Trump Business Council Fretted for Weeks Over Its Role
August 17 2017 - 07:42PM
Dow Jones News
By Emily Glazer and Nathan Becker
The president's policy advisory council of executives disbanded
Wednesday after about eight months in existence. But several in the
group had questioned its point weeks earlier.
The group, which at one time included as many as 19 senior
business leaders including many chief executives, was gathered to
advise Donald Trump on policy and economics. They disbanded after
the majority felt Mr. Trump failed to sufficiently condemn racism
following a violent clash between white supremacist groups and
counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., people familiar with the
council have said.
Weeks earlier, some participants including International
Business Machines Corp. Chief Executive Ginni Rometty had called on
Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of investment giant
Blackstone Group LP, to discuss the future of the group, according
to people familiar with the council
They asked questions such as whether the forum was making a good
contribution and how they could be effective, the people said.
One of the strongest voices was Boston Consulting Group CEO Rich
Lesser, who multiple times expressed concerns about the group's
effectiveness following Mr. Trump's decision to back the U.S. out
of the Paris climate accord, people familiar with the discussions
said.
"They all knew the ending, they all knew it was going to be an
unhappy ending. They just didn't know the timing of the ending. But
we all knew it was going to end badly," said one person familiar
with the council.
Another person said that as chairman of the group Mr. Schwarzman
considered it part of his role to make sure the group "lived up to
its mission" and that he felt it was important to try to keep the
group going.
"There was a shared mission and safety in numbers," this person
said. "People thought 'let's see if we can still help' Trump."
Over time, Mr. Schwarzman's role was levying a cost on
Blackstone, the person said.
In a memo to employees Wednesday, Mr. Schwarzman wrote that
staffers had received inquiries from clients about his role leading
the council. In the end, the aggravation, reputational risk and
time commitment from the forum over the past several months
outweighed any potential benefits for Mr. Schwarzman or Blackstone,
the person said.
One of Wall Street's most-prominent deal makers and a
billionaire many times over, Mr. Schwarzman greeted Mr. Trump's
election with enthusiasm, citing a newfound potential for economic
growth.
In the days after the election, Mr. Schwarzman, who didn't
endorse Mr. Trump, said at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council
conference: "You're going to have a different tax regime with lower
corporate taxes, lower individual taxes, you're going to have
monies brought back in the trillions from abroad. You're going to
have a different tax regime abroad. There are going to be so many
of these changes that I think...it's going to really force growth
from a policy perspective."
Messrs. Schwarzman and Trump, though not close, have known each
other for decades; Mr. Trump was one of many boldfaced names who
attended Mr. Schwarzman's 60th birthday party in 2007.
--Sarah Krouse contributed to this article.
Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com and Nathan Becker
at nathan.becker@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 17, 2017 19:27 ET (23:27 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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