(Vanity Fair) If you’ve been keeping tabs on how the superrich feel about Bernie Sanders, you know that in general those feelings range from “not great” to—and this is an actual quote—“bigger threat than the coronavirus.”
One individual who’s been particularly open about his animosity toward Sanders is ex-Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Last week, the Brooklyn-born billionaire tweeted that the Vermont senator winning the Democratic nomination would likely result in Russia throwing its support to him over Trump and, ultimately, the total destruction of the U.S. economy. And, apparently, that was just a warm-up! Because over a steakhouse lunch with the Financial Times, Blankfein, a lifelong Democrat who contributed to Hillary Clinton in 2016, dropped the ultimate bomb: that if given the choice between Sanders and Donald Trump, he might have to go with the latter, a guy he’s previously noted is a dark stain on humanity.
Asked who he’d pick if it boiled down to the two men, Blankfein told reporter Edward Luce, “I think I might find it harder to vote for Bernie than for Trump. There’s a long time between now and then. The Democrats would be working very hard to find someone who is as divisive as Trump. But with Bernie they would have succeeded.” Asked if his hostility toward Sanders has anything to do with the wealth tax the senator has proposed, Blankfein responded that such questions are deeply insulting. “I don’t like that at all,” he said. “I don’t like assassination by categorization. I think it’s un-American. I find that destructive and intemperate. I find that just as subversive of the American character as someone like Trump who denigrates groups of people who he has never met. At least Trump cares about the economy.”
Whether Trump actually cares about the economy, or knows a thing about how to run it is, of course, up for debate. Blankfein, who has aired his grievances about attacks on the rich in the past, though, may find them extra galling not simply because he seemingly believes they’re just as bad as attacking someone for the color of their skin or religion, but because he himself, a man with a net worth of more than $1 billion, apparently believes that he does not actually fall under the category of rich. Which, yes, is a real thing he told the Financial Times:
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Wouldn’t life be simpler if you were just able to enjoy being rich, I ask. Even with a wealth tax he would have enough money to ensure his descendants can be full-time philanthropists in perpetuity. Blankfein insists he is “well-to-do,” not rich. “I can’t even say ‘rich,’” he insists. “I don’t feel that way. I don’t behave that way.” He says he has an apartment in Miami as well as New York. But he abjures most of the trappings. “If I bought a Ferrari, I’d be worried about it getting scratched,” he jokes. “Ken Griffin [the Chicago-based hedge fund billionaire] buys all these houses. He’s out there every minute, calling the office. It can’t make any sense to people outside.”
Yes, it’s true that with a net worth of approximately $13 billion, Griffin might make Blankfein feel like a pauper by comparison, but those are the sorts of feelings one should generally keep to oneself, particularly in the context of a complaint about Sanders’s attacks on the wealthy. In other news, Blankfein has done some thinking about it and he’s not sure he agrees with all the hand-wringing re: Trump being acquitted for trying to extort another country.
“Look, I am a Democrat, but they said those things in a shrill way to raise the stakes on the outcome,” Blankfein says. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable or cynical for a legislator to have said that what Trump did was wrong, and showed bad character, but it was not at a level where we’re going to overturn an election nine months before the next one.” But Trump is already taking revenge on those who testified against him, I protest. “Bill Clinton, who I supported, perjured himself,” Blankfein replies. “That’s a literal crime. And he was acquitted.” Just to be clear, I press, you do not share the Democratic party’s fears about Trump’s autocratic leanings? “Look, it’s crazy not to acknowledge the economy has expanded under Trump,” Blankfein says. “Some of this is related to tax reform. The cheapest stimulus is getting rid of dopey regulations [including on Wall Street]. All I’m saying is that Democrats would have a far stronger case if they conceded what was good.”
Anyway, he hopes people will take everything he’s said with an open mind, though he’s afraid that might not be the case. “I can’t imagine how all this is going to come out when you publish,” he told Luce at the end of the meal. “If I tried to educate people, and said these things in public, people would go batshit.”
