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Former President Donald Trump will address an influential gathering of the country’s top CEOs.
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The former president plays a major role for Wall Street.
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President Joe Biden sends his White House chief of staff, Jeff Zients, to the meeting.
Former President Donald Trump and a top representative of President Joe Biden will face off behind closed doors next week as both sides play Wall Street ahead of the election.
According to CNBC, Trump and White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients plan to address the Business Roundtable at a closed-door meeting on June 13. Members of the influential group include some of the country’s most powerful CEOs.
Biden was invited to address the group, but is sending Zients in his place because the president will be abroad to attend the G7 summit in Italy. Zients, a millionaire, cut his teeth in leadership at, among others, the Advisory Board, a consultancy in the field of education and health care. He later served on the board of Facebook.
Trump has found his way into the Wall Street crowd, with whom he had a tenuous relationship during his administration. Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, a roundtable member, recently endorsed Trump. Another member, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who has described himself as “barely a Democrat,” has said Trump was right on some points. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not a member, but The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the world’s richest person was discussing an advisory role in a second Trump administration, should the former president win again. (Musk later denied any such talks.)
Executives loved Trump’s tax cuts, but some loathed the chaos around him. Several CEOs left Trump’s White House advisory boards following his response to white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. It’s likely why many top CEOs tried to boost other candidates or distanced themselves from Trump when it appeared he would face a tougher primary season for Republicans.
The location could pose some risks for Trump.
The Washington Post has reported that behind closed doors he has made some strikingly explicit requests for oil CEOs to support his campaign. The Post said that in one case, Trump told oil executives to give them $1 billion to help him return to the White House and that the amount would be a deal based on the regulatory and tax relief they would would get if he were elected. Democrats in Congress are investigating the details of that meeting.
Read the original article on Business Insider
