Wall Street Is Getting Antsy With Trump

New York Times

22-02-2025

President Trump's keynote this week at a Saudi sovereign wealth fund's conference in Miami Beach might have seemed like another jubilant pep rally attended by adoring fans and key lieutenants.
Elon Musk sat in the front under a vast rotunda, not far from the real estate billionaire Steve Witkoff, now a White House special envoy to the Middle East, and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law. All received shout-outs from Mr. Trump, and frequently laughed at the president's early jokes during his 90-minute talk.
But in the venue's packed lobby, which had been repurposed as an overflow room with television screens set up for roughly 150 finance types, the mood was a bit antsy.
It was hard to tell if that was because of the heat or the speech, or something else.
These portfolio managers and financial consultants, many in dark suits, had waited for about three hours to secure a coveted seat in the Faena Forum, a pearly white hotel and conference center co-owned by a major Trump donor.
Those souls turned away from the main hall were instead told to hang in a pink-marble-trimmed room that didn't have enough chairs. The San Pellegrino quickly ran out, and there was no food save for a single jar of honey that a private equity marketer managed to beg off the catering staff.
That this crowd waited just to see Mr. Trump on a closed-circuit screen on Wednesday was an indication of their collective enthusiasm for, or at least acute interest in, what Mr. Trump would say in his first second-term, in-person address to the international business set, a group that had high hopes for his return to office.
They applauded at first, as Mr. Trump declared what many longed to hear: that the 'United States is back and open for business,' that he was ending burdensome regulations and that a golden era for cryptocurrencies had begun.
But rather than continue to address economic issues as many in attendance had expected, Mr. Trump devoted most of his remarks to recapping his electoral win, criticizing the president of Ukraine and reading off a list of supposed savings from the Department of Government Efficiency, some of which were earlier debunked. He also briefly mentioned tariffs and deregulation, only the latter of which received applause.
Within 20 minutes, the overflow room was talking over the president, and those present were asking if it was rude to leave. Plenty did; by the time Mr. Trump had finished, the room was half empty. Those who stuck around were treated to the view of Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary during Mr. Trump's first term, making a silent beeline from the main auditorium as soon the president wrapped up his remarks. (A spokesman for Mr. Mnuchin said he had been due at a previously scheduled meeting.)
The Miami area should have been a fitting setting for Mr. Trump to reintroduce himself to the world of finance. Miami has tried to remake itself as the Wall Street of the south, a haven for crypto firms and hedge funds, with lower taxes and nicer weather.
Yet the city's most prominent financial name, Kenneth Griffin, skipped Mr. Trump's speech.
The hedge fund manager, who is moving the main offices for his firm, Citadel, to Miami, showed up at the conference the next day — when Mr. Trump had returned to the White House — for a panel discussion about 'how to create resilient economies in uncertain times.'
Mr. Griffin praised Mr. Trump's efforts 'transforming' the federal government. But, he said, 'it's a difficult time to invest because of the policy uncertainty that goes on with this transformation.'
Mr. Griffin expressed global worries, too.
'Who will be an important ally going forward, and with whom are we breaking down longstanding relations?' he asked. 'I really do hope that the administration finds a way to build as many bridges as possible.'
Jenny Johnson, the head of the asset manager Franklin Templeton, praised Mr. Musk's efforts to fix the budget deficit and bring down Treasury yields. But she couldn't hide her worry about the government's debt costs.
'I'm sorry I can't be particularly positive,' she said.
There were warmer feelings a few feet from the Faena pool, where Alex Konanykhin, head of the cryptocurrency firm UniCoin, lounged with his custom blazer hanging off a chair.
Mr. Konanykhin recently returned to the United States after spending a few years in self-described 'business exile in Switzerland,' as the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated UniCoin for fraud.
Mr. Konanykhin said he was relieved because of his belief that his company's crypto actions were not dissimilar to the Trump family's $Trump coin.
He said he wished Mr. Trump would stop being 'distracted by larger issues like taking Greenland, Canada and Gaza as the 51st, 52nd and 53rd states,' and turn his attention domestically, including to crypto.
On Friday, Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto company, said the S.E.C. would drop charges against it. But Mr. Konanykhin, like many others in Miami Beach this week, was still waiting on Mr. Trump to make his hopes come true.