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Goldman alums vs. Trump

If you were to walk by a meeting in the Oval Office on any given day of the week, you might mistake it for a Goldman Sachs reunion that had been crashed by Donald Trump. The president’s inner circle includes, among others, former Goldman president Gary Cohn; former managing director Steven Bannon; former partner Dina Powell; and former partner Steven Mnuchin. But not everyone from the nation’s most illustrious investment bank has bet his or her career on the former steak and vodka licensing mogul. In fact, some are actively attempting to chip away at his power, by getting into politics themselves: Former Goldman Sachs management committee member Phil Murphy is running for governor of New Jersey on the Democratic ticket, and former global head of tax policy Archie Parnell is running for the House in a special South Carolina election taking place Tuesday, in order to “protect people from Trump.“ While Murphy is widely expected to trounce his opponent, New Jersey Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, thanks to the stench Chris Christie left on her, and at least a handful of voters in the the very red district of Gaffney, South Carolina, have taken a liking to Parnell, both men have had to overcome the scarlet letter left on them from their time at Goldman Sachs, which in their cases is a giant G flecked with Swarovski gold rhinestones.

“He seems like Corzine 2.0,” Glenda Rich told Bloomberg’s Max Abelson of Murphy. “Another Goldman Sachs banker, someone with a lot of money.” An ad run by Murphy’s opponent in the Democratic primary described him as Goldman exec who “made his fortune in a rigged system.” On June 6, Murphy sailed through the Democratic primary, defeating John Wisniewski, the author of the commercial.

Meanwhile, Parnell has been able to convince voters that while he may be a Goldman guy, he’s not like all those other Goldman guys.

“I am not interested in someone who worked for Goldman Sachs,” Bec Wilson told Abelson she thought when Parnell announced he would run. But then: “He was so not a politician. And he also wasn’t an Exxon or Goldman Sachs guy. That’s what I was expecting.” Also helping Parnell’s case is that many people expected him to act like the real-life equivalent of Scrooge McDuck diving into a pile of money. “Let me tell you! I told y’all he was modest,” Gaffney mayor Henry Jolly said. “The last job this man had, about two and a half months ago or less, he worked his way up to senior adviser for Goldman Sachs, where our president got most of his people from. So he can play with the big boys.”

Losing brain cells to converse with Trump may be a total waste of corporate executives’ time

Since Donald Trump took office in January, nearly 300 C.E.O.s have traveled to Washington to kiss his ring during various “listening sessions.” Among those whose politics align with the president or consider him a friend, the purpose of the meetings are obvious: they’re to trash the left wing media and compliment him on his tweets. For others, they supposedly offer an opportunity to convince the famously persuadable president to appreciate their perspective. Unfortunately, according to The Wall Street Journal, they may be getting Jergens self-tanner all over their lips for nothing: