{"id":149639,"date":"2016-05-06T11:14:38","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T17:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=149639"},"modified":"2016-10-12T13:10:04","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T19:10:04","slug":"donald-trumps-new-finance-guru-once-a-clinton-donor-soros-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/05\/donald-trumps-new-finance-guru-once-a-clinton-donor-soros-employee\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump&#8217;s new finance guru: once a Clinton donor, Soros employee"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_54908\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/pictures-of-money\/17123251389\/in\/photolist-s6895e-chEwR9-bH1iX8-bt4mNt-42PQoC-a2YSa6-62QVKf-bta55K-dB7F8e-dK2oa7-aFDjPB-aYWk56-aFATbM-aFAaK6-aFAQEv-snzAJp-QxcaH-s4fksR-cMnty-bZvUDS-bta3kH-brd1K2-62LFqP-dTUAhR-5p8w8o-7jm7SP-8F5t1j-dSZe91-dUSc9a-a5SwX-dSK3tm-biaRHp-68vjKV-68zxeQ-9C9vCS-aFAPtx-9ZA9J6-cXNz15-9kJxyv-b6MUJK-68zxij-aFDkRt-aFDet2-bDwJ11-5DfGXv-bmm93i-55FLSR-aFDcrg-bf3Nge-nQZguc\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-54908 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Money-771x495.jpg\" alt=\"Money\" width=\"771\" height=\"495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Money-771x495.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Money-336x216.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Money-768x494.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Money-1170x752.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Money-780x500.jpg 780w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Money.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Pictures of Money \/ Creative Commons<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Over the years, more than half of Steven Mnuchin\u2019s federal-level political contributions have benefited Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Clinton, Trump\u2019s all-but-certain general election rival. (<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\" target=\"_blank\">photo cc info<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/2015\/06\/16\/17488\/9-things-know-about-donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump<\/a> himself, the Trump campaign\u2019s new national finance chairman has a long history of contributing to Democrats \u2014 including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/2016\/04\/07\/19521\/how-citizens-united-helping-hillary-clinton-win-white-house\" target=\"_blank\">Hillary Clinton<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Private investor <a href=\"http:\/\/variety.com\/2015\/biz\/news\/relativity-steve-mnuchin-co-chairman-1201557256\/\" target=\"_blank\">Steven Mnuchin<\/a>, Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donaldjtrump.com\/press-releases\/donald-j.-trump-announces-national-finance-chairman\" target=\"_blank\">new<\/a>\u00a0campaign fundraising guru, has contributed more than $120,000 to a mix of Democrats, Republicans and bipartisan political groups since 1995, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Public Integrity<\/a> analysis of Federal Election Commission and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Responsive Politics<\/a> data indicates.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This story comes from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/2016\/05\/05\/19634\/donald-trumps-new-finance-guru-once-clinton-donor-soros-employee\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Public Integrity<\/a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative media organization in Washington, D.C. It\u2019s\u00a0part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/politics\/buying-president-2016?utm_campaign=syndication&amp;utm_source=yahoo-news&amp;utm_medium=taxonomy-link\" target=\"_blank\">Buying of the President 2016<\/a>. Tracking the candidates, political committees and nonprofits that are making this presidential election the most expensive in history.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/politics\/buying-president-2016?utm_campaign=syndication&amp;utm_source=yahoo-news&amp;utm_medium=taxonomy-link\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to read more stories in this investigation.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Over the years, more than half of Mnuchin\u2019s federal-level political contributions have benefited Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Clinton, Trump\u2019s all-but-certain general election rival.<\/p>\n<p>About one-third of Mnuchin\u2019s giving has benefited Republicans. The rest has gone to nonpartisan political action committees such as the PAC of Goldman Sachs, where Mnuchin worked for 17 years.<\/p>\n<p>Each election cycle, Mnuchin \u2014 also a bankroller of blockbuster movies such as \u201cAmerican Sniper,\u201d \u201cGravity\u201d and \u201cAvatar\u201d \u2014 has frequently donated to the campaigns of presidential contenders.