The Only Person Who's Donated To Trump At Goldman Sachs Was Put On Administrative Leave

Chris Spags3/01/2016 6:20 PM

NY Times – A financial adviser who was recently highlighted in an article in The New York Times as the only Goldman Sachs employee to contribute to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign has been placed on administrative leave, according to people familiar with the matter.

The employee, Luke Thorburn, made two donations, totaling $534.58, to Mr. Trump’s campaign in September, according to Federal Election Commission records. He also trademarked the phrase “Make Christianity Great Again,” according to public records.

The Times confirmed that Mr. Thorburn is associated with a website that sells hats that resemble Mr. Trump’s red and blue “Make America Great Again” caps, replacing the word “America” with “Christianity.”

Goldman employees are allowed to pursue outside business opportunities, but they first must get clearance from the company. Mr. Thorburn, a financial adviser in the bank’s wealth management division, had not received approval before pursuing the hat endeavor.

Goldman, according to people briefed on the situation but not authorized to speak on the record, put Mr. Thorburn on paid administrative leave last week after he was interviewed by company officials about details that appeared in The Times’s article.

These people say that Mr. Thorburn sought to distance himself from the website. Ultimately, the bank became concerned about apparent inconsistencies in Mr. Thorburn’s story, and placed him on leave, they said.

This is one of those situations where it seems like it could go either way. Maybe they did just see inconsistencies in this guy’s story with whatever Christianity/Donald Trump-based hat business he was trying to conjure up (next time leave it to the pros, short stack) and that’s why they put him on leave. But it’s such a bad look to try to force out your only employee donating to a candidate who’s presenting a controversial campaign. Here’s another part of the Times’ article on Thorburn’s contributions:

Mr. Thorburn’s contribution stands out as unusual, considering how active Wall Street has been elsewhere in the 2016 presidential race.
As of last week, for instance, Goldman employees had contributed more than $199,000 to the campaign of Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican, and more than $94,000 to that of Hillary Clinton, a Democrat. By contrast, Mr. Trump, who is largely financing his own campaign, has not actively solicited donations from Wall Street.

Banking is already such a hiveminded industry given how exclusionary and relatively shrouded in secrecy it’s been for decades and now you’re basically shutting a guy down because he likes a candidate you don’t? Whether you like or love Trump’s politics, Americans have a right to support who they want to support, particularly if it’s not affecting others at the workplace. You want to judge him behind his back and call him an idiot or whatever, fine, but icing him en route to probably trying to force him to leave the firm strikes me as an extremely bizarre move. And also one that’ll only make Trump supporters think the same thing he’s been saying, that Wall Street tries to control everyone and he’s the only man unbeholden to them. It’s unbelievable how much every single reaction plays exactly into his hands.

Anyway besides Trump shitting on Wall Street here and there (not like Bernie hasn’t done the same) and it not being popular in some crowds to support Trump, I’m really struggling for a reason why banks would be so mad at people supporting him that they might shut employees down over it. Really has me stumped. I mean I just can’t think of why: