Brain Trust

Brain Trust, in U.S. history, group of advisers to Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first campaign for the presidency (1932). The term was coined by journalist John F. Kieran and gained national currency at once. Raymond Moley, Rexford G. Tugwell, and Adolph A. Berle, Jr., all professors at Columbia University, were the three principal members, although others served with them from time to time. Under the chairmanship of Moley, the Brain Trust presented Roosevelt with its thinking on economic and social problems facing the nation and helped him weigh the alternatives of public policy that would be open to the new president. It contributed suggestions and drafts for campaign speeches, all of which underwent considerable revision by Roosevelt.