December 2 2016, 7:19 p.m.
“THE ESTABLISHMENT,” Donald Trump famously said during his closing argument for the presidency, “has trillions of dollars at
stake in this election.”
He described “a global power structure that is responsible
for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our
country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large
corporations and political entities.”
He asked the country to be “brave enough to vote out
this corrupt establishment.”
Now, less than four weeks after riding that line to
victory, he formally invited the establishment into his administration.
On Friday, Trump announced the creation of a “Strategic and Policy Forum” that will serve to advise him on domestic economic
matters. The list of advisers is a who’s-who of corporate elites.
He’s not the only one making a major turnaround; many
of them had previously and enthusiastically supported his Democratic opponent.
The chairman of the forum is Stephen Schwarzman, the
CEO of the Blackstone Group, a private equity and investment banking giant.
Blackstone blasted out the release highlighting the creation of the forum this
morning on its own website, saying that it is “composed of some of
America’s most highly respected and successful business leaders,” who “will be
called upon to meet with the President frequently to share their specific
experience and knowledge as the President implements his plan to bring back jobs
and Make America Great Again.”
Although Schwarzman is a Republican, his company —
like so much of Wall Street — spent much of the campaign getting close to
Hillary Clinton. Blackstone’s Chief Operating Officer Hamilton “Tony”
James hosted a fundraiser for Clinton in December 2015 that featured,
among others, Democratic-aligned billionaire Warren Buffet. More than a dozen
executives at the firm gave tens of thousands of dollars to Clinton’s campaign. The firm held an invitation-only, swanky reception at the Democratic National Convention in
Philadelphia.
Another member of the new advisory group is Larry
Fink. Fink is the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management
firm. Fink spent years ingratiating himself with top Democrats and was once short-listed as
a replacement for the Obama administration’s Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
He even hired former Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills to serve on the firm’s
board of directors of his firm — and was poised to take over and staff Clinton’s Treasury Department.
Evidently, Fink has now jumped ship and joined the
Making America Great Again team, and Trump, in turn, has no problem tapping him
for advice.
Here is the full list:
- Stephen
A. Schwarzman (forum chairman), chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Blackstone;
- Paul
Atkins, CEO,
Patomak Global Partners, LLC, former commissioner of the Securities and
Exchange Commission;
- Mary
Barra, chairwoman
and CEO, General Motors;
- Toby
Cosgrove, CEO, Cleveland
Clinic;
- Jamie
Dimon, chairman
and CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co;
- Larry
Fink, chairman and
CEO, BlackRock;
- Bob
Iger, chairman and
CEO, The Walt Disney Company;
- Rich
Lesser, president
and CEO, Boston Consulting Group;
- Doug
McMillon, president
and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.;
- Jim
McNerney, former
chairman, president, and CEO, Boeing;
- Adebayo
“Bayo” Ogunlesi, chairman
and managing partner, Global Infrastructure Partners;
- Ginni
Rometty, chairwoman,
president, and CEO, IBM;
- Kevin
Warsh, Shepard
Family distinguished visiting fellow in economics, Hoover Institute,
former member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System;
- Mark
Weinberger, global
chairman and CEO, EY;
- Jack
Welch, former
chairman and CEO, General Electric;
- Daniel
Yergin, Pulitzer
Prize winner, vice chairman of IHS Markit;
Disney CEO Bob Iger co-hosted a Hollywood area
fundraiser for
Hillary Clinton in the summer of 2016.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra was thought of so dearly
by the Clinton campaign that she was considered as a possible
vice presidential pick —
according to hacked emails released by Wikileaks.
Boeing CEO Jim McNerny has given thousands of dollars to top Democrats and lauded Clinton’s leadership at the State Department — which helped Boeing
win contracts — while simultaneously funding the Clinton Foundation and helping
sponsor paid speeches by former President Bill Clinton.
These are precisely the people Trump warned about when
he darkly declared that “those who control the levers of power in Washington, …
they partner with these people that don’t have your good in mind.” Now they’re
all working together.
Top photo: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump shake
hands after the second presidential debate at Washington University in St.
Louis, Missouri.
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