Kenneth Gerard Langone Sr. KSG (born September 16, 1935) is an American billionaire businessman best known for organizing financing for the founders of The Home Depot.
In 1968 Langone met and persuaded Ross Perot to let Pressprich handle Electronic Data Systems's IPO.
[2] He describes himself as a "loyal, enthusiastic Republican"[14] and opposes single-payer healthcare, free college tuition, and guaranteed minimum income, deeming these policies to be a form of "socialism.
[17] He led an effort by a group of wealthy Republican donors to draft Chris Christie to run; when he declined, Langone backed Mitt Romney.
[14] In 2014, Langone likened populist appeals to raise taxes on the rich in the United States to Hitler's rhetoric in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
[2][20] In July 2022, Langone helped found a group of U.S. business and policy leaders who share the goal of constructively engaging with China in order to improve U.S.-China relations.
[21] Langone initially endorsed Christie's campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination; in early 2015, he donated $250,000 to a pro-Christie super PAC, but made no major further financial contributions to support Christie's campaign, and praised Donald Trump as "a very significant positive factor.
[25] He nevertheless continued to back Trump after the Capitol attack, and contributed $1 million to a fund working to defeat Democratic senators and $500,000 to Americans for Prosperity, the Koch family-backed group.
[27] However, after the January 2024 Iowa caucuses, Langone said he would withhold further major financial support for Haley's candidacy unless she had a strong showing in the New Hampshire primary, and said that he believed Trump would likely win the nomination.
He has lived on Elderfields Road in nearby Flower Hill,[29][30][31] and has maintained a winter home in North Palm Beach, Florida.
In the film, Langone rejects an offer to invest money in the schemes of convicted Wall Street swindler Bernie Madoff.