The pipeline between Goldman Sachs and the Trump administration continues to flow unabated. The New York Times reported overnight:
James Donovan, a longtime Goldman banking and investment management executive, has been named to be the deputy to the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin.Mr. Donovan, 50, would be responsible for helping Mr. Mnuchin, also a Goldman alumnus, in running a government agency that handles a wide range of economic matters, from producing physical currency to enforcing economic sanctions against nations.
Donovan has worked at the Wall Street giant for nearly a quarter of a century. As of today, he’s the seventh Goldman Sachs vet to join Donald Trump’s team.Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s Treasury Secretary, is a Goldman Sachs veteran. Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief White House strategist, is a Goldman Sachs veteran. Gary Cohn, Trump’s chief economics advisor, is the former president of Goldman Sachs. Jay Clayton, Trump’s nominee to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, is a Goldman Sachs attorney.Dina Powell, who recently joined the administration’s economic team, was a Goldman Sachs partner, while Anthony Scaramucci, also Goldman Sachs, was announced as a White House “confidant” to the president, though Scaramucci later withdrew from the post.As we discussed in January, none of this would be especially noteworthy were it not for the way in which Trump used the finance giant as a combination wedge/punching bag.During the Republican presidential primaries, for example, one of Trump’s most common attacks against Sen. Ted Cruz was blasting the Republican senator’s ties to – you guessed it – Goldman Sachs. “Is Cruz honest?” Trump asked in January. “He is in bed w/ Wall St. & is funded by Goldman Sachs.” Trump added, “Goldman Sachs owns [Cruz], he will do anything they demand. Not much of a reformer!”
In the general election, the fact that Hillary Clinton once gave a speech to Goldman Sachs was, somewhat inexplicably, also a popular line of attack – with Trump claiming the investment giant has “total control” over her.As Rachel put it the show a while back, if you were told you shouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton because of Goldman Sachs, “you got suckered.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."