As part ofDonald Trump's2016 presidential campaign, variouseconomists andbusinesspeople have served both in a formal and an informal capacity, to advise Trump onmacroeconomics and associatedgovernment policy decisions. During the 2016transition to thepresidency, Trump gained additional advisors, and after theinauguration some of his advisors will officially become part of theTrump administration (including theNEC,NTC,advisors,czars,counselors,OMB,CEA,Treasury,Commerce,USTR,SBA,SEC, and theFed) while others will remain in theprivate sector as informal advisors with varying degrees of influence.

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Trump released initial details of his economic policies when his campaign officially began in June 2015, and more details during the firstRepublican debates which began in August 2015. Although critical of certain aspects of Trump's early economic plans, especially increasingtariffs as opposed tofree trade policies,^[1]Larry Kudlow andSteve Moore would eventually^[when?] agree to join theTrump 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 uponhis 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, includingCarl Icahn.^[3] Even as late as July 2016, however,Kudlow andMoore were still not official advisors, despite having already helped craft some of Trump's policy-positions related to taxation for instance.^[4]

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Trump released a list ofhis 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.

Although most of the names were new, existing Trump advisersDavid Malpass,Peter Navarro,Stephen Moore, andDan DiMicco were also on the list, formally led byStephen Miller, the national policy director, and directly led by deputy policy director Dan Kowalski. The Trump'16 finance directorSteven Mnuchin was also listed, and played a role in helping coordinate the group. Many of the names on the original list, or on the subsequent expansions thereof,^[10] received media attentionas potential appointees to the presidentialCouncil of Economic Advisers, or inother Trump administration roles. As of August 2016, Trump's economic advisors included:

• Tom Barrack, CEO ofColony Capital,2017 inauguration chair, formerTreasury contender, major donor^[11]
• Andy Beal, banker, billionaire, professionalpoker player, major donor^[11]
• Stephen Calk, CEO of the Federal Savings Bank, officer and helicopter pilot in theU.S. Army^[12]
• Dan DiMicco, former CEO ofNucor,Commerce/CEA/USTR contender
• Steve Feinberg, CEO ofCerberus Capital, major donor^[11]
• Harold Hamm, oil andgas industry, billionaire, formerEnergy/Interior contender
• Kathleen Hartnett-White, formerEPA/Interior contender,^[13] a director at theTexas Public Policy Foundation, former head of theTexas Commission on Environmental Quality
• Diane Hendricks, chair ofABC Supply, billionaire, originally backedWalker'16
• Darlene Jordan, former assistant attorney general of Massachusetts^[14]
• Dan Kowalski, former deputy staff director for theSenate Budget Committee 2009-2015 andHouse Budget Committee staffer1998-2007,^[15] co-lead of the Trump'16 economic advisers team, Trump'16 deputy director of policy, on the TrumpOMB transition team^[16]
• Howard Lorber, CEO ofVector Group, major donor^[11]
• David Malpass,Fed/OMB/USTR contender
• Ted Malloch, author, consultant, and television producer
• Betsy McCaughey, formerlieutenant governor of New York, divorced spouse ofWilbur Ross
• Stephen Miller, Trump'16 director of policy,Sr. Advisor appointee
• Steven Mnuchin, founder of hedge fund Dune Capital Management, formerGoldman Sachs employee, Trump'16 finance chair, major donor,^[11]Treasury-designate
• Stephen Moore, founding president of theClub for Growth,CEA contender
• Peter Navarro, business school professor atUC-Irvine,CEA contender
• John Paulson, CEO of investment firmPaulson & Co.
• Brooke Rollins, CEO ofTexas Public Policy Foundation,^[13] former deputy general counsel under GovernorRick Perry
• Wilbur Ross, billionaire investor,Commerce-designate, divorced spouse ofBetsy McCaughey
• Steve Roth, chair ofVornado 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]
• Anthony Scaramucci, founder ofSkyBridge Capital, formerGoldman Sachs employee
• Judy Shelton,Fed Vice-chair contender, possible futureFed Chair contender,^[18] former advisor toCarson'16, director of theSound Money Project^[19] at theAtlas Network, economist^[20] with aPh.D. inbusiness administration fromUniversity of Utah,^[21] noted for her1989 bookThe Coming Soviet Crash^[19]
• Liz Uihlein, president ofUline

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 addedJudy Shelton, an economist^[19][20] with aPh.D^[19] inbusiness administration^[21] to his team.

As of December 2016, many of the advisors during the campaign listed above are under consideration forcabinet-level roles or otherhigh-level roles in theTrump administration. (For instance, Navarro is a contender for theCEA chair, and Shelton is a contender forFed Vice-chair.)

In addition to his statutory advisory groups, Trump is also organizing efforts to directly communicate with business leaders.

Billionaire venture capitalistPeter Thiel originally backed fellow Californian and tech industry candidateCarly Fiorina, but implicitly endorsed Trump in May 2016,^[26][27][28] then spoke at theRepublican National Convention that July.^[29][30] Thiel donated over a million dollars in October 2016.^{[31][32][33][34][35]} A few days after the general election,^[36] Thiel joinedthe executive committee of the Trump transition team,^[37][38][39] although Thiel said he was not seeking a full-time Trump administration position.^[40]

In addition to bringing some of his tech industry contacts to the Trump team,^[41][42][43] Thiel, along with Trump's son-in-lawJared Kushner and incoming White House chief of staffReince Priebus,^[44] helped organize a technology-CEO meeting in December 2016 forTrump andPence, as well as a handful ofappointees andtransition team members.^[45][46][47]

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 theH1B visa program was discussed.^[52]

Of the above, Stephen Bannon resigned on 18 August 2017; Reince Prebus was fired on 11 March 2017.

In addition to the tech-industry group, there is also a more general business advisory group being formed.^[53] BillionaireStephen Schwarzman ofBlackstone organized the business advisory group, which also includes:^[54]

• Paul Atkins, formerSEC commissioner
• Mary Barra, CEO ofGM
• Toby Cosgrove, CEO ofCleveland Clinic
• Jamie Dimon, CEO ofJPMorgan Chase
• Larry Fink, CEO ofBlackRock
• Travis Kalanick, former CEO ofUber (December 2016-February 2017 resignation)^[55][56]
• Rich Lesser, CEO ofBCG
• Doug McMillon, CEO ofWal-Mart
• Jim McNerney, former CEO ofBoeing
• Elon Musk (December 2016-June 2017 resignation)^[57]
• Indra Nooyi, CEO ofPepsiCo
• Bayo Ogunlesi, chair ofGlobal Infrastructure Partners
• Ginni Rometty, CEO ofIBM, also attended tech-CEO meeting
• Kevin Warsh, formerFRB member
• Mark Weinberger, CEO ofEY
• Jack Welch, former CEO ofGE
• Daniel Yergin, winner of thePulitzer Prize

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 forcabinet-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).

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During his campaign, Trump had several dozen agricultural advisors.^{[citation needed]}

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