President-elect Donald Trump has assembled the wealthiest presidential administration in fashionable historical past, with no less than 13 billionaires set to tackle prime authorities posts.
They embrace a wrestling magnate, a non-public area pioneer, a New York actual property developer, the inheritor to a small equipment empire, and the wealthiest man on the planet — with a number of being donors and shut private associates of the incoming president.
In complete, the mixed web value of the wealthiest members of his administration may surpass $460 billion, together with Division of Authorities Effectivity co-head Elon Musk — whose $400 billion web value exceeds the GDP of mid-sized nations.
Even discounting Musk, Trump’s cupboard continues to be anticipated to be the wealthiest in historical past, with reported billionaires Howard Lutnick nominated as commerce secretary, Linda McMahon nominated as training secretary, and Scott Bessent nominated as treasury secretary. Collectively, Trump’s anticipated cupboard is value no less than $7 billion.
Trump’s ambassador picks additionally embrace a number of billionaires, together with financier Warren Stephens, who has been tapped to function the ambassador to the UK, Conair govt Leandro Rizzuto Jr., tapped to function the ambassador to the Group of American States, Charles Kushner, named the ambassador to France, and Tom Barrack, named the ambassador to Turkey.
“It is not a shock that [Trump] surrounds himself with individuals who come from the identical world that he does,” mentioned Jordan Libowitz, vice chairman of communications for the watchdog group Residents for Accountability and Ethics in Washington. “The billionaire class of businessmen is who he’s and who he needs to be seen as, and who he needs to be seen with.”
The wealth of Trump’s present cupboard rivals solely that of his first-term cupboard — which had a mixed web value of $3.2 billion — and dwarfs the $118 million mixed web value of President Joe Biden’s cupboard.
Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, who’s carrying his son, arrive for a roundtable assembly to debate President-elect Donald Trump’s deliberate Division of Authorities Effectivity, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 5, 2024.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Throughout Trump’s first time period, his secretary of training, Betsy DeVos, boasted the very best web value, with Forbes estimating it to be roughly $2 billion. In distinction, the wealthiest official within the Biden administration is White Home Chief of Workers Jeff Zients, whose disclosures from 2021 confirmed his web value ranging between $90 million and $443 million.
Whereas it is common for folks with careers in enterprise to serve in authorities, watchdog teams instructed ABC Information that ultra-rich people with advanced monetary backgrounds and former enterprise dealings increase issues about potential conflicts of curiosity.
“Being rich by itself shouldn’t be a disqualifier,” mentioned Kedric Payne, senior director of Ethics at Marketing campaign Authorized Heart, previously deputy chief counsel of the Workplace of Congressional Ethics. “It is simply merely the potential conflicts of curiosity which are the priority.”
“The American folks re-elected President Trump by a convincing margin giving him a mandate to implement the guarantees he made on the marketing campaign path, and his Cupboard picks replicate his precedence to place America First,” Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt instructed ABC Information. “President Trump will proceed to nominate highly-qualified women and men who’ve the expertise, expertise, and vital talent units to Make America Nice Once more.”
Beneath federal ethics legal guidelines, Trump’s rich nominees and appointees should divest themselves of inventory holdings that might increase battle points, and will likely be required to launch their monetary disclosures. It is not but clear if Musk and Ramaswamy will fall underneath the disclosure necessities, as a consequence of their DOGE positions being described as “exterior” of the federal government — regardless of the possibly huge affect they might have on the federal government.
“Fortunately, there are legal guidelines in place that tackle this particular downside, and so they’re usually enforced,” Payne mentioned.
The Workplace of Authorities Ethics will evaluate presidential nominees and appointees’ belongings and monetary pursuits earlier than the Senate affirmation course of, and supply recommendation on the right way to keep away from conflicts of pursuits if they’re confirmed, in response to Payne.
Listed here are the Trump administration’s wealthiest members and the way a lot they’re reportedly value.
Elon Musk, Division of Authorities Effectivity co-head: $439 billion
Musk is the world’s richest individual, along with his stakes in Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, and synthetic intelligence startup xAI making him value over $400 billion, in response to Forbes. The tech mogul spent over 1 / 4 of a billion {dollars} to assist return Trump to the White Home, and has emerged as one of the influential figures in Trump’s orbit.
