Trump Chooses Hedge Fund Guy To Push Paper Around As Campaign Finance Chair

It looks like hedge fund manager Steve Mnuchin can take some time off from "Getting away with murder"...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has touted his ability to fund most of his campaign, on Thursday named a hedge fund veteran as finance chairman for his general election bid.
Steven Mnuchin, chairman and CEO of Dune Capital Management, said in a statement he will help Trump "create a world-class finance organization" to fuel his campaign. Mnuchin previously served as chairman of OneWest Bank Group and as a partner at Goldman Sachs.

The choice of a Goldman partner turned hedge fund manager as a campaign finance chair is hardly unprecedented in American politics, but Trump has singled out "hedge fund guys" as a scourge on the American economy and compared their business model to criminality. While it's not the first time that Trump's actions have flown in the face of his own statements (or objective truth), it is a pretty bold statement that The Donald is ch-ch-changing as he enters the general election.

Hiring a hedge fund manager to direct fundraising is basically Trump hiring someone he claims to detest to do something he said he'd never do. But if he was going to hire any hedgie, Mnuchin makes more than a little sense.

Like his new boss, Mnuchin has a long history of donating to Hillary Clinton. He gave to both of Hillary's New York Senate campaigns and to her 2008 primary run. He's also donated to Chuck Schumer, Jon Corzine and Barack Obama. But like any learned Goldman alum, Mnuchin spreads his largesse around, having also given to the RNC, Mitt Romney and...Steve Forbes(?).

And it also appears that Mnuchin has some up close and personal experience dealing with frauds guys who have a hard time being totally honest about how much money they have lying around. According to an item in Variety from last year, Mnuchin was a close associate of former Relativity Media CEO Ryan Kavanaugh. He served as co-chairman of Relativity until May of last year, right before Kavanaugh's considerable flotilla bullsh!t hit the fan and Relativity went bankrupt.

Trump and Mnuchin also share the experience of having had very successful fathers. Steve Mnuchin's dad is former Goldman rainmaker Bob Mnuchin who is credited by some as the inventor of institutional equity trading at the bank during his 33 years of service.

And they can also talk about the facts that they're both kind of stretching the truth with the self-descriptions on their resumes. Trump's "real estate developer" claims have been debated for months now, but he is definitely on more sure-footing than "hedge fund manager" Steve Mnuchin. According to governemnt filings, Dune Capital is no longer registered with the SEC.

Donald Trump names hedge fund veteran as finance chairman [CNBC]