Background
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As part of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, various economists and businesspeople have served both in a formal and an informal capacity, to advise Trump on macroeconomics and associated government policy decisions. During the 2016 transition to the presidency, Trump gained additional advisors, and after the inauguration some of his advisors will officially become part of the Trump administration (including the NEC, NTC, advisors, czars, counselors, OMB, CEA, Treasury, Commerce, USTR, SBA, SEC, and the Fed) while others will remain in the private sector as informal advisors with varying degrees of influence.
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Trump released initial details of his economic policies when his campaign officially began in June 2015, and more details during the first Republican debates which began in August 2015. Although critical of certain aspects of Trump's early economic plans, especially increasing tariffs as opposed to free trade policies, [1] Larry Kudlow and Steve Moore would eventually[ when? ] agree to join the Trump campaign as advisors. Although most presidential candidates had announced a team of formal economic advisors by October 2015, at the time Trump still primarily relied upon his business background to inform his economic plan (Carly Fiorina was the other candidate who relied primarily upon her own background in business in the early phases of the campaign). [2] In addition to his own business expertise, Trump had a network of contacts that sometimes served as informal economic advisors during his campaign, including Carl Icahn. [3] Even as late as July 2016, however, Kudlow and Moore were still not official advisors, despite having already helped craft some of Trump's policy-positions related to taxation for instance. [4]
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Trump released a list of his campaign's official economic advisers in August 2016, [5] [6] [7] which was significantly anti-establishment [8] and therefore included few people with any governmental experience, [9] yet at the same time aimed to include some of the elites of business and finance, [5] primarily people with well-known names.
Although most of the names were new, existing Trump advisers David Malpass, Peter Navarro, Stephen Moore, and Dan DiMicco were also on the list, formally led by Stephen Miller, the national policy director, and directly led by deputy policy director Dan Kowalski. The Trump'16 finance director Steven Mnuchin was also listed, and played a role in helping coordinate the group. Many of the names on the original list, or on the subsequent expansions thereof, [10] received media attention as potential appointees to the presidential Council of Economic Advisers, or in other Trump administration roles. As of August 2016, Trump's economic advisors included:
Several of the advisors were major donors to Trump's presidential campaign. [22]
At first, only one of Trump's initial list of a dozen official advisors, Peter Navarro, had a PhD in economics. [23] Although he had been in contact with Trump since 2011, [24] Navarro had never met nor spoken with Trump directly in August 2016, [25] but began to meet with Trump in person late in the 2016 campaign. [24] A few days after Navarro was announced, Trump added Judy Shelton, an economist [19] [20] with a Ph.D [19] in business administration [21] to his team.
As of December 2016, many of the advisors during the campaign listed above are under consideration for cabinet-level roles or other high-level roles in the Trump administration. (For instance, Navarro is a contender for the CEA chair, and Shelton is a contender for Fed Vice-chair.)
In addition to his statutory advisory groups, Trump is also organizing efforts to directly communicate with business leaders.
Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel originally backed fellow Californian and tech industry candidate Carly Fiorina, but implicitly endorsed Trump in May 2016, [26] [27] [28] then spoke at the Republican National Convention that July. [29] [30] Thiel donated over a million dollars in October 2016. [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] A few days after the general election, [36] Thiel joined the executive committee of the Trump transition team, [37] [38] [39] although Thiel said he was not seeking a full-time Trump administration position. [40]
In addition to bringing some of his tech industry contacts to the Trump team, [41] [42] [43] Thiel, along with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, [44] helped organize a technology-CEO meeting in December 2016 for Trump and Pence, as well as a handful of appointees and transition team members. [45] [46] [47]
| Attendee | Net worth [48] | Position and company | Market cap [49] | Trump administration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jeff Bezos | $66,400 million | CEO of Amazon and Blue Origin | $372 billion | private sector |
| Larry Page | $39,500 million | CEO of Alphabet (Google parent) | $560 billion | private sector |
| Eric Schmidt | $11,500 million | Chairman of Alphabet (Google parent) | $560 billion | private sector |
| Donald Trump | $3,700 million | Owner of The Trump Organization | unspecified | President |
| Wilbur Ross | $2,900 million | Former co-CEO at Invesco | $12 billion [50] | Commerce |
| Peter Thiel | $2,700 million | Chairman of Palantir | $20 billion (private) | transition team |
| Alex Karp | $1,600 million | CEO of Palantir | $20 billion (private) | private sector |
| Sheryl Sandberg | $1,270 million | COO of Facebook | $354 billion | private sector |
| Tim Cook | $785 million | CEO of Apple | $624 billion | private sector |
| Safra Catz | $525 million | CEO of Oracle Corp | $169 billion | private sector |
| Gary Cohn | $266 million | Former president of Goldman Sachs | $93 billion [51] | Director N.E.C. |
| Jared Kushner | $200 million | Owner of Kushner Companies | unspecified | transition team |
| Ivanka Trump | $150 million | Co-heir of The Trump Organization | (see Donald Trump) | transition team |
| Donald Trump Jr. | $150 million | Co-heir & EVP of The Trump Organization | (see Donald Trump) | transition team |
| Eric Trump | $150 million | Co-heir & EVP of The Trump Organization | (see Donald Trump) | transition team |
| Satya Nadella | $84 million | CEO of Microsoft | $494 billion | private sector |
| Brad Smith | $58 million | President of Microsoft | $494 billion | private sector |
| Ginni Rometty | $45 million | CEO of IBM | $163 billion | private sector |
| Chuck Robbins | $13 million | CEO of Cisco | $155 billion | private sector |
| Brian Krzanich | $12 million | CEO of Intel | $177 billion | private sector |
| Steve Bannon | $10 million | Former chairman of Breitbart | unspecified | Strategist |
| Mike Pence | unknown | Former governor of Indiana | (n/a) | Vice president |
| Reince Priebus | unknown | Former RNC chairman | (n/a) | Chief of Staff |
| Stephen Miller | unknown | Former comms. dir. for Jeff Sessions | (n/a) | Sr. Advisor |
Airbnb was also invited to attend the tech-CEO meeting, but their CEO was traveling internationally that week.
