Democrats immediately pounced on President Trump’s efforts to roll back rules policing the financial industry, accusing him of doling out gifts to Wall Street and vowing to fight him tooth and nail.
Trump signed a pair of executive orders Friday aimed at reducing the number of rules focused on the financial sector, including a comprehensive review of all rules required by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.
Any wholesale changes to that law will likely require legislation from Congress, and early indications are that Democrats are more than willing to make it a primary battleground in the months ahead.
In particular, Democrats argued that Trump’s efforts amounted to a betrayal of his voters, as Trump ran as a populist aimed at boosting the working class, and even railed against Wall Street executives on the trail.
{mosads}“If there was any doubt that President Trump had absolutely no intention to follow through on his campaign promises to working families across the country, this executive order should erase that doubt,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
“It seems President Trump’s campaign promises to rein in Wall Street weren’t worth the bank notes they were printed on. The President’s attempts to repeal Wall Street reform will be met with a Democratic firewall in Congress. We will do everything in our power not let it be repealed — no ifs, ands or buts.”
Trump and congressional Republicans are arguing that Dodd-Frank failed to adequately prevent bank bailouts in the future while burying banks in a host of new regulations that prevents them from pumping money out into the economy.
But as the president builds out an inner circle that includes many individuals with experience at some of the same Wall Street giants he lambasted on the campaign trail, Democrats are now calling Trump a hypocrite.
“Donald Trump talked a big game about Wall Street during his campaign — but as President, we’re finding out whose side he’s really on,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a statement. “The Wall Street bankers and lobbyists whose greed and recklessness nearly destroyed this country may be toasting each other with champagne, but the American people have not forgotten the 2008 financial crisis — and they will not forget what happened today.”
“If Trump succeeds at dismantling Dodd-Frank’s protections, it will only be a matter of time before the next economic crisis wreaks havoc on their lives,” said Donna Brazile, interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. “After taking this step today, never again can Trump pretend to be on the side of working Americans.”
The early and vociferous opposition from Democrats is significant because he’ll need at least eight Senate Democrats to go along with any legislative efforts aimed at deregulation.