The Wall Street Titans Jockeying for Access to Donald Trump
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Federal prosecutors say investigators foiled an Iranian plan to assassinate Donald Trump. And Wall Street execs, including some who shunned Trump, are now hoping to align themselves with the president-elect. They see a lot of what Donald Trump ran on as being malleable once he actually gets elected. So they're trying to get in there and say, how about you do this, but don't do that. Plus...

Anonymous racist text messages were sent to Black people in several U.S. states. It's Friday, November 8th. I'm Tracey Hunt for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

U.S. law enforcement officials today are urging anyone who's received anonymous threatening text messages to report them. This comes after Black people from across the country reported receiving racist messages telling them to go to plantations to pick cotton.

Black people in Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia received the text messages in recent days. In New York and Pennsylvania, many of the recipients were schoolchildren. In some cases, the text included personal information about the recipients, such as their name or location. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said yesterday it is aware of the racist text messages and is in contact with other federal authorities on the matter. ♪

Dutch authorities said today that they were tightening security to protect Jews and Jewish sites as they investigate an overnight wave of anti-Semitic violence in which Israeli soccer fans were chased and beaten by crowds. At least five people were hospitalized and, according to Israel's foreign ministry, later discharged. Police said they made 62 arrests. Israeli fans were in town for a game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Dutch club Ajax.

Amsterdam Mayor Vanke Halsema told reporters that people on scooters traveled around the city looking for Israelis to attack. We are used in Amsterdam that there can be tensions. There are many demonstrations and protests and we are always prepared for them. And of course they are related to the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing war in Israel and Palestine.

But what happened last night is not a protest. It has nothing to do with protest or demonstration. It was crime. Israel told its citizens to find shelter and has begun efforts to evacuate them. And now, on to an index we don't cover on the show very often. The Russell 2000 Index of Small Capitalization U.S. Stocks.

It's gotten a big boost since Trump's election win this week. Our markets reporter Chelsea Delaney explains what drives the small stocks rise. These are companies that we don't talk that much about. They're not household names like Apple or McDonald's. This week, the Russell 2000 has done quite a bit better than the S&P 500 or the Dow or the Nasdaq. These bigger indexes we talk a lot about.

And investors see a lot of reasons why they could be doing better under a Trump administration. For one, Trump has pledged to cut taxes. And unlike some of these big multinationals that have very complex tax structures abroad that bring down their tax bill, these companies are generally paying the U.S. tax rate. So a tax cut would be good for a lot of smaller companies abroad.

As well, Trump has made protectionism a big part of his campaign platform. He wants to bring jobs back to America. As well, the Trump administration has pledged to deregulate, and that would also be a benefit for a lot of these smaller companies.

A blockbuster week for U.S. stocks ended in more records. The small-cap Russell 2000 index rose over 8%, its best week since April 2020. The S&P 500 climbed 0.4%, the Dow Jones rose 0.6%, while the Nasdaq edged 0.1% higher. All three indexes closed at new highs for the second time this week.

The U.S. Justice Department today said that the FBI thwarted an Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump before he was elected president.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said an Iranian operative told law enforcement that an official in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard directed him in September to put together a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump. The foiled plot, revealed just days after Trump's election, highlights what officials have described as ongoing attempts to target U.S. government officials, dissidents, and political figures on U.S. soil.

Federal prosecutors in August charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran with plotting to kill Trump, prompting officials to bolster his security while on the campaign trail. Coming up, Wall Street titans are attempting to cozy up to Trump following his decisive win. That's after the break.

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Financiers ready for dealmaking are no longer scared to embrace former President Donald Trump. ♪♪ Following Donald Trump's election victory, a veritable clubhouse of Wall Street executives began jockeying for influence and eagerly gearing up for the prospect of lower taxes and a dealmaking revival. That includes even those who distanced themselves from the president-elect in the past. ♪♪

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Miriam Gottfried covers private equity for The Wall Street Journal. She joins us now. Miriam, first of all, who are some of the folks reaching out to President-elect Trump? First and foremost, you have Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. He's not reaching out to Trump. He's been out there as headhunter-in-chief looking for people to staff Trump's cabinet. And Lutnick has been getting inbounds from people like Mark Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management, one of the firms I cover, to get inbounds.

with suggestions for who should be part of the cabinet. But there are a lot of people jockeying for positions, and that's probably the first line of influence that people are trying to create. Many of these executives are people who supported other candidates during the Republican primary or even Kamala Harris supporters. What are they hoping to achieve now by aligning with him? I think that they all are sort of opportunistic in that they support

Okay, this is the environment we're being dealt. How do we make the most money in this environment? And they see dollar signs, especially when it comes to M&A. Deals are something that have been stuck over the past few years, ever since the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates rapidly in 2022.

