What was Franklin D. Roosevelt's close circle of advisors popularly known as?

It was the worst of times when Franklin Delano Roosevelt first assumed the U.S. presidency in March 1933. To help him, Roosevelt during his presidential administration used a group of close advisers who were called, The Brains Trust. They worked for him when he was a political candidate or incumbent; Roosevelt prized them for their particular expertise and knowledge.

The Brains Trust, a term coined by James Kieran, a New York Times reporter, referred originally to the group of academic advisers that FDR gathered to assist him during his 1932 presidential campaign. This term then applied to three Columbia University professors: Raymond Moley (1886-1975), Rexford Guy Tugwell (1891-1979), and Adolph A. Berle Jr. (1895-1971). These men were all lawyers in the core of the first Roosevelt brains trust; they were not market investors, technicians, or economists. They knew how to get around the U.S. Constitution. They were able to play a strategic role in shaping key legal policies of the First New Deal in 1933.

When it was first reported on September 6, 1932 that Roosevelt had a “brains department” that was helping him to create policy positions and make speeches, Roosevelt actually ignored the report. Roosevelt had solicited each man in the Brains Trust for his legal opinions. During his first one hundred days in office, the Brains Trust helped Roosevelt enact fifteen major laws on banking, jobs, social issues, etc.