Wall Street’s Big Names, Once Wary of Trump, Now Want In
AND MIRIAM GOTTFRIED
ary Cohn’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing since late Tuesday night. He’s one of a handful of so-called Trump ambassadors seen as an unofficial liaison between President- elect Donald Trump’s orbit and Wall Street.
That means the former Goldman Sachs president and chief economic adviser for part of the first Trump administration is a coveted conduit for early signals about what government policy might look like in the next Trump administration, and who’s in line for plum jobs.
Similarly, Howard Lutnick, the Cantor Fitzgerald chief executive officer who has become Trump’s headhunter in chief, has been talking for weeks with heavyweights such as Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, who are offering input on who could fill key roles. One person who worked in Trump’s prior administration said far more business leaders are raising their hands for deputy and assistant secretary roles than in 2016.
A veritable clubhouse of Wall Street executives— even those who eschewed Trump in the past—are jockeying for influence and eagerly gearing up for the prospect of lower taxes and a dealmaking revival.
“The bankers I’m talking to are frothing at the mouth,” one mergers-and-acquisitions lawyer said. It is a far cry from a few weeks ago, he said, when advisers were rushing to price and sell any corporate debt for clients because of potential unrest if Trump lost. Another lawyer said he expects that at least three big tie-ups that clients were dragging their feet on will now move forward.
A top M&A banker, who typically votes Democrat, said he was personally disappointed by the outcome. But as he sat on his couch and watched the results come in, many of his corporate clients texted in elation. They seemed more than happy to trade the threat of Trump’s proposed tariffs for a lower corporate tax rate, he said.
Many on Wall Street have been positioning themselves for Trump-fueled tax cuts and less regulation— especially since a gathering of around 1,400 clients of JPMorgan Chase in a ballroom at Washington, D.C.’s Mayflower Hotel two weeks ago. They were there to hear top emissaries from the Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns detail their candidates’ plans for the economy and Wall Street.
Scott Bessent, a hedge-fund manager seen as a contender for Treasury Secretary under Trump,
Clockwise from the bull: Scott Bessent, Stephen Schwarzman, Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump, Bill Ackman, Jay Clayton, John Paulson
told the crowd the former president would win the election because the low-wage workers most vulnerable to rising inflation were fed up. Bessent detailed how Trump would cut business regulations and bring down the price of oil by expanding drilling.
Blair Effron, co-founder of investment bank Centerview Partners and a Harris backer, said the inflation that had roiled the economy couldn’t be fully blamed on the Biden administration and was the result of supply-chain issues. He acknowledged that Harris would likely raise taxes slightly and detailed some of her plans to lower taxes for small businesses, build more housing and cut healthcare costs.
Several attendees who heard the dueling presentations said Bessent made the better case. One, who typically votes Democrat, said he walked away certain that Trump would prevail because the policies would be easier to sell to voters. Other attendees reached out to Effron, a potential Harris appointee, to say they agreed with the Harris plan to help both entrepreneurs and corporate America.
Effron and Roger Altman, founder of investment bank Evercore, hosted a watch party at a Manhattan steakhouse on election night for Harris supporters. People started leaving around 10 p.m.
Bessent, meanwhile, was at Mar-a-Lago on election night with Trump, along with billionaire investor John Paulson, who famously made a fortune with a giant bet against mortgage-backed securities ahead of the financial crisis. Also there was Lutnick, who was battle-tested when he had to rebuild Cantor Fitzgerald after most of its New York staff died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Now a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, he has been compiling scouting reports about potential appointees for Trump. He has been relegating his regular Wall Street CEO duties to the early morning and late at night.
Early in the evening, Duke Buchan, the national finance chair of the Republican National Committee, Bessent, and some Republican senators went to the Palm Beach Convention Center to watch the returns come in. By the time North Carolina was called for Trump shortly after 10 p.m., a sense of confidence set in, an attendee says. Each time new results were announced, the crowd became rowdier.
Now, some on Wall Street who had been on the fence about Trump or who made minimal donations to his campaign are opening their wallets, offering to help pay for the coming inauguration.
Wall Street’s change of heart comes with some lingering concerns. Some worry Trump’s policies will reignite inflation and send the economy into a tailspin. Many also hope Trump won’t follow through on some of his most radical ideas, including placing tariffs of 60% or more on products imported from China.
Some on Wall Street privately say their newfound embrace of Trump isn’t just professionally motivated, but that Democrats’ emphasis on social topics such as transgender issues helped push them further to the right, a sentiment shared by large swaths of working-class voters. That was the case with Bill Ackman, the billionaire investor and onetime reliable Democrat who has morphed into one of Wall Street’s loudest Trump supporters. Ackman congratulated Trump on his victory in a phone call on Wednesday.
