Donald Trump’s Stacking His Cabinet With Billionaires Who Will Put Wall Street Over Main Street
January 13, 2025
MEMORANDUM
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Rosemary Boeglin, DNC Communications Director
DATE: January 13, 2024
RE: Donald Trump’s Stacking His Cabinet With Billionaires Who Will Put Wall Street Over Main Street
Donald Trump’s Cabinet is on track to be the wealthiest in American history, stacked with out-of-touch, special interest billionaires who are looking out for themselves and their balance sheets over working families. From tax handouts to the ultra-rich and big corporations, to price hikes that would devastate working families, Trump is making no secret of the fact that his administration will serve the wealthy and well-connected — not hardworking Americans.
As the American people are gearing up for a transfer of power from the most pro-worker administration in American history to the most pro-billionaire administration, it’s becoming painfully clear that Americans voted for Trump on false economic promises that he’s already walking back before Day One.
When Trump heads to the Oval Office in January and Republicans on the Hill begin negotiating a tax deal, their primary focus will be the balance sheets of Trump’s mega-donors and ultra-rich Cabinet secretaries, not the checkbooks of working families across the country.
As Trump’s billionaire Cabinet begins confirmation hearings this week, Democrats will hold them accountable for their lies.
Trump is stacking key positions in his administration with billionaire loyalists — from the Treasury Department and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to the Office of Management and Budget.
Trump’s administration includes more billionaires than any other in American history, with a combined net worth that exceeds the GDP of 172 different countries.
Here are some of the billionaires Trump has tapped to join his administration:
- Trump’s Wall Street pick to lead the Commerce Department, Howard Lutnick, has a net worth of more than $1.5 billion.
- Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Education, mega-donor Linda McMahon, has a net worth of over $2.5 billion.
- Trump also tapped billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, with Musk’s net worth estimated at $417.8 billion and Ramaswamy’s net worth at $1.1 billion.
- Trump also chose hedge fund founder and “widely reported” billionaire Scott Bessent to run his Treasury Department.
- Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Interior, Big Oil shill Doug Burgum, has an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion.
- Kelly Loeffler, Trump’s pick to head the Small Business Administration, has a net worth of $1.1 billion.
- Trump chose defense contractor Jared Isaacman, with a net worth of $1.8 billion, to serve as the NASA administrator.
- Trump offered the number two position at the Pentagon to Stephen Feinberg, whose net worth is $5 billion.
- Trump rewarded top donor Warren Stephens, whose net worth is around $3.4 billion, with the role of ambassador to the United Kingdom.
- Trump’s nomination for envoy to the Middle East, real estate investor Steve Witkoff, has a net worth of at least $1 billion.
Trump’s billionaire Cabinet will help him roll back progress made under the Biden-Harris administration and enact an expensive Project 2025 economic agenda that would rig the economy for the ultra-rich and big corporations, hike costs, and skyrocket inflation.
The Biden-Harris administration built “strong” and “healthy” economic growth over the last four years, creating over 16 million jobs, overseeing the lowest unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years, and lowering costs of essentials like prescription drugs. But Trump and his billionaire Cabinet are threatening to put all this progress at risk — and stick hardworking Americans with the bill.
- Trump is already walking back promises to lower costs, instead pledging a $100 billion national tax on Americans.
- Trump’s disastrous plans would raise prices on necessities like groceries and gas, costing American families an extra $1,300 a year.
- Trump and his incoming team are also threatening access to health care and critical earned benefits like Social Security — after Trump tried to gut both the last time he was in office.
- And after giving away billions to the ultra-wealthy during his first term, Trump is doubling down on plans to give tax handouts for billionaires and big corporations as economists warn he’s setting up an inflation bomb to wreck the economy.
Trump’s MAGA loyalists in Congress are gearing up to push through these unfit billionaire picks and Trump’s anti-working families agenda.
Trump’s MAGA allies in Congress have made clear they’ll loyally do his bidding — including supporting his billionaire Cabinet and doubling down on the wildly unpopular tax scam to rig the economy for the super rich and big corporations on the backs of the middle class:
- Trump’s 2017 MAGA tax scam was “deeply unpopular” for years after it passed because it disproportionately benefited America’s wealthiest and exposed Trump’s empty promises to the middle class.
- Trump has already admitted he plans on extending his “extremely unpopular” 2017 tax handout — even promising his billionaire donors that he’ll continue to line their pockets with tax breaks while begging for campaign dollars.
- Now, Trump is pushing for his MAGA minions in Congress to pass a massive reconciliation bill that includes tax handouts for the ultra-rich — and Republicans are ready to do his bidding at the expense of the American people.
- But the American people still aren’t buying it. A majority of Americans see Trump’s tax handouts for the ultra-rich as a “legitimate concern” — and four out of five Americans want to raise taxes on the wealthy and big corporations. Americans also believe that Trump’s tax plan will hurt people like themselves.
- And it’s not just tax handouts: Trump’s promises to his billionaire backers include giveaways for Big Oil and Gas and Silicon Valley as part of an agenda that is focused squarely on the wealthy and well-connected.
Trump already rewarded his billionaire donors with Cabinet picks. Now, Republicans will try to pack the first 100 days in Congress with favors and tax handouts for his ultra-wealthy backers, not the American people.
The billionaire nominees Trump is trying to force on the American people have significant conflicts of interest.
Trump is mired in his own “web of conflicts” from his business dealings — but he’s also stacking his billionaire Cabinet with industry insiders drowning in their own serious conflict of interest concerns.
Reporting has already laid out how Trump’s ultra-wealthy Cabinet “presents distinct conflict-of-interest risks” that Trump has shown no interest in addressing:
- Politico: Trump’s bringing several billionaires — and their conflicts — to Washington
- Bloomberg: How Conflict of Interest Rules Impact Trump, Musk and Other Rich Nominees
- Washington Post: Trump has assembled an uber-wealthy Cabinet, raising risks of ethics conflicts
- New York Times: Trump Organization Plans an Ethics Policy Without Banning Foreign Deals
- Financial Times: Donald Trump’s corporate picks raise conflict of interest fears
- CNN: Big donors secure big roles in the incoming Trump administration
- Public Citizen: Trump Appointees’ Corporate Conflicts of Interest
- Washington Post: Potential conflicts of interest may haunt Dr. Oz’s confirmation to run Medicare, Medicaid
- NBC News: Trump’s business empire has expanded. Here’s where he could profit in his second term
- ABC News: Some ethics experts raise concerns over Musk and Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency roles
- Wall Street Journal: Meet the Trump Nominees Selling Vitamins on the Side
- Axios: Why politicians’ wealth matters
- BBC: A $6.2m banana, a crypto empire and Trump’s potential conflicts
- USA Today: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy may be exempt from ethics rules as Trump’s advisors
The bottom line: Trump spent his first four years only looking out for himself and his rich friends. This time around, Trump and his Cabinet picks are once again more focused on their own bottom line than on working families. The American people deserve leaders who will look out for them and their wallets — not Trump’s crony capitalism that caters to his billionaires buddies and special interest donors.