'Anger and fear' driving billionaires who dislike Trump but are scared by progressivism

Billionaires are fretting the 2020 election, and feel like they have no good options, writes the Washington Post.

"It is a season of worry on Wall Street," argues opinion writer Helaine Olen.

Billionaires fear that an "ultraliberal" Democratic nominee will be "bent on raising taxes and slapping regulations on their firms.”

These people can't turn to Trump because of all the chaos he causes, and because "he hurt business and Wall Street with his stances on immigration and trade with China... brings out the bigots and is a global-warming truther, things that pose a problem for those in finance, who see themselves as 'socially liberal.'"

Trump is a problem for the 1%, Olen writes, as "the titans of finance see themselves as inclusive and well-meaning."

These "self-defined centrists" who "are against the deficit when it comes to expanding benefits to the population of voters, but are often less vehement about the issue when it comes to tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans."

While many pundits argue that former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has no constituency, Olen writes that he has a very, very small one—most American billionaires.

"The real issue is one that big finance can’t acknowledge: They got to have it all for decades. Even as the incomes of ordinary Americans stagnated while their own pay and wealth soared," Olen writes. "Their anger and fear isn’t just at the fact they are getting challenged on their self-righteous self-image. More than anything, they don’t want to admit their 40-year run at the tax-cut and deregulation punch bowl will need to come to an end, so the rest of us can once again prosper."

Read the full column here.