“The day after the election of Donald Trump the market will go down massively as people jump out of stock and bonds and buy gold,” said Robert Shrum, a longtime Democratic political consultant now on the faculty of the University of Southern California. “Saving on your taxes on your profits doesn’t do you any good if you don’t have any profits.”
The top four private equity firms, which declined to comment for this article, aren’t donating to Clinton at the level they backed 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who had spent years working in the industry. Executives and employees of those firms gave Romney a combined $591,600, while giving only $147,031 to Obama, who had attacked the loophole as a senator and a presidential candidate. But Clinton’s take has already surpassed Obama’s.
The private-equity industry’s giving this year is mirrored by a mismatch in other sectors of Wall Street (though a few hedge fund managers have taken prominent roles as Trump fundraisers and advisers) and helps explain Clinton’s financial advantage heading into the campaign’s home stretch. But it also raises an obvious question for Clinton: Would she as president really follow through with a campaign proposal that will raise billions of dollars in revenue from the very industry that has favored her so completely over her opponent?
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