Trump's billionaire cabinet could be the wealthiest administration ever

Trump’s billionaire cabinet could be the wealthiest administration ever

Posted by John P. Bradford // December 4, 2016

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.