The Trump administration wants 400 dealmakers to help the US bolster its national security supply chains \u2013 and it\u2019s offering salaries as high as $400 000 a year for Wall Street recruits.<\/p>\n
Under a new hiring initiative, the White House is targeting top dealmaking talent by dangling those potential salaries \u2013 which match the president\u2019s pay \u2013 with the promise that candidates won\u2019t have to shed their private-sector stock options.<\/p>\n
The goal is to enlist the workers in helping the federal government develop financial agreements meant to cultivate critical supply chains and domestic industries critical for national security, according to administration officials who asked not to be named to speak more candidly about the program.<\/p>\n
The effort seeks to address what one of the officials described as a major bottleneck \u2013 human capital \u2013 in government processing of a long queue of hundreds of potential projects worthy of evaluation. Highly skilled professionals can help the US move more quickly to deploy and invest taxpayer dollars wisely on projects that would help reindustrialise the country, the official said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too long, the federal government has tried to shore up critical supply chain deficiencies in industries such as semiconductors, shipyards, and critical minerals without enough people with dealmaking experience in these strategic industries,\u201d US Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said this month. \u201cUnder President Trump, that is changing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kupor himself has deep roots as an investor, previously serving as managing partner at prominent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.<\/p>\n
The OPM initiative is aimed at finance professionals who specialise in structuring, negotiating and finalising top-dollar business transactions \u2013 but who may be loath to abandon stock options and other private-sector perks for relatively short-term stints in the federal government.<\/p>\n
Federal pay scales top out at $197 200 annually for the civil service and $228,000 for senior executives. But new employees hired under the program would start at $253 100, what a cabinet secretary makes, and could draw the same salary as the president himself: $400 000.<\/p>\n
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Eligible recruits also wouldn\u2019t have to forfeit long-term benefits, in a shift that addresses a major barrier for anyone contemplating leaving the private sector for Washington. Instead, they\u2019d be able to keep long-term compensation from their private-sector jobs, such as stock grants, options and carried interest.<\/p>\n
A legal opinion from the Justice Department\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel in March concluded that those incentives don\u2019t violate ethics laws forbidding federal employees from having their taxpayer-paid salaries subsidised by outside companies.<\/p>\n
The initiative comes as President Donald Trump pursues deals meant to strengthen US supply chains and the country\u2019s industrial base, including a critical mineral stockpile as well as equity investments in chipmaker Intel Corp. and critical mineral suppliers.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nAn Intel Gaudi3 AI accelerator in New York. Image: Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Those novel financial transactions have also exposed the need for more professionals within the federal government who can conduct due diligence in sectors such as critical minerals and help get deals across the finish line, one of the officials said.<\/p>\n
The initiative seeks to lean on the expertise of deal managers, specialised lawyers and engineers to execute transactions that are essential to rebuild the nation\u2019s industrial base and promote US national security, the officials added. Although candidates could come from across the private sector, those working at hedge funds, investment banks and private equity firms are expected to be among key recruits.<\/p>\n
The program is focused on federal agencies and institutions that are at the centre of Trump\u2019s reindustrialisation efforts, including the US International Development Finance Corp, and the Export-Import Bank, one of the officials said. Deal professionals could also be deployed at the Energy Department, the Commerce Department\u2019s chips office and the Defence Department\u2019s Office of Strategic Capital.<\/p>\n
Temporary hires under the program could work as long as four years but generally would be seen serving for one- or two-year periods, one official said. The expectation is that individuals nominated from private-sector companies with leave programs for civil service would generally return to those firms. And, one official said, hopefully they\u2019d also later keep in mind the national security implications of the decisions they make.<\/p>\n
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The temporary workers would still be subject to ethical constraints, including conflict-of-interest requirements that they recuse themselves from particular matters affecting the financial interest of their private-sector employers.<\/p>\n
The effort builds on a presidential memorandum Trump signed last month that authorises the use of existing powers to grant what\u2019s known as \u201ccritical pay authority\u201d for as many as 400 positions supporting national-security related investments.<\/p>\n
In March, the Office of Personnel Management proposed changes to that authority to allow even bigger paychecks, with a baseline salary of $253,100. Paying more than that amount currently requires specific approval by the president, but the administration has proposed getting rid of that rule.<\/p>\n
If 400 new recruits received an average of $50 000 to $100 000 above that baseline, the office estimated the incremental cost to the government would be $20 million to $40 million per year.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has broadly sought to recruit temporary workers to fill some roles following its Elon Musk-spearheaded campaign to slash federal spending and the federal workforce. Under Trump, the US government has reduced non-postal employees roughly 14% from a 2024 peak under President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
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The effort taps decades-old authority in federal law that\u2019s largely laid dormant. Only about 10 slots \u2013 out of 800 available for special treatment across the federal government \u2013 had recently been occupied, one of the officials said.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
#White #House #woo #Wall #Street #dealmakers #jobs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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