Two of President Biden’s top economic and foreign policy advisers earned high salaries on Wall Street during the Trump administration, after working for President Obama, show new forms of financial disclosure.
The details: Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, received $ 2.3 million in salary last year to serve as head of sustainable investments at BlackRock. Deputy national security adviser Jonathan Finer received nearly $ 730,000 as senior vice president of private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
- Deese also appeared to earn another $ 2.4 million from his restricted shares acquired at BlackRock. He served as one of Obama’s senior advisers and helped negotiate the 2015 climate deal in Paris.
- Finer received another $ 430,000 from Warburg in carry-on interest – the profits made by venture capital, hedge and private equity fund managers. He had previously served as the State Department’s chief of staff 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 director of communications at the White House, earned nearly $ 580,000 through her private advisory group.
- She also received a communication consultancy fee in excess of $ 5,000 from Jeff Zients, currently Biden’s advisor 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 Domestic Policy Council, earned more than $ 305,000 from exercising Netflix’s stock options last August. She was appointed to the Netflix board of directors in 2018.
- It also received $ 100,000 to $ 1 million in stock dividends from Enbridge, a Canadian energy company that is building a pipeline in northern Minnesota that opponents want the Biden government to stop.
- The numbers are reported over wide ranges.
Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, the US ambassador to Uruguay under Obama and now chief of staff to First Lady Jill Biden, raised nearly $ 1.5 million as of last December as a partner at the Winston & Strawn law firm.
Other Biden advisers joined them to make substantial wage cuts to return to government service.
- White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain earned just over $ 1.8 million as executive vice president of venture capital firm Revolution, based in DC.
- Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed did over $ 450,000 as a co-founder of Civic, a DC-based think tank.
- Zients earned a salary of $ 1.6 million – plus a bonus – as CEO of the Wall Street Cranemere holding company. As a Facebook board member, he also earned $ 333,000 with restricted stock units still in effect during the reporting period, in addition to more than $ 50,000 in director fees.
- Stuart Delery, Biden’s deputy attorney, earned $ 3.7 million through January as a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Some of the people who helped the president win the 2020 race also gave up heavy compensation packages to serve in the federal government.
- Mike Donilon, senior advisor to Biden, who served as Biden’s adviser during the Obama administration, earned more than $ 4.3 million last year as a managing member of the consulting firm MCD Strategies.
- The company’s customers included Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Convention Committee.
- Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon it also received compensation and a deferred compensation package from the company Precision Strategies – which it co-funded – which totaled about $ 425,000.
The big picture: While several of Biden’s closest advisers have earned millions by creating new ties to corporate interests after leaving the Obama White House, his wealth pales in comparison to the net worth of many Trump’s super-wealthy confidants.
- Gary Cohn had shares and cash payments valued at about $ 300 million as president of Goldman Sachs before becoming Trump’s former economic adviser at the White House.
- Former chief strategist of the Trump administration, Steve Bannon, reported up to $ 13 million in assets in 2017, mostly in the real estate industry.
What they are saying: The White House said in a statement: “These White House employees are experienced government leaders, whose past experience in the private sector is part of a broad and diverse set of skills they bring to government service.”
- “They returned to the government because of their deep commitment to public service, their desire to help lift our nation out of this time of crisis and its strong belief that the government can work for the American people.”