After using Goldman Sachs as a punching bag for his campaign, sharply criticizing his political opponents for ties to the investment bank, Donald Trump has taken unprecedented steps to appoint former Goldman Sachs attorneys and executives to the upper echelons of government.
It goes far beyond what’s been reported. Not only is Jay Clayton Trump’s chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, after serving as the attorney who advised the bank during the bailouts of 2008, but new disclosures show that the team Clayton brought with him to oversee the financial market regulator are also former Goldman Sachs attorneys.
The Intercept obtained the ethics disclosure form for Sean Memon, Clayton’s deputy chief of staff, which shows that Memon previously worked for Goldman Sachs, as well as a range of other Wall Street clients, including Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase, AIG, MetLife, Ally Financial, and Deutsche Bank.
Last month, Clayton also brought in Steven Peikin as one of two directors of the enforcement division of the SEC, one of the most prominent positions at the agency. Peikin, like Memon, previously served as an attorney to Goldman Sachs and other banks. All three men are former lawyers with Sullivan & Cromwell, arguably the most influential law firm of the 20th Century.
While previous administrations have retained staff with ties to major banks, Trump has turned his administration into somewhat of a Goldman Sachs alumni organization.
Trump’s inner circle consists almost entirely of former Goldman Sachs executives, including his chief political adviser Steve Bannon, his national security adviser Dina Powell, and his top economic advisor Gary Cohn. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin worked at Goldman Sachs for 17 years. Last month, Trump nominated Eric Ueland, a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist, to serve as as the Under Secretary of State, one of the most senior posts in the State Department.
The appointments coincide with Trump advancing a regulatory and tax agenda that is largely identical to the policy demands of the financial services industry.
In June, the Treasury Department released a report outlining a new wave of prospective deregulation, including loosening capital requirement standards imposed after the 2008 financial crisis and gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability to police financial institutions. The tax reform priorities of the administration, which include lowering the corporate income tax rate and creating a tax holiday for overseas corporate earnings, are strongly shared by the leading figures on Wall Street, including Goldman Sachs’s Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein.
Top photo: Pedestrians pass by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. headquarters in New York on April 14, 2017.
Our nations situation was created by the lack choice on the presidential ballot. We knew clinton was no good, and we knew trump was the biggest liar that ever lived. Americans were screwed either way. So the bad guy won, and we have to live with it.
Hey Dave, at this time we should qualify that “no good”. No Good compared to what? Trump? …. we now know that answer…. just a little to late.
Once again, What the president used against HRC in the campaign; “Crooked Hilary is owned by Goldman Sachs”, seems to go unnoticed by the MSM. In fact, nothing he does wrong, in material way, is ever reported. We just get the entertainment news. And while we are busy enjoying ourselves mocking a charade of silliness, this administration, both houses, and the courts are walking away with our country. We will be left broke, in debt, homeless, uneducated, our diseases progress unabated, and our superficial division turn us violently against one another. We have an opportunity to understand the game being played and do something about it. But we seem to lack to moral courage and leadership to leave this new Egypt, that we allow to be created under our feet, with our rights, properties and blessings.
Well said Damitjoe.
…cc your pointers to the 2020 Democratic hopefuls and see how many mirror anything close the same populist sentiments you mentioned. We know MSM is based on their advertising media streams so back to “who want!’s to be a millionaire”
Over here in Europe…France voted in an ex-investment banker of Banque Rotshild as President. You are so lucky in the USA ….but you don’t seem to realise it.
You think the (so-called) USA is “lucky” because the vast majority
of voters supported either of two Louis XIV-wanna-be corrupt candidates??
Are you just anti-jewish or is it that you celebrate choices which are
more obviously corrupt and militaristic than the amateurish dandy from
France who represents the same kind of crap as Clinton and Trump?
This is just more proof that Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton,
and the faking “Parties” which promoted them are
really on the same team.
All through the 2016 campaign, I kept wondering why so few people
could or would see that Trump’s greatest asset was a Clinton
candidacy and Clinton’s greatest asset was a Trump candidacy.
There are images of the Clintons attending trump’s most recent
marriage and those images of them all playfully smiling together
is the truth about the democrats and the republicans.
Their main difference is how they lie.
This is how it has been for decades and the greatest enemies of
progress and equal justice are the people who insist
that you are a fool if you don’t support the democrats and/or the
republicans.
This article is deliberately ignoring the democrats’ role in this game
as it seems to try to make Trump look like he is worse than his
good friend Hillary. The democrats, like Warren, deliberately set up the
CFPB to be a gimmick which is under the direct control of
Wall Street’s agents in any administration.
I know its hard, but try to see the whole picture Lee.
Great info – and it is getting worse. Better call Saul.
Donald is living-up to his campaign promises that he would eradicate lobbying from the government dealing.
He just gets them straight in…..
Well Done Donny !!!
PS.: Where are those JOBS, JOBS, JOBS you promised…. ?????
Seems, either We the People wrest our “government” back, a.s.a.p. from the corporate “mob”, or We are headed for George Orwell’s “1984”, dystopia future-world. As depicted, here satirically, by “Banksy’s” “Dismaland Bemusement Park”, an elaborate and gigantic art exhibit, built and opened to the public over a year ago in Great Britain:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/picture/2015/aug/22/dismaland-inside-banksys-dystopian-theme-park#comment-58007766
CORPORATIONS are THE greatest existential threat to our planet and Constitutional Rights are the “corporations”, right behind climate crisis and tied with radionuclide contamination “accidents” from the nuclear “industry’s” on-going production (for sixty years) of dozens of radioactive elements, that haven’t existed on Earth (or in our solar system) for over 4-billion years. More than 450 reactors, world-wide, running full-tilt to boil water! About as insane as our corporate criminals-at-large, the “bankster-its”. Especially, the “its” that don’t work – unless robbery, larceny and lying are “work”? But I’m not surprised anymore. These “its” are serious. I mean really.