Leandro Rizzuto Jr., Ambassador to the Group of American States: $3.5 billion
Rizzuto’s household made billions rising the hair product firm Conair from a small household enterprise run out of a Queens, New York, storage into one of many largest non-public corporations in america. Forbes estimated the household’s web value at roughly $3.5 billion in 2017.
Rizzuto briefly served as Trump’s principal officer on the U.S. Consulate Normal in Bermuda in 2020 after his 2018 nomination to be ambassador to Barbados failed within the Senate.
Warren Stephens, Ambassador to the UK: $3.4 billion
Stephens has spent his total profession along with his household’s Little Rock-based funding financial institution, turning into the agency’s CEO and president in 1986.
He spent $2 million in 2016 to help a gaggle that aimed to cease Trump from profitable the Republican nomination, however donated to Trump within the 2020 presidential race, and finally supported Trump 2024 election after initially throwing his help behind different Republican candidates.
Linda McMahon, Training Secretary: As much as $3 billion
McMahon, along with her husband Vince McMahon, based the corporate that later grew to become World Wrestling Leisure Inc. Beneath her management, WWE grew to become the world’s largest wrestling leisure firm, with Vince McMahon value over $3 billion in 2024. The McMahons have since separated, and it is unclear how a lot of the corporate Linda owns individually.
A Trump supporter, she was the top of the Small Enterprise Administration throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace.
Howard Lutnick, Commerce Secretary: $2.2 billion
Lutnick, who has been tapped to function the Secretary of the Division of Commerce, is the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a monetary companies agency he joined in 1983. The billionaire businessman has led the funding first since 1991 and owns about 60% of the corporate, in response to Bloomberg.
Charles Kushner, Ambassador to France: $1.8 billion
Kushner is an actual property developer who made his fortune constructing 1000’s of residential models throughout New Jersey. In 2005, Kushner was sentenced to 24 months in jail after pleading responsible to a number of felonies, together with making false statements to the Federal Election Fee, helping within the submitting of a false tax return, and retaliating towards a cooperation witness.
Throughout his plea listening to, he admitted to retaliating towards his sister for cooperating with legislation enforcement by having a prostitute seduce her husband and covertly movie them having intercourse.
After serving his sentence, Kushner made a sequence of profitable investments within the New York actual property market, together with the acquisition of a midtown skyscraper for practically $2 billion. He was subsequently pardoned by Trump on the finish of Trump’s first time period.
His son Jared Kushner is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, and the Kushner household’s total web value is roughly $1.8 billion in response to Forbes.
Jared Isaacman, NASA Administrator: $1.8 billion
Isaacman is a pioneer in non-public area exploration who made his fortune by founding the cost processing firm Shift4 Funds.
Along with his stake in Shift4 — which processes a 3rd of the shopper funds made to American accommodations and eating places — Issacman bought his tactical plane firm Draken Worldwide, LLC, to the funding firm Blackstone for a reported nine-figure sum.
Thomas Barrack Jr., Ambassador to Turkey: $1 billion
In 1991, Barrack based the non-public fairness actual property agency Colony Capital, which now manages greater than $80 billion as DigitalBridge Group.
Tom Barrack, a former advisor to former president Donald Trump, leaves U.S. District Court docket for the Jap District of New York in a brief recess throughout jury choice for his trial, Sept. 19, 2022, in Brooklyn.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photographs
An in depth pal of the president-elect, Barrack chaired Trump’s first inaugural committee and in 2022 was acquitted of federal expenses accusing him of unlawful international lobbying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
Steven Witkoff, Particular Envoy to the Center East: $1 billion
After first assembly Donald Trump in a New York deli within the Eighties, Witkoff climbed New York’s actual property ladder alongside Trump, in the end constructing a private fortune of a billion {dollars}.
Witkoff has remained near Trump for many years, testifying as an professional witness at his New York civil fraud trial in protection of the previous president, and {golfing} with Trump throughout his second assassination try in September. Regardless of his restricted expertise in international affairs, Witkoff was named Trump’s Particular Envoy to the Center East.
Frank Bisiganano, Social Safety Administration Commissioner: $1 billion
Bisiganano was certainly one of JPMorgan Chase’s most influential executives through the 2008 recession, earlier than taking up the monetary companies firm First Information Company. Bisiganano grew to become the CEO of Fiserv — a number one monetary expertise agency — when the corporate purchased First Information in 2019. A hefty govt compensation bundle — greater than $100 million in 2017 — and his stake within the firm contributed to his web value exceeding $1 billion, in response to Fortune.
Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary: Reported billionaire
A protege of Democratic megadonor George Soros, Bessent labored because the chief funding officer of Soros Fund Administration earlier than founding his personal agency, Key Sq. Group. Bessent developed a popularity for daring bets on macroeconomic developments, together with making greater than a billion {dollars} by betting towards the British pound within the Nineties, adopted by the same commerce towards the Japanese yen in 2013 that netted greater than a billion {dollars} in income.
At one level, Bessent’s Key Sq. Group managed greater than $5 billion.
Throughout the marketing campaign cycle, Bessent was a serious fundraiser and emerged as a key financial adviser to Trump.
Vivek Ramaswamy, Division of Authorities Effectivity co-head: $1 billion
Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and 2024 presidential candidate, made his fortune by means of his 10% stake in Roivant Sciences, a biotech firm he based in 2014. After leaving Roivant in 2021, he based Attempt Asset Administration, which manages roughly $1.7 billion — together with providing an “anti-woke” index fund.
Throughout his lengthy shot bid for the White Home, Ramaswamy loaned and contributed $26 million to his personal marketing campaign.
Kelly Loeffler, Administrator of Small Enterprise Administration: $800 million
Loeffler is a former Georgia senator and the previous CEO of Bakkt, a cryptocurrency buying and selling platform. She owned a minority stake within the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream in 2010 earlier than promoting her stake in 2021 amid criticism stemming from the Black Lives Matter motion. Loeffler is married to billionaire and main Trump donor Jeffrey Sprecher, the CEO of Intercontinental Alternate, which owns the New York Inventory Alternate.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler speaks on the Georgia Republican Occasion’s state conference, June 9, 2023, in Columbus, Ga.
Cheney Orr for The Washington Submit through Getty Photographs
She was appointed to fill a vacated Senate seat in Georgia in 2020 however was defeated in a particular election in 2021. Trump not too long ago named Loeffler to function the co-chair of his inaugural committee and nominated her to steer the SBA.
David Sacks, AI and Crypto Czar: Web value unknown
Sacks is a member of the so-called “PayPal Mafia,” a gaggle of tech entrepreneurs who based profitable corporations after eBay bought PayPal in 2002. He launched a sequence of corporations together with the office communications firm Yammer and the enterprise capital agency Craft Ventures. Sacks’ podcast with fellow enterprise capitalists Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg hosted Trump for a one-hour episode in June.
As Trump’s AI and crypto czar, Sacks is tasked with supercharging the event of AI and cryptocurrency growth with minimal regulation.
Doug Burgum, Inside Secretary: $100 million
Burgum, the previous governor of North Dakota, acquired his begin within the software program enterprise in 1983 when he mortgaged 1 / 4 million {dollars} value of farmland to discovered Nice Pains Software program. Microsoft finally bought the corporate for a billion {dollars} in 2000, and Burgum went on to run an actual property growth agency and enterprise capital firm.
He was elected governor of North Dakota in 2016 and was reelected in 2020. He ran a protracted shot presidential marketing campaign and dropped out earlier than the primaries, although he was certainly one of Trump’s closing three picks for vice chairman.
Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies: $100 million
Dr. Oz is a coronary heart surgeon-turned-TV-host who grew to become well-known for his program “The Dr. Oz Present.” He was beforehand the director of the Cardiovascular Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital and vice-chairman and professor of surgical procedure at Columbia College School of Physicians and Surgeons.
In 2003, Oz started his tv internet hosting profession along with his present “Second Opinion” on the Discovery Channel, and later grew to become a daily on “The Oprah Winfrey Present.” In 2009, Oz debuted his personal “Dr. Oz Present,” which ran till 2022, when Oz ran for the Senate in Pennsylvania and misplaced.
Dr. Mehmet Oz attended 51th Veith Symposium in New York, Nov. 21, 2024.
Fatih Aktas/Anadolu through Getty Photographs
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Oz promoted the therapy of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug unproven in treating COVID-19. He has confronted criticism over his claims about weight-loss merchandise and over his previous statements on vaccination.
Oz has defended his endorsement of controversial medical merchandise by saying that he goes towards the “established grain,” and that he at all times places sufferers first.
Throughout his Senate run, he valued his belongings between $100 million and $315 million, in response to a federal monetary disclosure.
