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here are only two economists on the team — and one of them believes in the flat tax.
But hedge funds are represented. So is fracking. And tobacco. And guns. And banking. And steel. And there’s the guy who mismanaged Chrysler before it was rescued by a government intervention.
Trump’s advisory team is a “suicide squad” for the American economy — which seems fitting, since a funder of the new “Suicide Squad” movie is on it too.
Three team members — economist Peter Navarro, steel magnate Dan DiMicco and real estate investor Thomas Barrack Jr. — have criticized the bad “trade” deals supported by both major parties over the last 25 years. That’s a start, I suppose. But it’s not enough, not by a long shot.
(As for Barrack, he says he raised $32 million for a Trump super PAC from only four donors. He also hosted a Trump fundraiser for $25,000 a ticket - or $100,000 per couple. So much for “the candidate who can’t be bought because he doesn’t need the money.”)
Who’s not represented on Trump’s economic team? Working people. Women. Minorities. The middle class.
There are no union leaders or labor economists to explain why higher wages and a more unionized workforce leads to broader growth prosperity. There’s nobody who’s fighting to close the gender pay gap, or to resist the economic predation that has decimated minority communities. There’s no one who understands the devastating impact that environmental destruction is having on our economy, as well as on our planet and on our bodies.
So who are these men? Old caper movies introduce their players with a montage of them living their daily lives. Here, then, is the Trump Team montage:
Andrew Beal, banker: Beal made his billions buying up distressed properties, sometimes from government agencies. He reportedly plays rough at collection time. “Mr. Beal acknowledges that some debt collectors engaged by his banks may have pushed too hard,” the Wall Street Journal wrote.
Beal likes to play high-stakes poker. He is known for offering risky loans — and because he owns a bank, the U.S. government insures them.
Speaking of government, we forgot to mention: this federally-insured tycoon is a libertarian.
Steve Feinberg, financier: Feinberg runs Cerberus Capital Management, which bought Chrysler in 2007 with some other investors and promised to restore it to profitability. Instead they declared bankruptcy and accepted federal bailout money for Chrysler Financial.
Cerberus also purchased a majority share of GMAC in 2006 and accepted federal bailout money for it, too (after the Fed bent the rules and declared it a bank holding company).
Then there are the guns. Cerberus purchased Bushmaster Firearms International, Remington Arms, and several other firearms companies, and merged them all into an entity called the “Freedom Group.” It took an investor revolt to make Cerberus promise to unload these holdings after Bushmaster’s AR-15 was used to kill a number of small children in the Sandy Hook shootings. (It later reneged, saying it couldn’t find a buyer.)
Cerberus also promised to stay out of the gun debate, but two years after Sandy Hook its executives were funding anti-gun control ads — in Connecticut, where the kindergarten massacre occurred.
Feinberg is a major Republican donor. He now says he regrets naming his firm for the three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell.
Steven Mnuchin, financier/film producer: Mnuchin’s investment group “bailed out” a housing lender in California and renamed it OneWest. OneWest, where Mnuchin became CEO, has been strongly criticized for its foreclosure practices.
The California Reinvestment Coalition has called on authorities to investigate OneWest’s apparent pattern of racial discrimination in foreclosures. It also cited its abusive “foreclosures of widows,” which makes it morally indistinguishable from countless silent-movie villains.
Meanwhile, Americans were left wondering what this kind of activity does for them or the economy as a whole - or why their economic future should be entrusted to someone with this sort of background.
These are the architects of the economy Trump would create: a fracker for Energy Secretary, harmful speculators in key advisory roles, and an economy controlled by people who foreclose on widows and profit from gun violence. That’s worth remembering when he speaks in Detroit on Monday.
The America Trump describes is a dark dystopia, competitive and divided and brutal. Now he’s assembled a team that could make that nightmare a reality. We thought “Fury Road” was just a movie. Who knew it was a presidential platform too?
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