Steve Schwarzman says Trump would be an ‘efficient and effective’ president this time — and Ken Griffin thinks he’ll win

• Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman said he thinks Trump would make a better president the second time around.
• He’s uncertain about the election result, though Citadel’s Ken Griffin said he expects Trump to win.
• The two CEOs are attending Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative on Tuesday.

Steve Schwarzman said he thinks Donald Trump would be more “efficient and effective” if he wins next week’s election.

The Blackstone CEO was speaking on a panel of business leaders during the first day of the Future Investment Initiative (FII), Saudi Arabia’s annual business conference also known as “Davos in the desert.”

Schwarzman, who has backed the Republican candidate, said that he thinks that a Trump presidency might be different this time around.

“When he started in 2016, this was completely new territory,” Schwarzman said in comments broadcast on Bloomberg TV. “Most people who are president have no idea what that job is really like because it is so different from any other job. In his case, that was true.”

“I don’t know who’s going to win the presidency,” Schwarzman added, “but I think he has a much better base of knowledge of how that job works and how to be efficient and effective in doing it than certainly compared to 2016.”

Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin, who was also on the panel, was more assured of the election’s outcome.

The billionaire hedge fund founder said he expected the race to be close, adding: “The expectation today is that Donald Trump will win the White House in just a few days.”

Griffin has emerged as the second-biggest individual donor in this election cycle, giving more than $75 million to conservative super PACs and candidates. Despite his donations, Griffin has yet to publicly endorse either candidate.

“I know who I’m going to vote for, but it’s not with a smile on my face,” he said in an interview with Alan Murray, the former CEO of Fortune, this month.

Schwarzman, a lifelong Republican, has also donated millions to Republican campaigns and causes. In a reversal of his previous stance, he announced in May that he would be supporting Trump’s bid for reelection, citing concerns over the rise of antisemitism and the “direction” of the country.