President Trump Worried About Growing Influence of Goldman Sachs in White House

During the 2016 campaign, then-candidate Donald J. Trump not only pledged to “Make America Great Again,” but also promised to “drain the swamp” that is Washington, D.C.

President Trump was a unique candidate in that he was a true outsider with no government or political experience, instead relying on his business acumen to navigate his way through the grueling presidential campaign.

One of Mr. Trump’s most vocal criticisms was the over-sized influence the biggest banks in America had, specifically Goldman Sachs, and the president even ran a campaign ad attacking the bank just days before the election.

In the ad, a voiceover can be heard saying Goldman Sachs is “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.”

Here’s the ad below:

Now, a new report out from Zero Hedge suggests that President Trump is concerned about the growing influence that Goldman Sachs may be having within his administration, given his harsh criticisms of the bank during the election. President Trump is firmly against the D.C. and financial establishments that have weakened America, and by having too many big bank executives working in his White House there would be too much entrenched bureaucracy hindering the plans Trump has to Make America Great Again.

Currently, four former Goldman Sachs employees work in the Trump administration: his newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Gary Cohn, who serves as the director of the National Economic Council, Steve Bannon who serves as chief White House strategist, and Dana Powell, who is an “assistant to the president and senior counselor for economic initiatives.”

Given the presence of several former Goldman Sachs executives in his administration, President Trump is reconsidering whether or not one individual, Jim Donovan, should be tapped for the number 2 job at the Treasury Department because of his deep ties to the bank:

 Too many “Goldman guys” already have high-up positions in the Trump administration, the person said, and that could knock Donovan down to one of the undersecretary positions — possibly undersecretary of the Treasury for domestic finance.

The presence of several former Goldman officials at the highest reaches of the administration runs counter to the president’s regular attacks on Wall Street firms during the campaign. “Donald Trump’s Argument for America,” a two-minute advertisement that ran in prime-time days before the election, featured Goldman Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein in an segment about corporate chieftains pocketing the wealth of American workers.

As many of you know, there are thousands of government jobs that have to be filled by the Trump administration, and because of the sheer size of the government, most of them will be hired by underlings, not the president. What we are looking at is a last-ditch effort by the entrenched bureaucrats and establishment interests to keep their influence and relevance at a time when the President is openly hostile to them.

Much of the political establishment that President Trump ran against in the 2016 campaign have deep ties to Wall Street, and President Trump is right to express concern that Goldman Sachs, and other big banks, could have increased roles in his administration and thus try to influence policy that are the antitheses of what he ran on.

The swamp that President Trump has pledged to “drain” is extremely large, and extremely powerful. Throughout history we’ve seen the permanent bureaucracy infiltrate presidential administrations that, at least rhetorically, did not share their views. Just look at the early Obama administration and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, or Defense Secretary Robert Gates – both men representing interests in direct contrast to what Obama ran on.

Trump is catching on to how the game works early, and that’s a great sign that he truly intends to make real, significant changes in the power structure of this country.

Do you think President Trump should be concerned about the potential growing influence of Goldman Sachs in his administration? How should the president combat this problem? Share your thoughts below!

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