A slew of 2024 Republican candidates will descend on South Florida for a donor retreat this weekend hosted by the conservative group Club for Growth.
Candidates such as Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy are poised to headline the retreat, while likely 2024 contenders, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH), are expected to be present at the event as well, Yahoo News reported.
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While invites have been extended to top-tier Republicans who have either declared their candidacy or are mulling a bid, former President Donald Trump will not partake in the retreat, located in Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Trump has famously feuded with the group, which advocates limited government principles. The two were occasionally at odds during the midterm elections, and Trump was vexed by the group's promotion of internal polling showing him lagging behind DeSantis prior to his November campaign launch.
The group previously determined it would snub him from the retreat, drawing his ire.
"The Club For NO Growth, an assemblage of political misfits, globalists, and losers, fought me incessantly and rather viciously during my presidential run in 2016. They said I couldn’t win, I did, and won even bigger in 2020, with millions of more votes than ‘16, but the Election was Rigged & Stollen (sic)," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
DeSantis huddled with donors and conservative influencers last weekend not far from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. DeSantis has consistently polled as Trump's chief GOP rival but is trailing behind him in the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate. DeSantis is reportedly weighing a possible summertime campaign launch.
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Although he will not attend the Club for Growth event, Trump is expected to attend the Conservative Political Action Coalition conference in Washington, D.C., this week as he continues to court the conservative base amid his slow campaign trail rollout.
Some top traditional Republican donor groups, such as Americans for Prosperity Action, which has ties to the Koch brothers, have sought to distance themselves from Trump and are eyeing other alternatives.