Former President Donald Trump and a top representative for President Joe Biden will square off behind closed doors next week as both sides make a play for Wall Street ahead of the election.
According to CNBC, Trump and White House chief of staff Jeff Zients will address the Business Roundtable during a closed-door meeting on June 13 for the influential group whose members include some of the nation’s most powerful CEOs.
Biden was invited to address the group but is sending Zients in his place as the president will be overseas to attend the G7 summit in Italy. Zients, a millionaire, cut his teeth at places like The Advisory Board, an education and healthcare consulting company. He previously served on Facebook’s board.
Trump has been making inroads with 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 about some issues. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not a member, but the world’s richest person is reportedly discussing an advisory role in a second Trump administration should the former president win again. (Musk later denied any such conversations.)
Executives loved Trump’s tax cuts but loathed the chaos around him. Several CEOs left Trump’s White House advisory councils after his response to white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. It’s why many top CEOs tried to boost other candidates or distanced themselves from Trump when it appeared he could face a more difficult GOP primary.
The venue could pose some risks for Trump.
The Washington Post has reported how he has made some strikingly explicit requests behind closed doors to oil CEOs to back his campaign. In one reported instance, Trump told the oil executives that they should give $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 receive if he was elected. Congressional Democrats are probing the details of that meeting.
