Donald Trump's selections for his economic advisory board this week have drawn ire for being devoid of women and featuring major donors to his campaign, as Politico reported Sunday.
"He is following the path he has said was corrupt: Raising large sums of money and then giving donors special access," Trevor Potter, a former Federal Election Commission chairman and the Campaign Legal Center president, told Politico.
Trump had campaigned during the Republican primary on the platform he was a self-made businessman and not swayed by big-dollar donors, as he had said his Democratic opposition was.
"It is complete and total hypocrisy," radio host and conservative activist Steve Deace told Politico. "He got a lot of mileage out of taking advantage of a lot of low-information voters who are rightfully frustrated that government left them behind.
"They were an easy mark for a P.T. Barnum con man."
Politico outlined the economic advisory appointments of the following campaign donors:
• Steven Mnuchin—Trump national finance director ($425K in June)
• Stephen Feinberg—co-founder and CEO of Cerberus Capital Management ($339,400, along with his wife who gave another $339,400 to Trump Victory)
• Andy Beal—a billionaire investor and poker player ($449,400 to Trump Victory and $100,000 to a now-defunct pro-Trump super PAC)
• Tom Barrack—friend ($399,000)
• Howard Lorber—president and CEO of Vector Group ($100,000 in mid-June)
Two other appointments — John Paulson, president and CEO of Paulson & Co., and Harold Hamm, a billionaire energy magnate — are also reportedly linked to Trump fundraising albeit not yet officially reflected in federal records.
Other council members include: Trump staffers Stephen Miller and Dan Kowolski; David Malpass, a former Reagan and Bush administration aide; Peter Navarro, University of California at Irvine economics professor; Stephen Moore, Club for Growth founder and ex-Wall Street Journal editorial writer; Dan DiMicco, former CEO of steel manufacturer Nucor Corporation; and Stephen M. Calk, chairman and CEO of The Federal Savings Bank; and Steve Roth, Vornado Realty founder.
"I am pleased that we have such a formidable group of experienced and talented individuals that will work with me to implement real solutions for the economic issues facing our country," Trump said Friday.
Yet, Trump had previously railed on Wall Street investors and hedge fund members in his pre-nominee campaign—of which the above are.
"The hedge fund guys didn't build this country," Trump had told CBS’s Face the Nation last year. "These are guys that shift paper around. And they get lucky.
"Look, they're energetic. They're very smart. But a lot of them, it's, like, they're paper pushers. They make a fortune. They pay no tax. It's ridiculous, okay?"
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