The signals from Donald Trump and his party at the GOP convention this week painted a mixed picture of what posture the former president would have toward Wall Street and the larger business world if he returns to Washington.
On one front, the GOP and Trump are embracing a growing strain of economic populism.
Trump, for example, invited a union leader to speak on Monday night — unheard of at previous GOP conventions. He also hand-picked as his running mate Sen. JD Vance, whose ascent is built on a stance that differs from traditional GOP orthodoxy on key economic topics like corporate taxes and breaking up Big Tech.
But plenty of other signals this week highlighted more of a business-friendly Trump approach to these topics. They marked the continuation of a trend that runs through Trump's nine years in presidential politics as he has alternatively wooed and slammed CEOs.
Trump, for example, didn't repeat Vance's populist tone when he took the stage Thursday night and instead took time to focus on an issue popular in C-suites: lowering corporate taxes.
He extolled the 2017 corporate cuts he signed into law and said they had brought businesses back to America.
"We gave you the largest tax cut. We'll do it more," Trump said in a tax message to both voters and executives.
Trump also mused about appointing JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon — Wall Street's biggest name — as Treasury secretary in an interview with Bloomberg that was conducted weeks ago but released this week.
A source familiar with Dimon's thinking told Yahoo Finance in response to such musings that "it's highly unlikely that [Dimon] will take a political role" and that he'll be instead focused on running his bank, the largest in the US.
'We'll manage just fine'
At the moment, Trump is courting the business community intensely.
He has gained financial backing from Wall Street figures like Blackstone (BX) CEO Steve Schwarzman and tech titans like Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk. Musk reportedly could be set to give a whopping $180 million to a Trump-aligned super-PAC before this election season is out.
Those business world donors appear happy to keep giving, and conversations this week with close observers of how Trump could approach policy in 2025 evinced little worry that the populist posture often seen on stage in Milwaukee will translate into anti-business policies.
"Red, Blue, we'll manage just fine," Blackstone president Jonathan Gray said in a Yahoo Finance live appearance Thursday.
Gray is a Democratic donor and gave over $50,000 to President Joe Biden's effort but added Thursday "if there is a movement here towards the Republican side, I'm confident we'll navigate that."
Chris Whalen, a strategist and chair of Whalen Global Advisors, was more blunt in a note to Yahoo Finance.
"The banking & mortgage industries will be treated well under Trump," he wrote, adding that some questions remain, like how the government treats government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But many parameters of how a new Trump administration would approach the financial sector are set.
In closed-door fundraisers and before CEOs in recent months, the billionaire Trump has also often espoused his proposal to cut corporate taxes.
Currently, the federal corporate tax rate is 21%. Trump wants it lower and has floated a 20% or a 15% rate. Those figures are largely because, as he has said, he's a fan of round numbers.
In his discussion of corporate taxes Thursday from the convention stage, Trump said of the cut he enacted in 2017 that companies "were bringing back billions and billions of dollars into our country ... the tax rate was too high and the legal complications were far too great. I changed both of them."
A GOP focus on populism in the years ahead
These dueling messages were present all week in Milwaukee.
Trump invited the president of the Teamsters union, Sean O'Brien, to address the convention Monday. The Republican candidate was in the room for the speech and looked on approvingly as O'Brien assailed traditional GOP economic policies and added that "the corporate elite treat us like squatters."
Vance followed up by announcing Wednesday night "we're done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street" while calling top financial leaders "barons."
Vance also has a concrete record that has overlapped with Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren on a range of banking issues.
The two have been aligned on clawing back the pay of failed bank executives and both share concerns about a decision by regulators to sell the operations of the failed First Republic bank to JPMorgan instead of a smaller regional lender.
But on the other hand, Vance also has sizable venture capital and Silicon Valley connections and lived in San Francisco to work in the industry for GOP megadonor Peter Thiel.
Vance also appears to be shifting on some issues. One is a bill that targets Visa and Mastercard. Vance had bucked much of his party and co-sponsored an effort around swipe fees but, according to a recent Politico report, is now not planning to push the bill.
Vance also aligns with Republicans by being skeptical of stricter capital requirements on banks. Those proposed reforms, known as Basel III Endgame, were meant to ensure the stability of the banking system but are expected to undergo significant revisions amid bipartisan criticism this year.
In a note this week, Stifel chief Washington policy strategist Brian Gardner advised clients to look at Vance as a symbol of a longer-term shift in the Republican Party.
"Reagan Republicans are a dying breed, will have waning influence going forward, and Vance's rise is part of that shift," he wrote.
In any case, Vance and Trump symbolize a series of crosscurrents likely to be closely watched in the financial world for months to come.
"JD, you're going to be doing this for a long time, so enjoy the ride," Trump said Thursday of his running mate.
Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance. David Hollerith contributed reporting.
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