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American business titans who paid thousands to be in the room with Chinese President Xi Jinping gave the communist country’s leader a standing ovation after his remarks in San Francisco this week. On Wednesday evening, Xi dined with more than 300 American business executives and delivered remarks promoting investment in China, a country many Americans consider the greatest threat to the U.S., at a gala in the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency in downtown San Francisco. [cut] Among the American executives gathered to listen to Xi were Apple CEO Tim Cook, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam, Salesforce...

A GOP mega-donor said that he would no longer support former President Trump after his announcement of a third presidential bid in 2024 on Tuesday night. Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO and co-founder of the investment firm Blackstone, told Axios in a statement that the Republican Party should nominate someone else who will represent a new generation of leaders. “America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” he said. “It is time for the Republican Party to turn to a new generation of leaders and I intend to support one of them in...

The energy shortage is severe enough that it could cause a lot of unhappiness and social unrest, said Blackstone CEO, Stephen Schwarzman. Benchmark US oil futures are around $85 a barrel after surging about 75% year-to-date. Oil could rise to $100 a barrel, said BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. The global energy crisis is severe enough that it could fuel social unrest, said the CEO of asset management company Blackstone on Monday. Stephen Schwarzman was speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia. Schwarzman, who is also co-founder of the investment firm, said: "We're going to end up with...

The AP review of Clinton's calendar — her after-the-fact, official chronology of the events of her four-year term — identified at least 75 meetings with longtime political donors and loyalists, Clinton Foundation contributors and corporate and other outside interests that were either not recorded or listed with identifying details scrubbed. The AP found the omissions by comparing the 1,500-page document with separate planning schedules supplied to Clinton by aides in advance of each day's events. The names of at least 114 outsiders who met with Clinton were missing from her calendar, the records show...

The private-equity tycoon Stephen A. Schwarzman, backed by an array of mostly western blue-chip companies with interests in China, is creating a $300 million scholarship for study in China that he hopes will rival the Rhodes scholarship in prestige and influence. The programme, whose endowment represents one of the largest single gifts to education in the world and one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever in China, was announced by Mr. Schwarzman in Beijing on Sunday. The Schwarzman Scholars programme will pay all expenses for 200 students each year from around the world for a one-year master’s programme at Tsinghua...

Donald Trump is bound for the White House, and when he reaches the Oval Office, stocks will "go straight up," said Kevin O'Leary, chairman of O'Leary Financial Group. *snip* Last month, Blackstone Group Chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman, a longtime Republican, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that if he were faced with a choice between Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, he would "be really trying to figure out where we go." Though he said he would opt for Trump in that scenario. But O'Leary said he does not believe corporate America is truly afraid of a Trump presidency. "He wants...