If Donald Trump’s “pivot” holds and he winds up somehow in the White House, a Dallas businessman could play an influential role in shaping the new president’s policies. Billionaire Andy Beal, who showed up at the New York mogul’s first Dallas campaign rally last September, recently was named to Trump’s council of economic advisers. When we asked to talk about all this with the Beal Bank founder, a spokesman for Beal Service Corp. politely declined, but sent this statement:
“Andy Beal reaffirms his belief that Donald Trump will do much more to help America than Hillary Clinton could ever imagine doing. Mr. Beal has known Mr. Trump for many years and knows him to be a highly intelligent man who makes excellent reasoned decisions. Mr. Beal agrees that American trade policies are shifting jobs overseas, decreasing the US standard of living, and increasing the standard of living for many foreign countries. Mr. Beal believes that current US government is the problem, and that more of the same simply perpetuates the problems.”
Beal, who’s said to be the richest man in Dallas, recently snapped up the Tom Hicks estate as well as the historic Trammell Crow residence here. So, there should be plenty of opulent room to spread out the old briefing papers and charts, should The Donald ever get back to Dallas and want to plot policy with his longtime pal.