<\/p>\n<p>During the 2000 presidential election, Mnuchin donated to Democrats Al Gore and Bill Bradley and Republican Steve Forbes.<\/p>\n<p>During the 2004 presidential race, he donated to two Democratic candidates: John Kerry and John Edwards.<\/p>\n<p>And ahead of the 2008 presidential election, Mnuchin donated not only to Obama, Clinton and Edwards, but also to Democrats Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson. Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney also received contributions from Mnuchin.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>During the 2012 presidential race, Mnuchin donated to both Romney and fellow Republican Tim Pawlenty.<\/p>\n<p>Mnuchin\u2019s contributions to Democrats extend to the current cycle.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, he <a href=\"http:\/\/docquery.fec.gov\/cgi-bin\/senate\/sforms\/C00571919\/1372\/sa\/11AI\/6\" target=\"_blank\">donated<\/a> $2,000 in February to the U.S. Senate campaign of California Attorney General Kamala Harris, a Democrat. Last year, Harris <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.sfgate.com\/politics\/2015\/07\/10\/kamala-harris-speaks-out-on-steinle-sanctuary-sheriff-and-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\">described Trump<\/a>, who had personally contributed money <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politifact.com\/california\/statements\/2016\/may\/03\/ted-cruz\/yep-donald-trump-gave-12k-jerry-brown-gavin-newsom\/\" target=\"_blank\">in 2013<\/a> to Harris\u2019 political committee, as \u201csomeone who clearly cannot be a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mnuchin and the Trump campaign could not immediately be reached for comment on Mnuchin\u2019s political contributions.<\/p>\n<p>Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner, is the chairman and chief executive officer of private investment company Dune Capital LP.<\/p>\n<p>Mnuchin also has professional ties to George Soros, the billionaire financier who\u2019s contributed tens of millions of dollars to Democratic political causes over the years,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/2016\/04\/07\/19528\/inside-hillary-clintons-big-money-cavalry\" target=\"_blank\">including $7 million<\/a> this election cycle to Priorities USA Action, a pro-Clinton super PAC.<\/p>\n<p>From 2003 to 2004, Mnuchin worked as chief executive of SFM Capital Management, which the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> reports is <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/deals\/2009\/01\/02\/deal-maker-profile-new-indymac-ceo-steve-mnuchin\/\" target=\"_blank\">backed by Soros<\/a>. He also worked for Soros Fund Management LLC, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/research\/stocks\/private\/person.asp?personId=1492034&amp;privcapId=2522804\" target=\"_blank\">according to Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>(The Center for Public Integrity receives funding from the <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensocietyfoundations.org\/about\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Open Society Foundations<\/em><\/a><em>, which Soros funds. A complete list of Center for Public Integrity funders is<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/about\/our-work\/supporters\" target=\"_blank\"><em>found here<\/em><\/a><em>.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Trump himself has been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2015\/06\/donald-trump-donations-democrats-hillary-clinton-119071\" target=\"_blank\">forced to defend<\/a> his past campaign contributions to Democrats this cycle, arguing that there are few alternatives to Democrats in New York.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAm I going to contribute to a Republican for my whole life when they get, they run against some Democrat?\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the most they can get is one percent of the vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This story was co-published with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/steven-mnuchin-donald-trump_us_572b8591e4b0bc9cb045fb7f?jp17x23l93bygy14i\" target=\"_blank\">Huffington Post<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/donald-trump-s-new-finance-guru-ex-clinton-donor-soros-n568766\" target=\"_blank\">NBC News<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/4319821\/steven-mnuchin-donald-trump-campaign-donations-finance\/\" target=\"_blank\">TIME<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Private investor Steven Mnuchin also contributed to Obama, Kerry and Gore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[708,3307,705,226,116],"class_list":["post-149639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-election","tag-donald-trump","tag-money-in-politics","tag-presidential-race","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}