Stifel CEO Praises Trump’s Style as Effective, ‘Art of the Deal’
(Bloomberg) — US President Donald Trump’s approach to Greenland at the World Economic Forum in Davos has been “effective” and led to a speedy resolution, according to Stifel Financial Corp. Chief Executive Officer Ron Kruszewski.
Trump’s “style is, frankly, effective in many ways,” Kruszewski said in an interview on Bloomberg TV at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday. The veteran chairman and CEO of St. Louis, Missouri-based Stifel attended the president’s speech the previous day during which he repeated his demand that the US take over Greenland.
“I sat there and said, ‘you know what he’s going to do? He’s going to throw it against the wall and you all are going to react crazy,’” Kruszewski said. “And then he’s going to come and say, OK, what do you want to do?”
While Trump ruled out seizing Greenland by force, his demands on the island have rattled the historic transatlantic alliance between the US, Canada and the European Union. On Thursday, he announced a “framework of a future deal” for the territory on social media and said he would refrain from imposing tariffs on goods from European nations.
Davos attendees should treat his approach as a tactic in deal-making straight out of his book, Trump: The Art of the Deal, Kruszewski said.
“Is anyone surprised that the president does not practice Davos diplomacy?” said Kruszewski. “What would take usually 20 speeches and maybe 10 state dinners to make one tenth of the point, he made in an hour yesterday is just style. He throws it against the wall. I’m sitting there going ‘this will be resolved in a couple of days.’ It was actually resolved in a couple of hours.”
Stifel has expanded under Kruszewski to become one of the biggest US brokerages not based in New York. Shares in the firm have climbed almost 500% over the past decade, outpacing the 24-member KBW Bank Index that includes larger Wall Street rivals.
The environment for mergers and acquisitions among banks is “robust,” said Kruszewski, whose expansion of Stifel has been fueled in part by takeover deals. The Trump administration is more encouraging of these kinds of transactions compared with that of his predecessor Joe Biden, he said.
“There was no question that the past administration did not want mergers,” said Kruszewski. “They threw sand in the gears of M&A. The Trump administration is encouraging mergers so you see boards that believe they that can get things done.”
–With assistance from Lisa Abramowicz, Annmarie Hordern and Jonathan Ferro.
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