Wall Street opposition to Trump collapses, as ‘pipe dream’ of primary defeat ends

As

Donald
Trump
surges
toward
the
Republican
nomination,
many

Wall
Street
executives
have
made
a
calculated
decision
not
to
speak
out
against
him,
and
in
some
cases
they
will
consider
supporting
the
Republican
former
president
over
Democratic
President
Joe
Biden,
according
to
more
than
a
dozen
people
familiar
with
the
matter.

“A
lot
of
people
on
Wall
Street
have
been
living
in
this
pipe
dream
of

Trump
not
getting
the
nomination.
People
were
in
the
first
stage
of
[grief],
denial.
Now
they’re
trying
to
get
their
heads
around
the
fact
that
Trump
could
be
the
nominee,”
said
an
executive
at
a

private
equity
firm.
Like
others
in
this
story,
the
executive
was
granted
anonymity
in
order
to
relay
details
of
private
conversations.

This
view
reflects
one
shared
by
large
portions
of
Wall
Street,
who
are
scrambling
to
come
to
grips
with
the
idea
that
Trump
is
the
likely

GOP
nominee
for
president
and
he
could
beat
Biden
in
November.
A

Real
Clear
Politics
polling
average
Sunday
had
Trump
leading
Biden
nationwide
by
about
2
points
in
a
general
election.

“It’s
painful
for
me
to
admit
this,
but
Wall
Street
is
basically
nonchalant
to
this
election,”
longtime
Wall
Street
executive
and
former
Trump
communications
director

Anthony
Scaramucci
said
in
a
recent
interview
with
The
Hill.

“I
think
they
view Donald
Trump by
and
large
as
benign
to
somewhat
beneficial
to
the
economy
and
business,”
he
added.

Other
financial
executives
have
little
appetite
for
angering
the
former
president,
and
want
to
hedge
their
bets
in
the
race
for
the
White
House,
where
polls
show
a
close
contest
between
Trump
and

Biden.

“I
think
unless
there
is
some
catastrophic
crisis
like
the
[Jan.
6,
2021]
insurrection,
they
think
of
themselves
as
stewards
of
other
people’s
money
and
they
don’t
want
to
take
a
position
that
divides
their
workforce,
their
investors
and
their
customers.
They
are
mindful
of
their
different
constituencies,”
said
Jeffrey
Sonnenfeld,
a
senior
associate
dean
at
the
Yale
School
of
Management.

“They
are
not
out
there
to
be
political
ward
heelers.
They
are
not
out
there
doing
door-to-door
campaign
solicitations.
They
are
there
to
run
their
companies,”
he
added.
More
than
practically
any
other
academic,
Sonnenfeld
knows
the
pulse
of
America’s
Fortune
500
CEOs.

In
the
days
after
the
2020
presidential
election,
Sonnenfeld
convened
a
storied

call
of
major
CEOs,
who
brainstormed
what
they
might
do
if
Trump
refused
to
accept
a
peaceful
transition
of
power.

Wall
Street’s
refusal
to
counter
Trump
has
grown
more
obvious
as
the
former
president
effectively
sewed
up
the
Republican
nomination
in
the
past
week.

Trump
is
on
track
to
win
the
upcoming
New
Hampshire
and
South
Carolina
primaries,
according
to
a
Real
Clear
Politics
polling
average.
A
FiveThirtyEight

polling
average
showed
Trump
leading
by
more
than
50
points
nationally
in
the
Republican
primary.

Florida
Gov. Ron
DeSantis dropped
out
of
the 2024
presidential
race and
endorsed
Trump
on
Sunday
after
he
was
walloped
during
the
Iowa
caucuses.
Former
U.N.
Ambassador
Nikki
Haley
finished
third
in
Iowa,
but
comes
into
New
Hampshire
with
a
solid
base
of
support,
although
her
path
to
the
nomination
remains
murky
at
best.

After
DeSantis
came
in
a
distant
second
to
Trump
in
Iowa
last
week,
several
of
DeSantis’
Wall
Street
backers
received
calls
from
Trump
allies,
including
from
the
former
president’s
son,
Donald
Trump
Jr.,
and
Jets
owner

Woody
Johnson,
essentially
recruiting
them
to
Trump’s
team,
according
to
people
familiar
with
the
matter.

The
outreach
appears
to
have
worked:
Many
of
those
financiers
are
seriously
considering
whether,
or
have
already
decided,
to
help
raise
money
for
Trump
over
Biden,
these
people
said.

Others
are
sitting
on
the
sidelines
and
refuse
to
fund
anti-Trump
efforts
that
would
effectively
support
Biden,
others
said.
An
outside
effort
“will
not
work
against
Trump,”
one
of
DeSantis’
Wall
Street
fundraisers
said.

