Donald Trump’s vague campaign promises to take on the power structure – and some nervousness, from the power structure, about his erratic behavior and racist appeals – have given way to a remarkably close alliance between Trump and financial elites following his election.
The stock market has rallied to all-time highs. Trump has tapped billionaires and mega-millionaires for cabinet seats and key appointments. Hedge fund managers and corporate CEOs are cheering Trump on from the sidelines, eager to reap the spoils from his favored economic policies – deregulation, privatization, and tax cuts. In essence, a new club of financial elites is forming, with Trump at the center, and varying levels of access and benefits conferred upon members.
It will be important for journalists, organizers, and researchers to investigate and map these networks in the months and years ahead. Who belongs to this emergent club? What are their networks – political, business, investment, philanthropic, social? How are they benefiting – or poised to benefit – from Trump administration policies? This kind of research can lay the groundwork for challenges to the power structure that surrounds and enables Trump.
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Stephen Schwarzman is the private equity billionaire in charge of Donald Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum, a group of CEOs who will advise the president-elect on economic policy. Schwarzman has known Trump for years, but did not publicly support him during the campaign. Now, however, the president-elect is leaning on him heavily for help in …
While Donald Trump was campaigning for president, many prominent Wall Street Republicans refused to publicly support him. One notable exception was John Paulson, the billionaire hedge fund manager famous for making $4 billion by betting that the housing market would collapse in 2007. Paulson is the founder of Paulson & Co., a New York City-based …