Trump Just Fulfilled His Billionaire Pal’s Dream

As news cycles were consumed by Trump deliberately inflaming social unrest and threatening a domestic military invasion, the president’s political appointees were approving a regulatory change that could transfer hundreds of billions of dollars of Americans’ retirement savings to private equity firms. Those are the Gordon Gekko–run outlets that have become famous for fleecing investors, laying off workers, gutting local economies, strip-mining media outlets and creating public health and environmental disasters — all while minting Wall Street billionaires.

The Trump administration’s new directive came just a few months after private equity billionaire Stephen Schwarzman — who had been pushing for the change — poured $3 million into a super PAC backing Trump’s reelection bid.