Few
financial
executives
have
concrete
plans
to
put
big
money
behind
Haley,
Trump’s
only
viable
remaining
primary
rival.

Haley
has
a
fundraiser
scheduled
to
take
place
in
New
York
after
the
New
Hampshire
primary
that’s
co-hosted
by
many
in
the
finance
sector,
some
set
to
attend
the
event
are
already
warning
they
could
limit
their
support
for
her
if
she
struggles
against
Trump
in
the
Granite
State.

Longtime
investor
Ken
Langone
is
set
to
co-host
the
Jan.
30
Haley
fundraiser
in
the
Big
Apple,
according
to
an
invite
reviewed
by
CNBC.
He
told
the
Financial
Times
that
he
was
prepared
to
give
Haley
“a
nice
sum
of
money”
but
may
wait
until
after
the
New
Hampshire
primary
to
make
the
move.

“If
she
doesn’t
get
traction
in
New
Hampshire,
you
don’t
throw
money
down
a
rat
hole,”

Langone
said.

Others
planning
to
intend
the
event
privately
conceded
that
if
Haley
struggled
in
New
Hampshire,
they
believed
the
primary
would
be
over
for
her.
That
might
be
a
good
time
for
them
to
head
back
to
Trump’s
corner.

Out
of
more
than
$47
million
donated
by
those
working
in
the
securities
and
investment
industry
toward
Republicans
so
far
this
cycle,
almost
a
third
of
that
total
has
come
from
just
one
financial
executive
contributing
to
political
action
committees
seeking
to
defeat
Trump
in
the
primary.

Jeffrey Yass,
a
co-founder
of
trading
firm
Susquehanna
International
Group,
has

donated
more
than
$15
million
to
PACs
opposing
Trump,
according
to
data
from
the
nonpartisan
OpenSecrets.

Yass
is
a
rare
exception,
however.

“I
think
most
of
them
have
resigned
themselves
to
a
Trump
primary
win
and
don’t
want
to
throw
good
money
after
bad
trying
to
stop
him,
said
Charles
Myers,
a
former
vice
chairman
at
investment
bank
Evercore
and
a
Biden
fundraiser.

“The
next
question
is,
‘will
Wall
Street
work
to
stop
him
in
the
general
by
supporting
Biden?'”

In
2020,
Wall
Street
executives
combined
to
donate
more
than
$74
million
to
helping

Biden
defeat
Trump.

Among
the
powerful
financial
leaders
who
have
declined
to
criticize
Trump
as
he
rose
in
the
polls
was


JPMorgan
Chase
CEO
Jamie
Dimon,
known
as
the
king
of
Wall
Street.

“I
would
never
say
that.
He
might
be
the
president,
I
might
have
to
deal
with
that,”
Dimon
said
in
November,
when
asked
whether
he
belonged
to
the
so-called
never
Trump
movement.

At
the
time,
Dimon
urged
business
leaders
to
support
Haley.
In
response,
Trump
ripped

Dimon
on
social
media.

Fast
forward
six
weeks
and
Dimon
was
mum
on
Haley,
and
instead
appeared
to
be
making
Trump’s
case
for
reelection
for
him.

“Take
a
step
back,
be
honest.
He
was
kind
of
right
about
NATO,
kind
of
right
on
immigration.
He
grew
the
economy
quite
well.
Trade,
tax
reform
worked.
He
was
right
about
some
of
China,”
Dimon
said
in
a
CNBC

interview
on
the
sidelines
of
the
World
Economic
Forum.

“I
will
be
prepared
for
both
[Trump
and
Biden
administrations],
we
will
deal
with
both,
my
company
will
survive
and
thrive
in
both,”
he
added.

Steve
Schwarzman,
CEO
of
Blackstone
and
a
past
Trump
supporter,
did
not
rule
out
when
asked
by
CNBC
at
the
elite
conference
in
Davos,
Switzerland,
that
he
will
go
back
to
support
the
former
president
just
two
years
after
he
said
he
was
looking
for
alternatives.

“I
think
we
have
to
see
what
happens,”

Schwarzman
said
when
asked
whether
he’s
going
to
back
Trump
again
in
2024.

This
marked
a
shift
from
what
the
Blackstone
CEO

said
in
2022,
when
he
announced,
“it
is
time
for
the
Republican
party
to
turn
to
a
new
generation
of
leaders
and
I
intend
to
support
one
of
them
in
the
presidential
primaries.”

Trump‘s
surge
in
the
polls
and
his
dominance
in
the
primaries
was
a
constant
theme
of
discussions
at
the
World
Economic
Forum.

“There
is
not
a
conversation
you
have
here,
where
I
am
not
asked
to
handicap
the
election,”
Atlantic
Council
CEO

Fred
Kempe
told
CNBC
at
the
meeting.
“People
are
calling
it
the
‘Trump
put.’
They’re
hedging
Trump.”

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