PARK CITY, Utah — Donald Trump is trying to win over a skeptical Republican donor class, but they’ve closed their wallets — and they’re angry.

On Friday afternoon, at an exclusive Republican donor retreat here hosted by Mitt Romney, frustration boiled over. During an off-the-record question-and-answer session with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Meg Whitman, the billionaire Hewlett Packard chief executive officer, confronted the speaker over his endorsement of Trump. Whitman, a major GOP giver who ran for California governor in 2010, compared Trump to historical demagogues like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and wanted to know how the speaker could get behind him.


At another discussion session during the day, which featured top Romney alumni Stuart Stevens and Matt Rhoades, Ana Navarro, a Republican contributor and ubiquitous cable news personality, called Trump a “racist” and a “vulgarian and a pig who has made disgusting comments about women for years.” (Neither Whitman nor Navarro would comment.)

Even Ryan, who has endorsed Trump despite criticizing his behavior, joked during his presentation on Friday that in a recent conversation with magician David Copperfield, he said that he wished he could make himself disappear.

The incidents, which were relayed by three sources who were present — one of whom described them as “shocking” — illustrates the intense anger coursing through the GOP donor community. Far from letting go of their white-knuckled opposition to Trump, they’re stewing in it.

“I’ve been on the record with a statement saying I’m not supporting Donald Trump, and that hasn’t changed in four months,” said Whitman, who helped bankroll TV ads against Trump during the Republican primary. She wouldn’t reveal which candidate she’d back in November, and said she didn’t intend to make a decision until later on.

“Right now, I’m undecided, and undecided means I’m not doing anything,” said John Rakolta, a Michigan construction company executive who was a top Romney fundraiser. “I haven’t seen that ‘pivot’ that we’d need to see from someone who’s capable of being the next president of the United States.”

The annual Experts and Enthusiasts summit, which brings together Romney’s expansive network of deep-pocketed contributors, served as a powerful reminder of the high hurdles Trump faces in courting the Republican money crowd. This week, Trump slashed his original fundraising expectations, saying he no longer believed he needed to raise $1 billion. Some of his top fundraisers think he’ll struggle to top $300 million, a figure that’s less than a third of what Romney raised in 2012 and a small fraction of what Hillary Clinton is expected to bring in.

Some are convinced the situation is growing increasingly bleak. In an interview here, Spencer Zwick, Romney’s former finance chair and one of the most prominent fundraisers in Republican politics, said that some of Romney’s donors would stay on the sidelines — and that others would even give to his Democratic opponent.

“I’m sure you’ll see some that end up supporting Secretary Clinton,” he said.

The interest in Clinton, however peripheral, was on display this week. On Friday, Republican pollster Frank Luntz stood before the approximately 250 attendees and asked them who they planned to vote for. Trump got the most claps, but Clinton got a few as well, said two people who were in the room. One person clapped loudly for Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson.

Even among those who say they’ll support Trump, though, there’s little appetite to give. Frank VanderSloot, an Idaho billionaire who oversees a nutritional supplement company, said he was behind Trump but hasn’t donated because the New York businessman has so far succeeded in running a low-budget campaign that’s centered on free media attention.

“Who knows if he’ll need our money?” he asked.

Many here are shifting their attention to down-ballot races. Zwick, who was courted by a number of 2016 GOP contenders and met with Trump, has been tapped to run Ryan’s finance operation. Rakolta said he’d also become heavily involved in the battle to protect the House majority and recently hosted a fundraiser to benefit Ryan. VanderSloot, meanwhile, said he planned to meet with Romney over the weekend to discuss Senate races.

“We are doing everything we can to put our money in the right places and to save the Senate,” VanderSloot said.

And while they may be reluctant to admit it, some are starting to think about the next presidential election — in 2020. Among those making the trek to Utah this week were Ryan, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — all of whom were seen here as potential future White House contenders. All were mobbed.

There are even some who are still holding out hope that Romney, who has been scalding in his criticism of Trump, will reconsider his decision to stay out of the 2016 campaign and find some way to become a candidate. Over the course of the week, a number of supporters approached the 2012 nominee to ask him to enter the fray. His typical response, according to those who witnessed the exchanges: There’s no path for me.

Yet Romney, like many of those present, didn’t hold back in his criticism of his party’s presumptive nominee. On Saturday morning, during a question-and-answer session before the group that was moderated by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Romney defended his decision to speak out against Trump. In explaining why he’d decided to come out so forcefully against the party’s presumptive nominee — and at a time when many GOP leaders are urging unity — Romney appeared to tear up. He was convinced, he said, that Trump just couldn’t go unanswered.

“Seeing this just breaks your heart,” he said.

Behind the scenes, Trump’s team — concerned that Romney’s attacks are hampering the mogul’s efforts to make inroads in the donor community — has been looking to ease tensions with the former Massachusetts governor. On Friday afternoon, after Romney told CNN that a Trump presidency could result in “trickle-down racism,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus took to Twitter to say he “couldn’t disagree more,” and that it was “time to stop this and unify.” But before he published the tweet, according to two sources familiar with the back-and-forth, Priebus’s team gave Romney a conciliatory head’s up. On Friday evening, Priebus and Romney were seen having a private conversation at a patio reception outside the luxurious Stein Eriksen ski lodge, where the summit was being held. (Spokespersons for Priebus and Romney declined to comment.)

Priebus and Anthony Scaramucci, a Wall Street investor who is helping Trump, spent hours at the lodge huddling with Romney’s allies.

Trump’s fundraisers, who acknowledge the challenge they face, are also taking steps to expand their candidate’s limited donor network. One said the campaign was working to establish a multi-city bundler program that, it hoped, could raise as much as $300 million.

Still, many are struggling to see a clear path forward. Zwick noted that Trump is far behind where Romney was in the donor chase at this point four years ago. One option, he said, is for Trump to accept public financing. Under federal election laws, that would allow him to receive a lump sum of government funds while capping how much he’d be able to spend. In 2008, John McCain accepted public financing but found himself massively outspent by Barack Obama.

The prospect of a controversial billionaire accepting taxpayer funding would be one of the more bizarre twists of the 2016 campaign. But for a struggling Trump, it might be worth pursuing — especially with rising doubts about whether he can fill his coffers.

“Could they get organized and pull it off? Sure,” Zwick said. “They don’t have a lot of time left.”