In response to Donald Trump announcing senior Department of the Treasury staff, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump’s slate of Treasury Department senior staff hires proves yet again that he’s focused on giving handouts to his ultra-wealthy backers and big corporations — not helping hardworking Americans. From padding corporations’ pockets to arguing for a regressive tax that would hurt families, Trump’s hires have long records pushing the most out-of-touch parts of Trump’s MAGA agenda that puts Wall Street over Main Street.” 

Trump named corporate tax lobbyist Ken Kies as the Treasury’s assistant secretary for tax policy — a role in which he’ll push for massive tax handouts for billionaires and big corporations at the expense of hardworking Americans. 

Bloomberg: “Ken Kies will be assistant secretary for tax policy, placing him as a point person at the Treasury working on tax cuts Trump has touted as a signature policy issue for 2025. Kies is a longtime Republican tax lobbyist.”

Sam Stein, The Bulwark: “The cruise industry has spent tens of millions of dollars in lobbying to avoid corporate taxes. It does so by utilizing a section of the tax code exempting non-U.S. firms engaged in maritime transport from having to pay taxes on benefits. … 

“Among the lobbyists who has been employed by the cruise industry is Ken Kies, managing director of the Federal Policy Group, LLC. Kies is a DC staple. He’s worked on the Hill (Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation) and at PricewaterhouseCoopers, among other places.”

Trump tapped Alexandra Preate as senior counsel — Steve Bannon’s “personal spokesperson” whose organization pushed Trump to embrace highly regressive tax.

The Hill: “Trump chose Alexandra Preate to be the next senior counsel to Bessent. Trump said Preate has worked ‘closely with former Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, as well as my long-time economic advisors, Dr. Arthur B. Laffer and Stephen Moore.’”

CapitalHQ: “Alexandra worked closely with economic legends Dr. Arthur B. Laffer, Larry Kudlow, Stephen Moore and Steve Forbes to launch and build the [Committee to] Unleash Prosperity.”

Committee to Unleash Prosperity: “The case for the flat tax is stronger today than ever before.”

Bloomberg: “Donald Trump is under pressure from economists in his circle to embrace a flat tax rate, soften his trade stance and to hold the line on the state and local tax deduction. The minds behind these proposals include Steve Forbes, of Forbes Media, former White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow and economists Stephen Moore and Arthur Laffer. The men, who aren’t official advisers to his campaign, typically emphasize unleashing the supply potential of the economy with lower taxes, and to a degree that would have been unremarkable in the 1980s but which places them outside the economics mainstream today. …

“Monday’s event was organized by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, a group that counts Forbes, Laffer, Kudlow and Moore among its founders and organizers, and is one of the entities regularly bringing policy ideas to Trump.” 

Center for Public Integrity: “Alexandra Preate, a 46-year-old New Yorker and veteran Republican media strategist, describes herself as Bannon’s ‘personal spokesperson.’ But she also collaborates with other White House officials on public messaging and responses to press inquiries. It was Preate who responded when the Center for Public Integrity recently asked the White House Press Office questions about Bannon.”

Daniel Katz — a former hedge fund manager who opposes a global corporate minimum tax — was selected to serve as Treasury’s chief of staff. 

The Hill: “Trump chose Daniel Katz, a senior fellow at the conservative think-tank Manhattan Institute, to be the department’s chief of staff. Katz previously served as a senior adviser at the Department of the Treasury.”

Daniel Katz and Aharon Friedman, The Hill: “More fundamentally, the policy logic for the [global minimum tax] rests on the flawed premise that it prevents a ‘race to the bottom’ in international taxation. This framework reflects zero-sum economic thinking that does not take into account efficiency gains or greater capital formation as a result of internationally competitive tax policy, nor the realities of international relations.”