Christie supporter Joe Grano, who used to run UBS Group AG’s U.S. wealth-management business and now heads business-strategy adviser Centurion Holdings, could adjust to Trump. He’s a good negotiator and wouldn’t be “as dangerous as some people think,” Grano said.
A person involved in government relations at one of the largest U.S. banks, who asked not to be identified, said Trump might be bad overall but wouldn’t come after Wall Street out of the gate like Sanders. Even donors more worried about Trump didn’t focus on his jokes about women, references to Mexicans as rapists or his call to halt Muslim immigration.
Cruz doesn’t frighten one former Goldman Sachs executive who watched the senator help his wife, Heidi, woo clients to a unit that caters to people and families with average investments at the firm of more than $40 million. The senator knows bankers, went to the same Ivy League schools, understands their needs and has taken their money, he said.
Damgard, who’s been a friend of the billionaire Koch brothers for decades, said before his New Zealand golf game started that he prefers Bush, Rubio or Christie.
“But I don’t think either Cruz or Trump are necessarily the end of the world,” he said. After Huka Lodge, he was heading to play at a place called Cape Kidnappers. “They’d be so much better than the other side.”
