Ken Griffin faces MAGA attack at Milken Institute – Business News
Allies of President Trump are angling for a showdown with tariff-bashing hedge fund mogul Ken Griffin at a glitzy Los Angeles shindig for financial elites this week — with Steve Bannon casting it as “nationalists versus globalists in Beverly Hills,” The Post has discovered.
Citadel boss Griffin historically hosts the VIP champagne-fueled welcome soirée at the Milken Institute Global Conference, an annual gathering for America’s prime company titans dubbed the “Davos of the West,” and is one of the California discussion board’s principal sponsors.
But this yr, as he levels his up-to $50,000-a-head boondoggle at the Beverly Hills Hilton, Griffin will face a rival reception hosted at the identical hour at the Peninsula Beverly Hills subsequent door — steathily organized by senior Trump advisor Ric Grennell.
Citadel chief Ken Griffin has blasted President Trump for “eroding” America’s “brand” together with his tariff insurance policies. Getty Images
The Milken Institute’s Global Conference’s up-to $50,000-a-head boondoggle will likely be held at the Beverly Hills Hilton. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
An invite to Grennell’s uber-exclusive, behind-closed-door occasion obtained by The Post may also function temporary remarks from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that kicks off at 4 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday.
“It will be your only chance of talking to Bessent in private,” stated one source, who stated that a few dozen hand-picked heads of state and Wall Street titans could be in attendance.
Sources close to the organizers, Tactic Global, a DC-based consultancy, stated the occasion — which has not been formally introduced — had simply 75 locations.
Sources instructed The Post that the rival occasion was set up after Griffin repeatedly irked the administration together with his relentless public criticism of the president’s commerce and immigration insurance policies.
“It will be nationalists versus the globalists in Beverly Hills,” former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon instructed The Post.
The invitation to the closed-door occasion at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills that has been organized by Trump adviser Ric Grennell. Obtained by NY Post
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will seem at the Tactic Global-organized occasion on Sunday. REUTERS
The Post has approached a Citadel spokesperson for remark.
Griffin, price an estimated $42 billion, has blasted Trump for allegedly “eroding” the American “brand” over his Liberation Day April 2 announcement at the White House over his plans to slap tariffs on imported items in a bid to deliver back jobs to the U.S.
“We put that brand at risk,” Griffin stated final month. “It could take a very long time to remove the tarnish from the brand.”
Bannon slammed Griffin as “an out-of-touch, clueless billionaire” who “helped to fuel populist nationalism” within the US.
“Ken Griffin said his most important effort politically was to stop populism. It’s done the exact opposite,” Bannon instructed The Post. “We have been in a position to make use of him as what people hate concerning the superwealthy on this nation.
The GOP megadonor additionally snubbed now-Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent by calling for Trump to nominate one of his principal rivals, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, to the job.
Ric Grennell, proper, with President Trump in March. Getty Images
Sources conversant in the matter instructed The Post in November that Rowan’s bid to serve within the present administration was a “non-starter” for the then-president-elect as a result of of his opposition to tariffs.
Griffin additionally refused to publicly endorse Trump earlier than his crushing electoral victory over the hapless Kamala Harris, solely later to confess to having voted for the real estate mogul.
“And building his new Versailles down in Palm Beach only reinforces that he’s got the political instincts of Louis XVI,” Bannon added, referring to the long-deposed French monarch’s residence outdoors of Paris.
Bannon’s feedback have been a thinly-veiled dig at how Griffin was building a $1B, 20-acre mega-estate that’s simply a stone’s throw away from Trump’s personal Mar-a-Lago membership, as The Post solely reported in October 2023.
It got here after he relocated his Citadel investment firm from Chicago to the sunnier, tax-friendly climes of Miami in 2022.
Steve Bannon, above, was President Trump’s chief strategist for seven months during his first time period. Getty Images
The twenty eighth Milken Institute Global Conference goals to make use of free market rules to repair social issues.
It claims its “diverse, forward-thinking community” goals to discover options that pave the way in which for a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient future, which begins later right now in Los Angeles.
Delegates will be capable to hear the ideas of former first woman Jill Biden, who has simply landed a prime job with the Milken Institute, a assume tank endowed by former Drexel Burnham Lambert banker Michael Milken.
Stressed-out billionaires may get pleasure from yoga courses, guided meditations and wellness garden “healing sessions” in between their packed schedules, in keeping with the convention program.
Milken, as soon as thought of Wall Street’s “Junk Bond King,” skilled a fall from grace after his 1989 indictment in an insider trading probe.
After pleading guilty to securities violations, he served about two years in jail and has since devoted his life to philanthropic efforts.
