Trump Taps Jewish Developer Pals for Help on Infrastructure

Image by getty images

By Daniel J. Solomon January 18, 2017

President-elect Donald Trump will add two more businessmen to his Washington, D.C. inner circle, picking fellow New York developers Richard LeFrak and Steven Roth to help oversee his infrastructure spending plan.

“They’re pros,” the incoming leader said about the two men, speaking to the Wall Street Journal. “That’s what they do. All their lives, they build. They build under-budget, ahead of schedule.”

LeFrak, who has a network upward of $6 billion and whose family company has one of the largest rent-rolls in New York City, gave $100,000 to the Trump campaign. He has been on familiar terms with the president-elect for three decades, and is a member of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

Roth, who’s said to be worth around $1 billion, co-owns two properties with the president-elect, 1290 Sixth Avenue in New York and 555 California Street in San Francisco.

Trump’s infrastructure plan would create public-private partnerships to build new roads, bridges and airports, giving developers tax credits and equity stakes worth $167 billion in the hope of stimulating $1 trillion in spending from the private sector.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO