In response to Donald Trump selecting billionaire donor Stephen Feinberg to serve as deputy secretary of defense, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump is turning the Pentagon over to another billionaire with defense contractor ties in the latest example of him stacking his administration with out-of-touch donors looking out for themselves — not the American people. Our service members deserve a Defense Department focused on national security and Americans’ safety, but all Trump cares about is rewarding billionaire loyalists who will do his bidding.” 

NEW: Trump tapped billionaire, long-time donor, and political supporter Stephen Feinberg to be deputy secretary of defense, raising concerns about conflicts of interest. 

Trump: “Stephen Feinberg will serve as Deputy Secretary of Defense” 

Washington Post: “President-elect Donald Trump offered billionaire investor Stephen Feinberg the job of deputy defense secretary, said people familiar with the matter, a decision that could elevate a longtime political supporter with investments in defense companies that maintain lucrative Pentagon contracts. …

“Feinberg is the co-CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, which has invested in hypersonic missiles and which previously owned the private military contractor DynCorp. DynCorp was acquired by another defense firm, Amentum, in 2020. …

“Critics on the left have raised concern that elevating a billionaire financier to the highest rungs of the Pentagon could pose conflicts of interest stemming from his defense investments.” 

Forbes: “Stephen Feinberg’s Estimated Net Worth Was $5 Billion.”

The Intercept: “Feinberg donated $1.475 million in 2016 to Rebuilding America Now, a pro-Trump super PAC headed by then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott. At the tail end of the 2020 election, on November 2, Feinberg donated $1 million to America First Action, the main pro-Trump super PAC, and an additional $725,000 to the Trump Victory Fund.”

With Feinberg, Trump would add at least the 14th billionaire to his special interest administration, which already has more billionaires than any other administration in American history.

ABC News: “President-elect Donald Trump has assembled the wealthiest presidential administration in modern history, with at least 13 billionaires set to take on government posts.”

U.S. News & World Report: “Is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. the new Billionaires’ Row?

“The total net worth of the billionaires in the Trump administration, as of the morning of Nov. 25, equals at least $344.4 billion – which is more than the GDP of 169 different countries. Since Musk and Ramaswamy won’t be part of Trump’s Cabinet, excluding them brings the net worth of Trump’s Cabinet to at least $10.7 billion, assuming all nominees are approved in the Senate.

“The figures are most likely significantly higher, but finding the net worth of Bessent, a known billionaire, is tricky, and therefore he’s been left out of the above calculations.”

USA Today: “Trump himself is the country’s richest president, with an estimated net worth of $5.6 billion, according to Forbes. Having named a majority of traditional cabinet department heads and tapped tech entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramasway, to lead a new proposed ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ he is setting up the wealthiest presidential administration in U.S. history.

“If the U.S. Senate confirms his picks, he will easily beat his own record. His first cabinet had one billionaire, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and a combined net worth of about $2 billion, according to Business Insider.”

Newsweek: “President-elect Donald Trump has nominated eight billionaires to his Cabinet, setting up one of the wealthiest presidential administrations in history.” 

Trump has relied on Feinberg for advice on the use of defense contractors, in spite of Feinberg’s personal financial stake, as he stood to make billions from those same deals.  

New Yorker: “Stephen Feinberg, The Private Military Contractor Who Has Trump’s Ear”

New York Times: “President Trump’s advisers recruited two businessmen who profited from military contracting to devise alternatives to the Pentagon’s plan to send thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan, reflecting the Trump administration’s struggle to define its strategy for dealing with a war now 16 years old.

“Erik D. Prince, a founder of the private security firm Blackwater Worldwide, and Stephen A. Feinberg, a billionaire financier who owns the giant military contractor DynCorp International, have developed proposals to rely on contractors instead of American troops in Afghanistan …

“Soliciting the views of Mr. Prince and Mr. Feinberg certainly qualifies as out-of-the-box thinking in a process dominated by military leaders in the Pentagon and the National Security Council. But it also raises a host of ethical issues, not least that both men could profit from their recommendations.”

New York Times: “Over the last few years Mr. Feinberg’s $24 billion investment fund, Cerberus Capital Management, named after the mythological three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell, has quietly acquired some of the world’s best-known companies. The car rental chains National and Alamo, as well as parts of Air Canada and the retailers Mervyn’s and Albertson’s, are now all within the Feinberg empire. Last month, when Mr. Feinberg secured a majority stake in General Motors’ financing arm, GMAC, he gained control of America’s seventh-largest financial institution. Through another company it controls, I.A.P. Worldwide Services, Cerberus is poised to become one of the Army’s largest contractors in Iraq.”

In addition to ignoring conflicts of interest for personal gain, Feinberg has been accused of crossing legal and ethical lines to pad his wallet. 

New York Times: “Although many backers of Cerberus say Mr. Feinberg, 46, is known for his loyalty to investors and partners, his analytical savvy and his creative takeover strategies, the fund’s tactics in the bare-knuckled and risky arena of distressed-debt investing have given Cerberus its share of bruises. Court documents detail legal brawls in which investors accuse Cerberus of orchestrating secretive deals that transgressed legal and ethical boundaries, accusations the firm denies. …

“Some of those more secretive tactics, however, drew complaints and lawsuits. In 2000, Cerberus invested $42 million in the debt of WSNet Holdings, a small provider of satellite television programming. Over the next two years, according to shareholder lawsuits, Cerberus forced the company into bankruptcy by secretly buying up the bonds of companies WSNet hoped to acquire and forbidding WSNet executives from pursuing deals. Through bankruptcy proceedings, the fund tried to take control of the company, lawsuits contend. The suits also contend that Cerberus installed directors at WSNet who maximized Cerberus’s profits at the expense of other stakeholders. The claims were settled for a relatively small amount in 2005, by which time Cerberus had recouped its initial investment in WSNet, according to the lawsuits.”