CEOs steering Trump away from Bannon’s hardcore policies

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Business leaders are making a push for moderation — and meeting with some success.

By JOSH DAWSEY and BEN WHITE 04/13/17 05:06 AM EDT



Wall Street titan Stephen Schwarzman has recently taken on a new, informal job: counselor to the president.

The CEO of Blackstone Group, who has known Trump for years, has become so close to the president that the two sometimes talk several times a week, covering everything from Chinese trade to tax policy to immigration.


White House and New York business officials say Schwarzman was critical to Trump keeping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as the Dreamers program, with Trump making the decision after a call with the hedge fund billionaire. The two also recently chatted at Mar-a-Lago about a possible reorganization of the White House, two people familiar with the meeting say, though the conversation didn't include specific names.

Schwarzman's growing influence in Trump's circle is welcome news to New York business leaders and moderate Republicans, who want the president to abandon his nationalist positions and embrace a more nonideological White House amid lagging poll ratings and infighting dominating the West Wing.

In private conversations, a number of Trump's friends have told him he could be more popular — and accomplish more — if he embraced a moderate streak and listened to his business friends. Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, is trying to orchestrate more power for New York business types, particularly National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, while diminishing the power of chief strategist Steve Bannon, who drives the populist wing of the White House.

“The president is a business person, so he’s very comfortable being around business people and he learns best by talking to people and observing things,” Schwarzman said in an interview after meeting on Tuesday with Trump and other business leaders. “I think he looks forward to these things and he likes being with business people who have run businesses that are bigger than his. It’s just a highly supportive environment, whether it’s Gary Cohn or Jared, certainly Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross and Dina Powell, these are all people who’ve had very similar experiences.”

One executive in regular contact with West Wing officials said it’s encouraging that Trump appears to be embracing more pragmatic allies. “It seems like he’s relying now on nonideological people like Gary who have business experience and just know how to execute and get stuff done,” the executive said.

Any possible shift certainly comes with risks. Democrats are never likely to embrace Trump. And the president could alienate his core supporters after winning the election by catering to blue-collar workers, mocking Hillary Clinton's paid speeches on Wall Street, and railing against the influence of elites and special interests.

Inside the White House, Bannon has at times clashed with Cohn and Kushner and has advocated for more strident positions. Cohn's rising influence has already attracted attacks from Bannon allies, and Kushner has drawn negative attention from conservative blogs. Several Trump campaign veterans have lambasted Cohn's influence in the White House. "He would be an Obama appointee at best," one longtime adviser said.

Whether Trump will be willing to modulate significantly from the scorched-earth strategy that won him the White House, and whether he wants more discipline in the White House, remains unclear. What has attracted him to much of his base is railing against trade deals that Wall Street executives like, building a massive border wall and implementing stricter immigration policies that they don't like. And he often avoids even the best-crafted advice by firing off an errant tweet.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/donald-trump-steven-schwarzman-ceo-white-house-advisers-237168

Last edited by Goose (4/13/2017 11:13 am)