Who is Donald Trump?
Answer: The candidate who understood the anger in the question of “Where’s my bailout?”
I hope he doesn’t forget that.
Trump understood the “heartbeat” of America, even before he was elected. The Trump adviser who also understood and who helped Trump gauge that “heartbeat,” was Steve Bannon, now White House Chief Strategist. Bannon helped Trump formulate a policy system of “economic nationalism” that spoke to Americans who never got a bailout after 2008, and who would ultimately push Trump to victory in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin where no one expected a Republican to ever win again.
Steve formed his “economic nationalism” after witnessing his father Marty—a life-long employee of AT&T—sell his company shares during the panic of 2008. “The only net worth my father had beside his tiny little house was that AT&T stock. And nobody is held accountable?” Steve Bannon, 63, said in a recent interview reported in the WSJ. “All these firms get bailed out. There’s no equity taken from anybody. There’s no one in jail. These companies are all overleveraged, and everyone looked the other way.”
Bannon, one of many ex-Goldman guys advising the president, had seen how the sausage was made on Wall St. and decided to stand up for Main Street. Similarly, Trump’s Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, whom I have met and written about, is a Main Street guy.
Opposing Bannon and Priebus are a cadre of other Trump advisers, mostly with roots on Wall St. Two of them—other ex-Goldman guys—were beneficiaries of the bailout.
One, Gary Cohn, former Chief Operating Officer of Goldman, is now the Director of the National Economic Council, and the other, Goldman’s former Chief Information Officer, Steven Mnuchin, is Treasury Secretary. Cohn left Goldman with around $300 million, and Mnuchin made a fortune on the real estate bust through IndyMac.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, real estate heir and senior Trump advisor, is another rival of Bannon’s.
The tug of war is on.
Who is Donald Trump?
“Where’s my bailout?” The president won the election with the help of those who understood this question.
It looks like the bailout recipients have the President’s ear today.
Don’t forget who elected you Mr. Trump.