Trump’s billionaire cabinet could be the wealthiest administration ever
Opponents warn the administration is set to be packed with tycoons who will do nothing to fulfil his promise of helping working-class Americans
The appetisers were young garlic soup with thyme and sauted frogs legs, diver scallops with caramelized cauliflower and caper-raisin emulsion. Donald Trump ate a prime sirloin with citrus glazed carrots; Mitt Romney chose lamb chops with a mushroom bolognese sauce.
At Jean-Georges, a three-star Michelin restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in New York, its a rich mans world, and one where the US president-elect feels at home. This has also been evident in his appointments so far, as the so-called blue-collar billionaire looks set to preside over the wealthiest administration in modern history.
Trump, a former host of reality TV show The Apprentice, is surrounding himself with the 1%: billionaires and millionaires, investment bankers and venture capitalists, Wall Street insiders and family fortune heirs, many educated at elite schools. It is the most brazen embrace of big money since the 1980s era of Ronald Reagan, Tom Wolfes Masters of the Universe and Oliver Stones Gordon Gekko.
It is a throwback to the greed is good mentality, said Marge Baker, executive vice-president of the liberal pressure group People For the American Way. Its also alarming that the president-elect said he believes whats good for his business is good for America. Thats not how you want the leader of your country to be making decisions.
Baker added: When youve got Wall Street billionaires setting the agenda its not likely to benefit average Americans. Research shows that the wealthy have different priorities and policy priorities, for example on healthcare and the minimum wage.
The Trump cabinets emphasis on tax cuts and deregulation is also likely to echo the Reagan era. Election rival Hillary Clinton warned during the campaign: Trump is trickledown economics over and over again. I called it trumped-up trickledown economics.
Igor Volsky, deputy director of a pro-Clinton thinktank, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said: The same trickledown policies we saw in the 80s [that] didnt help ordinary Americans are going to be put forward again. If you look at large parts of the cabinet it does feel like going back in time.
The very people who heard Trumps blunt, populist message about unrigging the system would be the ones to suffer its betrayal, Volsky added. Hes going to perpetuate a system that helps the very richest Americans at the cost of programmes that help middle and lower-income Americans.
Andrew Mellon, one of the richest Americans of the early 20th century, served as treasury secretary in three administrations. George W Bushs first cabinet was criticised for containing high rollers in 2001. But Trump has taken the mix of democracy and plutocracy to a whole new level.
The Politico website suggested the new presidents team could be worth $35bn some have made political donations worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The median household income in the US is about $55,000.
Trumps supporters have said they welcome the fact he is a businessman, not a politician beholden to special interests, and hope he will run America like an efficient corporation. But several members of the administration could face accusations of a conflict of interest that they are forming policy with at least one eye on their own businesses, or those of their cronies.
Neil Sroka, spokesman for the liberal organisation Democracy for America, said: Youve got a group of entitled, out-of-touch billionaires who are going to be bossed around by a bigoted, out-of-touch billionaire. It is beyond credibility that they are going to be able to accurately reflect the needs of working-class citizens who rely on leaders in Washington to fight for them.
The appointments were self-serving, Sroka added. What this rogues gallery of billionaires that Trump is trotting shows is that he isnt interested in protecting working people. He wants to curry favour with a millionaire and billionaire class that hes always sought the approval of.
This is a class that dines on lobster steak and caviar every night. Theyre not figuring out how to put food on the table. Theyre figuring out how to make a few more millions before they go home at night.
Trumps picks so far
Betsy DeVos, education secretary. Daughter-in-law of Richard DeVos, co-founder of marketing company Amway. The family has a net worth of $5.1bn, according to Forbes. Her lobbying for school vouchers has been criticised for undermining public sector schools (which critics note neither she nor her children attended). DeVoss brother is Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, a private security contractor notorious for its lucrative and deadly role in the Iraq war.
Elaine Chao, transport secretary. Daughter of a shipping magnate, she made more than $1m from serving on the boards of News Corp, Wells Fargo, Ingersoll Rand and Vulcan Materials in 2015, public records show. Chao was in Bushs cabinet and is married to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, whose net worth in 2014 was $22m, according to OpenSecrets.org.
Nikki Haley, ambassador to the UN. South Carolina governor earned half a million dollars for a memoir in 2012. She and her husband Michael, a member of the South Carolina national guard, reported a total income of $170,661 last year.
Steven Mnuchin, treasury secretary. Studied at Yale, where he reportedly drove a Porsche, and followed in his fathers footsteps to work at Goldman Sachs, where his stake was worth a reported $46m when he left in 2002. Started his own hedge fund and financed Hollywood films. Mnuchin reportedly profited from the 2008 housing crash after buying the IndyMac bank hit by losses on risky mortgages with US government help. Also served as the Trump campaigns finance chairman. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown said: This isnt draining the swamp its stocking it with alligators.
Tom Price, health secretary. Orthopaedic surgeon staunchly opposed to Obamacare. Six-term Republican congressman ranks 44th in the House with an estimated net worth of $13.6m in 2014, according to OpenSecrets.org.
Todd Ricketts, deputy commerce secretary. Family is worth an estimated $5.3bn, according to Forbes, having made their fortune through a discount brokerage that processes 400,000 transactions per day. Co-owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
Wilbur Ross, commerce secretary. Net worth of $2.9bn, according to Forbes. Dubbed a vulture and king of bankruptcy because of his knack for extracting a profit from failing businesses. Helped Trump keep control of his failing Taj Mahal casino in the 1990s by persuading investors not to push him out. An explosion at a mine in West Virginia, which his company had bought a few weeks earlier, killed 12 miners in 2002.
Jeff Sessions, attorney general. From Alabama and known for hardline stance on immigration. Ranks 25th in the Senate with an estimated net worth of $7.5m in 2014, according to opensecrets.org.
Non-cabinet posts
Jared Kushner, son-in-law and close adviser. Property tycoon, publisher and multimillionaire. Went to Harvard, allegedly after his father, a developer, donated $2.5m to the university. At age 26 he bought an office building on Fifth Avenue for a record $1.8bn. Masterminded Trumps astounding election win with a stealth data machine.
Steve Bannon, chief strategist. Studied at Harvard and worked at Goldman Sachs for four years. Believed to be worth tens of millions of dollars, in part from his stake in royalties from the TV show Seinfeld. Executive chairman of Breitbart News, he is described by critics as a white nationalist, a charge he denies.
Under consideration for cabinet
Mitt Romney, potential secretary of state. Private equity investor. During the 2012 election campaign, when he was the Republican nominee, Romney estimated his personal fortune at $250m. Barack Obama described him at the time as a vulture capitalist.
Rudy Giuliani, another potential secretary of state. Lawyer and former New York mayor reported to be worth tens of millions of dollars. His complex web of foreign connections might cost him the job.
Ben Carson, tipped for housing secretary. The retired neurosurgeon has an estimated fortune of $26m.