Trump’s Infrastructure Strategist Quits

The fact that the top White House aide focused on infrastructure D.J. Gribbin has resigned in the midst of what’s allegedly a White House push for its infrastructure plan is a hit on a plan that was being projected as the biggest push for an infrastructure plan. A little over a year ago, Gribbin left his job at Macquarie Capital, a finance and asset management firm where he focused on public-private partnerships, to take the lead on crafting an infrastructure plan for the president. The proposal relies heavily on using incentives to attract private investments.

Trump initially promised he’d deliver a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan in his first 100 days, but it took more than a year until Gribbin and the White House would unveil and deliver the plan to Congress in February. And the president upped the ante, calling it “the biggest and boldest infrastructure plan in the last half-century,” promising it would generate a $1.5 trillion investment in rebuilding the nation’s highway, railways, bridges, tunnels, airports, seaports and water systems. Gribbin is the latest departure in a wave of exits — some forced and others voluntary — that have the White House on edge. Trump conceded that his plan would probably “have to wait until after the election.”