Trump's new finance chairman Steven Mnuchin and his wife Heather divorced in 2014
NEW YORK – One of the Republican Party's presumptive nominee Donald Trump's most appealing factors to his outraged supporters has been that he "owes nothin' to nobody," and that lobbyists and special interests have no influence on his often politically-incorrect commentaries.
With the realization that he'll need to gamble in excess of $1 billion over the next six months on a game that right now appears to be 50/50 to pay off, he's opening his campaign coffers to high dollar donors out of necessity.
The campaign announced Thursday that former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin will be the Trump campaign's national finance chairman.
The press release from the campaign says Mnuchin "is Chairman and CEO of Dune Capital Management LP, a private investment firm. He is also Chairman of Dune Entertainment Partners LLC. From 2009-2015, he was Founder, Chairman, and CEO of OneWest Bank Group LLC, a bank holding company he owned with a consortium of private investors… He also previously held a position as a partner at Goldman Sachs and has a B.A. from Yale University. Steven has previously worked with Mr. Trump in a business capacity and brings his expertise in finance to what will be an extremely successful fundraising operation for the Republican Party."
The press release left out of Mnuchin's bio that he held a substantial position at Goldman Sachs as a partner and chief information officer during his 17 years working there.
Ironically, many of Trump's most fervent supporters pointed to Heidi Cruz's affiliation with Goldman Sachs as a key reason why they could not support her husband in the Republican primary.
The bio also did not say that more than half of Mnuchin's federal-level political contributions have benefited Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Clinton, Trump's all-but-certain general election rival.
About one-third of Mnuchin's giving has benefited Republicans. The rest has gone to nonpartisan political action committees such as the PAC of Goldman Sachs.
And the bio did not say that Dune Capital, where Mnuchin is CEO and Chairman, is financed by George Soros, a well-known billionaire financier of the most Leftist efforts in America and worldwide.
The Sunlight Foundation wrote about the Trump self-financing claim in February after the most recent FEC filings, and found that while he did finance 70 percent of his campaign, 68 percent of that financing was in the form of loans.
With the loans to himself being interest-free until the end of 2016, Trump could raise funds to recover those funds loaned to himself from contributions obtained through the remainder of the presidential campaign.
Graphic from Sunlight Foundation