The details of the December 2016 meeting were not made public, but according to anonymous sources, reforming the H1B visa program was discussed. [52]
Of the above, Stephen Bannon resigned on 18 August 2017; Reince Prebus was fired on 11 March 2017.
In addition to the tech-industry group, there is also a more general business advisory group being formed. [53] Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone organized the business advisory group, which also includes: [54]
It is unclear whether Trump or his transition team have personally met with this advisory group, but media reports indicate that some of the members were considered for cabinet-level positions in his administration (including Dimon as a potential treasury secretary, Cosgrove as potential secretary of veterans affairs, Warsh for a potential Federal Reserve role).
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During his campaign, Trump had several dozen agricultural advisors.[ citation needed ]
Peter Andreas Thiel is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. As of July 2024, Thiel had an estimated net worth of US$11.2 billion and was ranked 212th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Gary David Cohn is an American businessman and philanthropist who served as the 11th director of the National Economic Council and chief economic advisor to President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2018. He managed the administration's economic policy agenda. Before serving in the White House, Cohn was president and COO of Goldman Sachs, where he worked for more than 25 years. Cohn was appointed vice-chairman of IBM on January 5, 2021.
David Oliver Sacks is a South African-American entrepreneur, author, and investor in internet technology firms. He is a general partner of Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund he co-founded in late 2017. Additionally, he is a co-host of the All In podcast, alongside Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis and David Friedberg. Previously, Sacks was the COO and product leader of PayPal, and founder and CEO of Yammer. In 2016, he became interim CEO of Zenefits for ten months. In 2017, Sacks co-founded Craft Ventures, an early-stage venture fund. His angel investments include Facebook, Uber, SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, and Airbnb. In December 2024, President-elect Donald Trump named Sacks the White House AI and crypto czar for the incoming administration.
Safra Ada Catz is an Israeli-American billionaire banker and technology executive. She is the CEO of Oracle Corporation. She has been an executive at Oracle since April 1999, and a board member since 2001. In April 2011, she was named co-president and chief financial officer (CFO), reporting to founder Larry Ellison. In September 2014, Oracle announced that Ellison would step down as CEO and that Mark Hurd and Catz had been named as joint CEOs. In September 2019, Catz became the sole CEO after Hurd resigned due to health issues.
Jared Corey Kushner is an American businessman, investor, and former government official. He is the son-in-law of President-elect Donald Trump through his marriage to Ivanka Trump, and served as a senior advisor to Trump from 2017 to 2021. He was also Director of the Office of American Innovation.
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Harold Glenn Hamm is an American business magnate in the oil and gas business. He is known for pioneering fracking of shale oil resources. As of February 4, 2022, Hamm's net worth is estimated to be US$18.5 billion, making him the 63rd wealthiest person in the world. He is the founder and chairman of Continental Resources.
Keith Rabois is an American technology executive and investor. He is a managing director at Khosla Ventures. He was an early-stage startup investor, and executive, at PayPal, LinkedIn, Slide, and Square. Rabois invested in Yelp and the Xoom Corporation prior to each company's initial public offering (IPO). For both investments he insisted on being a board of directors member.
The Thiel Fellowship is a fellowship created by billionaire Peter Thiel through the Thiel Foundation. The fellowship is intended for students aged 22 or younger and offers them a total of $100,000 over two years, as well as guidance and other resources, to drop out of school and pursue other work, which could involve scientific research, creating a startup, or working on a social movement. Selection for the fellowship is through a competitive annual process, with about 20–25 fellows selected annually.
Robert Leroy Mercer is an American hedge fund manager, computer scientist, and political donor. Mercer was an early artificial intelligence researcher and developer and is the former co-CEO of the hedge fund company Renaissance Technologies.
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Thomas P. Bossert is an American lawyer and former Homeland Security Advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump. He is an ABC News Homeland Security analyst.
Jason Miller is an American communications strategist, political adviser and CEO, best known as the chief spokesman for the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign and transition of Donald Trump. He was a senior adviser to the Trump 2020 re-election campaign. From 2010 through 2016, Miller was a partner and executive vice-president at Jamestown Associates. He was initially announced as the incoming White House Communications Director during the presidential transition, though he withdrew shortly after amidst news of an extramarital relationship with a staffer who joined the 2016 campaign two months before the election.
James O'Neill is an American science and technology investor.
Michael John Kotsakas Kratsios is an American business executive and government official. He served as the fourth Chief Technology Officer of the United States at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this role, Kratsios served as President Donald Trump's top technology advisor. From July 10, 2020 to January 20, 2021, Kratsios was also the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
This is a chronology of significant events in 2016 and 2017 related to the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies during the Trump presidential transition and the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016, this article begins on November 8 and ends with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being sworn into office on January 20, 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
The core White House staff appointments, and most Executive Office of the President officials generally, are not required to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, with a handful of exceptions. There are about 4,000 positions in the Executive Office of the President.
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