Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of the Goldman Sachs investment banking group, has been a Twitter user since June of 2011. In those six years, Blankfein did not send out a single tweet. However, on June 1, 2017, he broke his long Twitter silence. What important event could possibly cause this man to finally broadcast his thoughts to the world?
Why, of course – it’s something stupid our president did.
Blankfein’s first ever tweet is in response to President Donald Trump withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, arguing that it is bad for both our position of world leadership and the environment at large. Blankfein has publicly spoken out against Trump in the past, despite the fact that Trump has stocked his inner circle with former Goldman Sachs employees:
Today's decision is a setback for the environment and for the U.S.'s leadership position in the world. #ParisAgreement
— Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) June 1, 2017
He since has tweeted once more, again criticizing what he (and many others) see as a clear lack of leadership:
Leadership helps ??Our language is dominant; $ global; ?talent comes. Bad if lost. Consider w/ making policy on enviro, trade, defense, etc.
— Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) June 2, 2017
CNBC reports that, until this point, Blankfein’s Twitter account lacked the blue check mark that verifies celebrity Twitter accounts. However, after reaching out to the Goldman Sachs public relations department, the company verified that it was indeed their CEO’s first tweet, and the check mark appeared soon afterward, along with hundreds of new followers.
Blankfein has had close ties to Democratic candidates, especially Hillary Clinton. In fact, Clinton’s paid speeches to companies like Goldman Sachs were huge talking points during the 2016 presidential campaign. Goldman Sachs also enacted rules during that campaign to keep senior level employees from contributing to Donald Trump’s campaign.
It says an awful lot about your actions when a man breaks a six year silence to bash one of your signature moves. We will have to wait and see if President Donald Trump will respond to Blankfein, like he does to so many of his other opponents, on Twitter. Here is an interview from last year with the Goldman Sachs CEO:
Featured image via Flickr user Fortune Live Media / CC BY-ND 2.0.