Things got kind of gummed up in the private equity world, which drives a lot of M&A. Deals haven't really been happening at the same level, but people see the surge in markets that's happened over the past week as being something that could get deals flowing again. Not to mention the fact that a lot of people on Wall Street have been concerned about the regulatory environment for antitrust. And Lena Kahn, who's like their public enemy number one, will likely be replaced under a Trump administration. So

So what kind of positions are people maybe lining up for or pitching themselves for? What are they looking for exactly? They see a lot of what Donald Trump ran on as being malleable once he actually gets elected. Like he talked about tariffs and he talked about tax cuts.

And they want the tax cuts, but they don't really want the tariffs. And so they're trying to get in there and say, how about you do this, but don't do that and like shape those kinds of policies that could really affect business. If he cuts incentives for certain climate investments, for example, those that have already done a lot of climate investing might go to him and say, hey, how about you don't cut those incentives? We like those.

Could this all be overblown? The real cautionary notes come in when people think about how Trump had sometimes been a loose cannon in his previous administration, had a tendency to say things that people weren't expecting. With AT&T, Time Warner, he came out specifically against that deal because he was mad at CNN. So there are risks that you can't always take into account.

Also, there's the fact that the reason that deals got hung up to begin with was the rise in interest rates. And Trump doesn't have control over interest rates. That's the Fed's department. And the Fed is independent of the president, as Jerome Powell asserted just yesterday. Miriam Gottfried is a reporter covering private equity for The Wall Street Journal. Thank you so much, Miriam. My pleasure.

What questions do you have about Trump's campaign promises, how they may be implemented and what they mean for you? Send a voice memo to WNPOD at WSJ.com or leave a voicemail with your name and location at 212-416-4328. We might use it on the show.

Longtime Democrat and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to have a big role shaping President-elect Donald Trump's health policy. That could include the administration's health and food appointments and the federal government's approach to chronic disease, vaccines, fluoride and other policies. WSJ reporter Liz Esley-White joins us now. So Liz, how does Kennedy want to change America's health care landscape? What are his priorities?

Kennedy has a long list of things he would like to do, and how he talks about it currently is tackling childhood chronic disease. There's kind of three main areas that he focuses on. So the first one is food. He thinks that a lot of our nutrition knowledge has been corrupted by industry, and he wants to kind of get back to the basics immediately.

and get better research out there on ultra-processed foods and food additives. He posted on X recently.

that he would like to advise water systems in the U.S. to get rid of fluoride in their drinking water. This is super controversial because fluoride is viewed as a public health victory that has really cut down on cavities in children and has really helped oral health a lot in this country. In addition, Kennedy is a longtime vaccine skeptic. He constantly points back to data that critics say he cherry-picks

to show that vaccines aren't as safe as medical professionals in the scientific community say they are. But a lot of his claims over the years have been debunked. How are health agencies viewing this? He has very antagonistic views towards the health agencies, so obviously the people in those agencies are worried. He views them as corrupted by industry. He really wants to try to weed out the influence of pharmaceutical and food industries on our health agencies.

And people in those agencies view him as dangerous and naive. There are some people who hope that he will lose favor with Trump or that his ideas won't actually get implemented. We are finding kind of ways to be hopeful about the future if RFK Jr. were to take over the federal health care apparatus. Liz Esley White is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Before we go, heads up, we made a correction in today's morning show. We said that Australia is proposing a ban on social media for children aged 16 and under.

The proposed ban would actually only apply to children under 16. And that's What's News for this week. Tomorrow, you can look out for our weekly markets wrap-up, What's News in Markets. Then on Sunday, we'll be discussing which of the economic promises President-elect Trump made during his campaign can enact and where he might meet resistance. That's in What's News Sunday. And we'll be back with our regular show on Monday morning.

Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansi and Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producer Michael Cosmitus. Michael LaValle wrote our theme music. Aisha Al-Muslim is our development producer. Scott Soloway and Chris Zinsley are our deputy editors. And Falana Patterson is The Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. I'm Traci Hunt. Thanks for listening.