald Trump can only serve one term. He’ll effectively be a lame duck almost on day one, if he were to win. But I don’t think he can win the general [election]. That’s the No. 2 reason. I don’t think he can win the general.”

“It’s time to move on to the next generation. And Gov. DeSantis has a vision forward versus hashing out things from the past.”

Lambert wasn’t just a big donor, he served on Trump’s inaugural committee in 2016. He also founded Point Bridge Capital, also known as “MAGA ETF.” The fund invests only in companies with employees and political action committees (PACs) that support Republican candidates.

Lambert went public with his endorsement of DeSantis on Monday and explained his rationale.

“I like Donald Trump’s policies. I like what he did. I’m basing it on bringing the country back together,” Lambert said. “[Trump] is so divisive right now. If he were the nominee, this would be another situation where we’re going to have the country, our own country, battling internally against each other in a way that’s not health. y… I don’t think it’s healthy for the country to have to go through this in 2024 unnecessarily.”

“We have a candidate in Ron DeSantis that can win, that has a record, that’s conservative, that’s the next generation. Why go through this unnecessary kind of hatred of each other in the country?”

That is what most Republicans are most concerned about – winning. Republicans are tired of losing, especially after what a dud the 2022 midterm elections turned out to be. Not in Florida, though. With DeSantis at the top of the ticket, Florida turned ruby red. DeSantis won re-election by 19 points and turned deep blue Miami-Dade County red. The Florida Legislature has a Republican supermajority now, too.

The Florida Legislature has passed a string of conservative laws and that is with the leadership of DeSantis. DeSantis has a strong record of leadership to run on. Most importantly, DeSantis is able to unite voters. He won over independents and Hispanic voters. Those are important demographics in order to win an election.

Currently Trump has a big lead in polling. Fortunately, this far out from election day, polls don’t mean much. DeSantis may have made a fatal error in hanging back and letting others get in the race before him. Maybe he won’t be able to catch up to Trump and then oust him from first place. It is silly, though, to assume that Trump will remain almost 40 points ahead in the GOP primary from all the other candidates. Lambert thinks Trump has peaked in polls and the gap between Trump and DeSantis will begin closing soon. “I don’t think that’s that great in the Republican primary. I mean, he’s the former president and yet basically half of the party would prefer someone else,” Lambert said.

Lambert is impressed with the DeSantis record in Florida. He said he will do everything he can to help DeSantis. He said he decided to back DeSantis about three weeks ago after having dinner with the governor and his wife, Casey, in Florida. Lambert came away impressed. it

Republican voters are ready for DeSantis to get in the race and see how he fares against Trump. Trump is clearly worried about competition from DeSantis because he has attacked him non-stop since he announced his candidacy last November. A super PAC that supports Trump has spent millions in negative advertising against DeSantis. Now we will see what happens when they are on equal footing in the primary contest season.