Trump released initial details of his economic policies when his campaign officially began in June 2015, and more details during the first Republican debates which began in August 2015. Although critical of certain aspects of Trump's early economic plans, especially increasing tariffs as opposed to free trade policies,[1]Larry Kudlow and Steve Moore would eventually[when?] agree to join the Trump campaign as advisors. Although most presidential candidates had announced a team of formal economic advisors by October 2015, at the time Trump still primarily relied upon his business background to inform his economic plan (Carly Fiorina was the other candidate who relied primarily upon her own background in business in the early phases of the campaign).[2] In addition to his own business expertise, Trump had a network of contacts that sometimes served as informal economic advisors during his campaign, including Carl Icahn.[3] Even as late as July 2016, however, Kudlow and Moore were still not official advisors, despite having already helped craft some of Trump's policy-positions related to taxation for instance.[4]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2016)
During the general election
Trump released a list of his campaign's official economic advisers in August 2016,[5][6][7] which was significantly anti-establishment[8] and therefore included few people with any governmental experience,[9] yet at the same time aimed to include some of the elites of business and finance,[5] primarily people with well-known names.
Steve Roth, chair of Vornado Realty Trust (although on the list of advisers in August 2016, Roth said in September 2016 he was no longer spending any time on the effort[9])
Carla Sands, philanthropist and chair of Vintage Capital[17]
Several of the advisors were major donors to Trump's presidential campaign.[22]
At first, only one of Trump's initial list of a dozen official advisors, Peter Navarro, had a PhD in economics.[23] Although he had been in contact with Trump since 2011,[24] Navarro had never met nor spoken with Trump directly in August 2016,[25] but began to meet with Trump in person late in the 2016 campaign.[24] A few days after Navarro was announced, Trump added Judy Shelton, an economist[19][20] with a Ph.D[19] in business administration[21] to his team.
Airbnb was also invited to attend the tech-CEO meeting, but their CEO was traveling internationally that week.
The details of the December 2016 meeting were not made public, but according to anonymous sources, reforming the H1B visa program was discussed.[52]
Of the above, Stephen Bannon resigned on 18 August 2017; Reince Prebus was fired on 11 March 2017.
Business-oriented strategy and policy group
In addition to the tech-industry group, there is also a more general business advisory group being formed.[53] Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone organized the business advisory group, which also includes:[54]
It is unclear whether Trump or his transition team have personally met with this advisory group, but media reports indicate that some of the members were considered for cabinet-level positions in his administration (including Dimon as a potential treasury secretary, Cosgrove as potential secretary of veterans affairs, Warsh for a potential Federal Reserve role).
Agricultural industry
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2016)
During his campaign, Trump had several dozen agricultural advisors.[citation needed]