Seems, either We the People wrest our “government” back, a.s.a.p. from the corporate “mob”, or We are headed for George Orwell’s “1984”, dystopia future-world. As depicted, here satirically, by “Banksy’s” “Dismaland Bemusement Park”, an elaborate and gigantic art exhibit, built and opened to the public over a year ago in Great Britain:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/picture/2015/aug/22/dismaland-inside-banksys-dystopian-theme-park#comment-58007766
CORPORATIONS are THE greatest existential threat to our planet and Constitutional Rights are the “corporations”, right behind climate crisis and tied with radionuclide contamination “accidents” from the nuclear “industry’s” on-going production (for sixty years) of dozens of radioactive elements, that haven’t existed on Earth (or in our solar system) for over 4-billion years. More than 450 reactors, world-wide, running full-tilt to boil water! About as insane as our corporate criminals-large, the “bankster-its”. Especially, the “its” that don’t work – unless robbery, larceny and lying are “work”? But I’m not surprised anymore. These “its” are serious. I mean really.
Sorry about the ditto. I can only type with one finger, uh… I digress. There isn’t any way to edit, so I’ll continue to finger “it” – lol
Horrible
As my 15 year old son points out to me on a regular basis, it doesn’t mater who is president, they are all just puppets of the elite. It’s just so obvious that trump Is the most obvious puppet.
Would it surprise anyone (but idiots, fools, whores, other criminals) that if the US was run by Gold Suckers, robbing Americans and precipitating wars and war fraud would be illegal but not prosecutable?
ps – the US military has received instructions from Kong Netanyahu to embattle Syria and partition it the same way israelis demanded the partition of Germany contrary to the request of Stalin.
This is in line with israeli demands that America give all resources and lives for organised crime operation operating under the color of religion for the YINON PLAN.
Your articles are amazing, Lee Fang.
Keep up the great work.
For those not familiar with Sullivan and Cromwell, they were the force behind the 1954 Guatemalan coup, as they long represented United Fruit. Both Allen and Foster Dulles worked at C & S. Allen went on to run the CIA and Foster was SoS.
Wikipedia has many good things to say about them and only one listed “controversy.” As a long time supporter of WM Foundation, I am surprised that more negative stories are not listed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_%26_Cromwell#Notable_alumni
Informative, thank- you
All the rhetoric Trump used during the campaign that sounded, I don’t know, populist? Well, if you ask me, it was to confuse the Bernie Sanders voter … it would be interesting to see how the rhetoric morphed after Sanders was succumbed by the Clinton. I think Trump is full of crap. Have you noticed he always puts out 2 messages? Positive and negative? F*** trump, I am going to Montreal to chill, bake baby — I love ya, now go out and put an end to speaker Ryan and Mitch McConnell (the turtle). Come on folks, seeing a KKK in dreads is like, see you next time if there was a next time.
The GOP is not a party, instead their target is a domino from da Kochs … let the guitar play on.
GOP is out to haunt and destroy your mother and father. An echo changer from hell. If I type F them will you still love me?
What the **** happened to sharing icons with social, only email now? hell is another word for ****
Brilliant investagatorial work. Keep me in the loop please.
Pulitzer Prize material. Trump is the most self serving person to ever be in government. He is not doing anything for the people. Just his family and his Russian handlers.
It really starts to blur the lines between Goldman and government. Maybe it’s Goldman that hired Trump?
Since the last financial crisis, Goldman Sachs is viewed as unethical even by the people I know in the financial industry.
Unlike the more crafty Hillary, Donald makes no bones about the investment vested class “family” he serves. The “deep state” international informal conspiracy of strong-person, sameness and selfishness. The “family” business model pioneered by Bush and Clinton and Obama wannabe dynasties is not hidden but runs full-bore. Trump destroyed the former American dynasties and is very earnestly carrying out demolition of his own political dynasty, well done. Perhaps We the People can get a real “change” candidate from outside the political realms (double entendre) in 2020. Will a qualified moderate-progressive candidate with good mind and heart, wisdom and name recognition that could carve a good chunk out of both parties please step-up. Such a campaign would require a complicated grass roots registration and write-in effort to carry enough electoral votes. Uphill but not impossible considering the current two party chooses and dissatisfaction with dynasty politics.
Having ethics does not automatically disqualify a candidate from public office. However, it is necessary to disclose them, so that the candidate can be recused from any decisions which might be influenced by ethical concerns. So the Trump administration seems to be following best practice guidelines for government agencies – something for which it does not always receive proper credit.
I do share the general concern that Goldman Sachs seems to have a policy of diverting its failures into government service, so that they can be subsidized by the public purse rather than impinging on the bottom line. If Goldman Sachs were forced to pay a nominal dumping fee – in the spirit of the user pay model of which they are so fond – the national debt would be greatly reduced.
ethical diversity is a feature not a bug
how else can we decide which ethics will make the most money?
It is indisputable that in the past, American politicians have sold out American interests at far below the market rate. Hopefully, Goldman Sachs will be able to determine the fair market price.
Just until they fabricate the next banking crisis, get bailed out with our money and straight after that start throwing people out, those that paid their “bill”, of their houses.
Benito, national debt and white collar corruption BOTH would be reduced significantly if there weren’t a Goldman Sachs – or even perhaps if they were carved up into a bunch of little harmless Goldman Sach-ettes…
An apt perspective.
“The only people Trump hasn’t hired from Goldman Sachs are Goldman and Sachs.” – Bill Maher