This account is based on conversations with several dozen dealmakers, Wall Street executives and people connected with the Harris and Trump campaigns.
Roughly a year ago, the finance world’s biggest names were privately lamenting Trump’s continued presence in the presidential campaign and pushing to get Nikki Haley—or anyone else—atop the Republican ticket. Many have since coalesced around Trump.
That includes Cohn, who resigned as economic adviser after disagreements with Trump over tariffs. But the two remained on good terms. When he departed, Trump praised Cohn’s “superb job” and called him a “rare talent.” Cohn held fundraisers for Haley, Tim Scott and others during the primaries. Now he and others including Larry Kudlow are seen as the “Trump ambassadors” for Wall Street.
Many top financiers made their support known before the election in an attempt to get a leg up and avoid retribution from Trump, who is known to single out business leaders and former colleagues who’ve slighted him. Some private- equity executives, for example, made it a point to be in the audience at Trump’s grievanceladen, eyebrow-raising rally at Madison Square Garden last month.
Billionaire Republican donors including Elliott Investment Management’s Paul Singer and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman spent months hemming and hawing over whether to support Trump. Singer favored Marco Rubio in the past, and his longtime romantic partner fundraised for Haley last year. Singer ultimately contributed $5 million to a pro-Trump super PAC in August.
Schwarzman distanced himself from Trump after the capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, but later supported his most recent bid for president. At a conference in Saudi Arabia last month, Schwarzman Above, Gary Cohn, shown center left, is a former Goldman Sachs president who was Trump’s top economic adviser until 2018. He is now seen as one of the “Trump ambassadors” for Wall Street. Left, Lina Khan is expected by many to be replaced as FTC chair.
said he thinks Trump now “has a much better base of knowledge of how that job works” compared with 2016.
Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz also came back around after saying he regretted voting for Trump in 2020. This cycle, Peltz’s friendship with entrepreneur Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, helped lay the groundwork for Musk’s deep involvement in Trump’s campaign.
Some financiers never jumped on the bandwagon. One Democratic private-equity executive said, “I think people are depressed on a personal level, particularly women.” The morning after the election, a major topic of discussion at the firm’s management committee meeting was how much of a loose cannon Trump can be and what that means for business, the executive said.
Others voiced concerns that Trump’s second administration might not include anyone willing to challenge him. Lutnick told the Journal last month that all hires will be “loyal” to Trump’s policies.
“Can he get the Rex Tillersons of the world to take top jobs at the White House? Probably not this time,” said one senior adviser to a big bank, referencing the former Exxon Mobil CEO who called Trump a “moron” while serving as
In a sign of Wall Street’s euphoria, U.S. stocks added $1.62 trillion of value on Wednesday—their fifth-best one-day showing ever. The surge highlights the opportunity that investors, bankers and others in finance are hoping to embrace over four years of expected tax cuts, reduced regulation and economic expansion.
Dealmakers expect tie-ups to come roaring back and many foresee Trump replacing Federal Trade Commission head, and Wall Street’s enemy No. 1, Lina Khan and other regulators who have aggressively applied antitrust laws. A few floated Melissa Holyoak, a current Republican-appointed commissioner of the FTC, as a possible replacement for Khan.
Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential pick, has praised Khan and been outspoken in favor of tariffs, government intervention in the economy and a weaker dollar, positions that put him at odds with many on Wall Street.
There are still Trump skeptics. They say part of the dealmaking slowdown was due to high interest rates and depressed valuations, factors they say aren’t directly tied to Biden policies. They also point out that Trump has a record of opposing specific deals, including AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, which some tied to his disdain for Time Warner-owned CNN.
Big banks are also in line to benefit from an expected easing of regulations under Trump after their CEOs have lobbied for such changes for years.
JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, whose wife knocked on doors for Harris in Michigan, congratulated Trump on his victory in a note to employees Wednesday. Goldman CEO David Solomon told employees that Trump’s administration “will bring policy changes potentially important to our business and clients.”
One former big-bank CEO said that while Trump’s policies are probably better for business than Harris’s, he still worries about the “20% chance he presents of blowing everything up.”
It remains to be seen whether Trump’s populist tendencies could threaten Wall Street’s priorities. And some executives said they’re concerned about icier relations with China and a potential trade war as well as the knock-on effects banks may experience in Europe if the Trump administration pulls back on aid to Ukraine.
But one real-estate investor said for now, he’s disregarding much of what Trump says he plans to do. “The rhetoric about tariffs is just a negotiation and not serious, with the exception of China,” he said. “This guy is a negotiator.” —Peter Rudegeair, Gregory Zuckerman, Gina Heeb and Rachel Louise Ensign contributed to this article.
‘The bankers I’m talking to are frothing at the mouth,’
Trillion of value added to U.S. stocks on Wednesday after the election
