It appears "Occupy Wall Street" is a thing again, and this time it's Donald Trump's fault.
Anyone who was wondering if the general population has noticed the abnormal concentration of Wall Streeters in general, and Goldman Sachs alumni in particular, in the Trump administration got their answer on Wednesday afternoon, when screaming protesters, chanting "Drain that Swamp", swarmed the lobby of Goldman Sachs' New York headquarters in opposition to the firm’s growing influence in Donald Trump’s administration.
As Bloomberg first reported, "about 40 protesters entered Goldman’s lobby and were ejected, in some cases physically" according to a statement from New York Communities for Change, a social- and economic-justice advocacy group. A video of the rally posted on Facebook shows roughly half that number.
The roughly four-minute video provided by New York Communities shows protesters yelling, displaying banners and blocking turnstiles inside the company’s lobby, where they are met by security and police officers. At one point, an officer confiscated a large black banner with the words “Government Sachs.” Later in the video, the officer can be seen shoving some protesters through an open door. The group vowed to return on Jan. 17.
The disgruntled protesters criticized Goldman’s role in the U.S. housing crisis and the long history of its former executives taking senior posts in government - apparently having alumni in charge of virtually every major central bank, and in most government posts in previous administration, was not a sufficient wake up call, it took Trump to remind them which company really runs the world (hint: the one whose 34% surge since the Trump election has been responsible for a quarter of the Dow's move in the same period) .
The protest came hours after Trump said he would nominate Jay Clayton, an attorney with extensive ties to the investment bank, to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. Clayton, a Sullivan & Cromwell partner, has done millions worth of billable works in work for Goldman Sachs as reported earlier. Jay's wife, Gretchen, is a VP of wealth management at the bank, Bloomberg notes.
Having derided Wall Street and singled out Goldman as a symbol of greed during his campaign, he’s tapped many of its alumni to help lead the government. He picked Steven Mnuchin, a former partner at the bank, to be Treasury secretary and enlisted Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn for the top White House economic post. Stephen Bannon, another alumnus of the firm, was named chief strategist.
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