According to the old cliché, opposites attract. And there can be no greater example of this than the strange, interesting and useful relationship between Larry Fink and Donald Trump.
Yes, you read that right. Fink and Trump.
A match made in heaven? No, to be more precise, made on Wall Street, with BlackRock’s uber-globalist boss of ESG fame who once served as Trump’s money manager and the populist former GOP president (and, according to polls, likely pres. future) still looks to Fink for knowledge of the economy, The Post has learned.
Sure, Trump likes to tout JPMorgan super-banker CEO Jamie Dimon as a potential Treasury secretary (more on why it’s not happening), but it’s really Fink he likes, respects and talks to, I am told.
The feeling is mutual, and it’s a relationship I explain in my upcoming book Go Woke, Go Broke.
During Trump’s presidency, Fink was involved in Social Environmental Governance investments, but somehow he was appointed to Trump’s business advisory council.
It seemed strange at the time, until you dug a little deeper. BlackRock had handled Trump’s investment portfolio for years (Trump invested in the BlackRock Obsidian Fund, described by the firm as “a multi-strategy global fixed-income hedge fund.”)
When Trump invited a group of CEOs, including Dimon, to the White House in 2017, he immediately mentioned Fink’s presence.
“I see we have Larry Fink here, where is Larry Fink?” When he saw the money manager in the crowd, Trump said, “Larry did a great job for me. He managed a lot of my money. I have to tell you, he got me great returns.”
I don’t know if BlackRock is still doing business with The Donald (a BlackRock group had no comment for this column; the Trump campaign did not), but the relationship is still operational, albeit quietly, I’m told by someone with knowledge of first hand on this issue.
And you can see why it’s on the low end. Fink is a longtime Wall Street insider who has served as Treasury secretary for DEM presidents since Barack Obama. His people are all over the Biden White House.
He is a “proud globalist” (his words). BlackRock is often reviled by the right for its once staunch support of ESG.
It is tarnished for supporting smart investing. Taken to its extreme – as it once was – ESG forces oil companies to stop drilling and imposes strict DEI standards on employment.
Trump, meanwhile, is expected to go full MAGA populism if elected. His choice of populist Ohio Sen. JD Vance, as a candidate, says tariffs, a weaker dollar, trade wars, more debt — all the things Fink hates — could be around the corner.
And yet step back and study the two men’s comments about each other, and you begin to understand why they remain close — and why Trump might tone down his economic populism in office if Fink has his ear.
Fink, of course, runs the world’s largest money management firm with $10 trillion in assets under management.
Say what you will about his ESG affiliation, Fink knows the markets and, given BlackRock’s size, he has a commanding view of them from his New York City office.
He would undoubtedly remind Trump that continuing full MAGA with tariffs and trade wars will be worrisome for markets and the overall economy.
And Trump loved touting the roaring stock market during his years in the White House, when such policies were muted by the more traditional economic conservatives on his team.
Politically moderate
Plus, Fink is much more of a political moderate than the ESG-tainted image pushed by his critics on the right.
He and BlackRock have ditched ESG these days, relegating it mostly to clients (blue-state pension funds and sovereign wealth funds) who demand it.
He has met with GOP leaders on the Hill, in state government, and is no friend of super-lefties like the Massachusetts Senate. Elizabeth Warren, because BlackRock, for all its ESG talk, was and is one of the largest institutional investors in energy companies.
Trump, for all his populist rhetoric, has always been a political moderate as well; tax cuts and deregulation were as “far right” as he went. He stayed out of wars and didn’t get a sledgehammer in the budget.
In fact, he spent as a Democrat. His trade wars in his first term were mostly aimed at China, a worthy target if ever there was one, given its trade hostility.
So why does Trump keep touting Jamie Dimon as a possible Treasury secretary instead of Fink?
Trump, the real estate mogul, never gave up his second pre-political career on reality TV. He knows what looks good.
My guess is that Trump thinks Dimon is better looking than Fink, so he’s willing to ignore their past differences, which were significant.
Remember how Dimon once said he would make a better president than Trump, “because I’m as tough as him, I’m smarter than him.” Oh.
Trump, before naming Dimon for Treasury, posted on social media that the JPM chief is a “highly overrated globalist.”
My sources at JPMorgan tell me Dimon wouldn’t take the job if asked; that means Trump will probably keep asking because he hates to be told no.
And above all, Donald is a pragmatist who, in the words of Don Corleone, prefers to “keep his friends. [like Fink] near and his enemies [like Dimon] closer.”
Charles Gasparino is the author of the forthcoming book Go Woke, Go Broke: The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate America.
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