Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma.) told an audience of business executives Tuesday that Donald Trump’s administration was shaping up to be exactly what the president-elect said on the campaign trail it would not be.
“The clearest point that comes out of this election is that the American people do not want Wall Street to run their government,” she told the audience at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council conference in Washington, D.C. “They do not want corporate executives to be the ones who are calling the shots in Washington. What Donald Trump is doing is that he’s putting together a transition team that’s full of lobbyists ― the kind of people he actually ran against.”
The Trump camp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After running as the only candidate who could stop corruption and “drain the swamp” in Washington, Trump has stocked his transition team with lobbyists, and wealthy investors who supported his candidacy are being floated for top cabinet positions. For example, Steve Mnuchin ― a hedge fund manager and second generation partner at Goldman Sachs who once worked for George Soros ― is reportedly the top recommendation for Treasury Secretary. Wilbur Ross ― a billionaire private equity executive whose firm was fined by the SEC, owned a West Virginia coal mine that had hundreds of safety violations before an explosion killed 12 miners, and is the leader of secret Wall Street fraternity where he wears black tie and velvet slippers while presiding over drunk bankers singing show tunes mocking poor people ― is in the running to be Commerce Secretary.
Warren also made a clear reference to Trump naming Breitbart Executive Chairman Steve Bannon, whose site regularly airs white nationalist viewpoints, as a senior White House adviser. That move repeats the decision Trump made during his campaign, for which Bannon served as CEO, to embrace the support of white nationalists.
“Bigotry is bad for business,” Warren said Tuesday. “Bigotry is not what your employees expect. Bigotry is not what your customers expect.”