Enough billionaires and multi-millionaires have been collected Donald Trump to play key roles in its creation administration to form a football team.
In a recruiting process that appears to mock his campaign’s appeal to working-class voters, the president-elect has brazenly chosen a gallery of mega-wealthy supporters for key positions that will in some cases give them the power to cut spending on public services that are used by the poorest and most vulnerable.
At least 11 picks for strategic positions since Trump returned to the White House in January have either achieved billionaire status themselves, have billionaire spouses, or are close to that threshold.
The net result would be the richest administration in U.S. history — worth a total of $340 billion as of early this week, before Trump further inflated its cash value by trying to appoint at least three more billionaires.
Its collective wealth easily surpasses that of Trump’s first cabinet formed after his 2016 election victory. – which at the time was the richest US cabinet ever formed, including such ultra-rich members as Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil who was appointed secretary of state, and Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary who had become wealthy through restructuring of bankrupt companies.
It also throws into stark relief the relative impoverishment of Joe Biden’s current cabinet — collectively cost a relatively paltry $118 million despite being repeatedly derided by Trump as a representative of a corrupt ruling elite defrauding ordinary working Americans.
The richest — and most famous — of Trump’s class of 2024. is Elon Muskthe entrepreneur of Tesla and SpaceX who is the richest person in the world.
Together with Vivek Ramaswamyanother tech entrepreneur said to be worth at least $1 billion, Musk has been tapped to head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, now known by its acronym Doge, whose mission is to reduce waste from public spending.
The apparently extravagant Musk promised to cut $2 trillion from the national budget. He did not explain how or over what period, although he warned that it could lead to “temporary economic difficulties“.
Neither Musk nor Ramaswamy will need Senate confirmation because Doge is not an official government department or agency.
But Trump has not shied away from appointing billionaire cabinet members who will have to go through public Senate hearings where their wealth could become an issue.
They include Linda McMahon, the education secretary nominee – and former World Wrestling Entertainment executive – whose husband, Vince McMahon, is worth an estimated $3 billion; North Dakota Governor and former businessman Doug Burgum appointed Secretary of the Interior; Howard Lutnick, chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, who has been nominated for commerce secretary; and Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager and former partner at Soros Investment Management who has been nominated for Treasury Secretary.
Their total wealth only amounts to 10.7 billion. dollars – with 4.5 billion dollars more than Trump’s first cabinet.
Others subject to Senate confirmation are Charles Kushner, the real estate mogul and father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the future ambassador to Paris; Warren Stevens, head of investment banking and ambassador-designate to London; Jared Isaacman, a commercial astronaut and entrepreneur who has been nominated to lead the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); and Kelly Loeffler, a former GOP senator and co-chair of Trump’s inaugural committee, now his pick to head the Small Business Administration.
All fall into the billionaire rankings either individually or through marriage or family ties, according to Forbes.
So does Steve Witkoff, another real estate mogul and Trump’s golf partner, who has tapped him as his Middle East envoy. Witkoff’s fortune is estimated at $1 billion.
Next up is Frank Bisignano, nominated to head the Social Security Administration, where he will be responsible for managing the nation’s pensions and retiree benefits. The president of Fiserv Inc, a Wisconsin-based financial technology firm, his current wealth is estimated to be around $974 million.
The president-elect has reportedly offered the deputy secretary of defense put another billionaire, Steven Feinberg, a private investor and co-chairman of Cerberus Capital Management, whose personal fortune as of July of this year was estimated at $4.8 billion. It is not known if Feinberg accepted.
The gap between Trump’s taste for the rich and his populist everyman rhetoric has not gone unnoticed.
Analysts have long noted the ability of a politician who proudly flaunts his own self-proclaimed billionaire status to tap into public discontent over stagnant incomes and living standards — highlighted by his complaints about job losses in manufacturing and trade deals. which he says have harmed US workers.
“According to Bureau of Labor Statisticsreal wages for working-class Americans have stagnated or declined since the early 1980s, especially as industries moved jobs overseas,” writes Matthew Kingfellow of the German Marshall Fund, in a blog post. “This may help explain Trump’s working-class appeal.”
King argued that Trump could tap into working-class anxiety because he “knew that pride in God, family and country would resonate in a way that the progressive messages of other candidates had not.”
David Kass, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, said the goal of what he called a “Trump administration by billionaires for billionaires” was massive tax cuts for the super-rich, which would come at the cost of cutting services such as education, Social Security, and Medicaid, which provides health care for people with lower incomes.
“Voters wanted change,” Kass said. “I think what’s going to happen is people are going to say that’s not really what I wanted. The rich are rich enough and don’t need more tax cuts. How about helping me out? I think there will be a huge mobilization against this [tax cut].”
But King warned that Trump’s emotional resonance could outweigh envy of the wealthy.
“I still believe that Trump’s appeal to the working class will continue to allow him to exploit the working class successfully while directing the rewards to the new oligarchy: big business and billionaires like Elon Muskhe wrote.
