Two of President Biden’s top economic and foreign policy advisers earned substantial Wall Street salaries during the Trump administration after working for President Obama, new forms of financial disclosure show.
The details: Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, was paid $ 2.3 million in salary last year to serve as BlackRock’s head of sustainable investment. Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer was paid nearly $ 730,000 as senior vice president of private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
- Deese also appears to be earning another $ 2.4 million from its established limited shares in BlackRock. He served as one of Obama’s senior advisers and helped negotiate the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
- Finer received another $ 430,000 from Warburg as interest – the profits earned by venture capital, hedge and private equity fund managers. He previously served as Chief of Staff of the State Department and Director of Policy Planning.
They were not alone in finding wealth in the private sector during Donald Trump’s presidency.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Obama’s former White House communications director, earned nearly $ 580,000 through her private consulting group.
- She also received a communication consultation fee of more than $ 5,000 from Jeff Zients, currently Biden’s counselor and COVID-19 response coordinator, and another from Lyft.
Susan Rice, who served as Obama’s national security adviser and is now director of the Home Policy Council, earned more than $ 305,000 last August from exercising Netflix stock options. She was appointed to the board of directors of Netflix in 2018.
- She also received from $ 100,000 to $ 1 million in dividends from shares in Enbridge, a Canadian energy company building an oil pipeline in northern Minnesota that wants opponents to stop the Biden government.
- The figures are given in broad series.
Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, the U.S. ambassador to Uruguay under Obama and now chief of staff Jill Biden, raised nearly $ 1.5 million in December last year as a partner at law firm Winston & Strawn.
Biden’s other assistants remunerated significantly to return to the civil service.
- White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain earned just over $ 1.8 million as executive vice president of DC-based venture capital firm Revolution.
- Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed made more than $ 450,000 as co-founder of Civic, a DC-based think tank.
- Zients earned a salary of $ 1.6 million – plus a bonus – as CEO of Wall Street holding company Cranemere. As a member of Facebook’s board, he also earned $ 333,000 from limited shares still earned during the reporting period, plus more than $ 50,000 in director fees.
- Stuart Delery, Biden’s deputy board, earned $ 3.7 million until January as a partner at law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Some people who helped the president win the 2020 race also gave up hefty compensation packages to serve in the federal government.
- Biden Senior Advisor Mike Donilon, who served as an adviser to Biden during the Obama administration, earned more than $ 4.3 million last year as a board member of consulting firm MCD Strategies.
- The firm’s clients included Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Convention Committee.
- Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon also received a severance and deferred compensation package from the firm Precision Strategies – which she co-founded – which totaled $ 425,000.
The whole picture: Although several of Biden’s closest advisers made millions by forging new ties with corporate interests after leaving Obama’s White House, their wealth fades compared to the net worth of many super-rich Trump confidants.
- Gary Cohn held stock and cash payments worth about $ 300 million as president of Goldman Sachs before becoming Trump’s former White House economic adviser.
- Former Trump administration chief strategist Steve Bannon reported assets of up to $ 13 million in 2017, mostly in real estate.
What they say: The White House said in a statement: “These White House officials are experienced government leaders whose experience in the private sector in the past is part of a wide and diverse skill that brings them into government service.”
- “They returned to the government because of their deep commitment to public service, their desire to help get our people out of this time of crisis, and their strong belief that the government can work for the American people.”