Thread: Donald Trump is assembling the richest administration in modern American history

Donald Trump is assembling the richest administration in modern American history

By Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson November 30 at 8:02 PM

When George W. Bush assembled his first Cabinet in 2001, news reports dubbed them a team of millionaires, and government watchdogs questioned whether they were out of touch with most Americans’ problems. Combined, that group had an inflation-adjusted net worth of about $250 million — which is roughly one-tenth the wealth of Donald Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary alone.

Trump is putting together what will be the wealthiest administration in modern American history. His announced nominees for top positions include several multimillionaires, an heir to a family mega-fortune and two Forbes-certified billionaires, one of whose family is worth as much as industrial tycoon Andrew Mellon was when he served as treasury secretary nearly a century ago. Rumored candidates for other positions suggest Trump could add more ultra-rich appointees soon.

Many of the Trump appointees were born wealthy, attended elite schools and went on to amass even larger fortunes as adults. As a group, they have much more experience funding political candidates than they do running government agencies.

Their collective wealth in many ways defies Trump’s populist campaign promises. Their business ties, particularly to Wall Street, have drawn rebukes from Democrats. But the group also amplifies Trump’s own campaign pitch: that Washington outsiders who know how to navigate and exploit a “rigged” system are best able to fix that system for the working class.

“It fits into Trump’s message that he’s trying to do business in an unusual way, by bringing in these outsiders,” said Nicole Hemmer, an assistant professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. But Trump and his team, she added, won’t be able to draw on the same sort of life struggles that President Obama did, in crafting policy to lift poor and middle-class Americans.

“They’re just not going to have any access to that” life experience, she said. “I guess it will be a test — does empathy actually matter? If you’re able to echo back what people are telling you, is that enough?”

Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary is industrialist Wilbur Ross, who has amassed a fortune of $2.5 billion through decades at the helm of Rothschild’s bankruptcy practice and his own investment firm, according to Forbes.

Ross’ would-be deputy at the Commerce Department, Todd Ricketts, is the son of a billionaire and the co-owner of the Chicago Cubs. Steven Mnuchin, who Trump named to head the Treasury Department, is a former Goldman Sachs executive, hedge fund executive and Hollywood financier.

Betsy DeVos, a Michigan billionaire who was named as Trump’s education secretary, is the daughter-in-law of Richard DeVos, the co-founder of Amway. Her family has a net worth of $5.1 billion, according to Forbes. Elaine Chao, the choice for transportation secretary, is the daughter of a shipping magnate.

It is a group that has long spent big to influence politics. Mnuchin, Ross and DeVos each made hundreds of thousands of dollars of political contributions within the last two years, according to OpenSecrets.org. In Ross’ Manhattan office, next to a window overlooking Central Park, there is a table filled with pictures of Ross with candidates to whom he has contributed, including John A. Boehner, Michael Bloomberg and Bill Clinton.

On Wednesday, Democrats seized on Ross’s and Mnuchin’s Wall Street ties to accuse Trump of undermining his populist pitch.

“I’m not shocked by this. It’s a billionaire president being surrounded by a billionaire and millionaire cabinet, with a billionaire agenda . . . to hurt the middle class,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “The appointments suggest that he’s going to break his campaign promises.”

In their first interviews Wednesday after being unveiled as cabinet nominees, Mnuchin and Ross pitched their business experience as beneficial to the goals of boosting workers.

“I think one of the good things about both Wilbur and I, we have actually been bankers,” Mnuchin told CNBC, adding, “We’ve been in the business of regional banking, and we understand what it means to make loans.”

On the campaign trail, Trump pledged lift up Americans who have seen their economic prospects dim with the loss of well-paying blue-collar jobs. And indeed, voters by and large ignored Trump’s own opu*lence, which never became the baggage that it did for the 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.

Still, the question now is whether public officials who come from such privileged backgrounds will favor policies that benefit the rich.

“This isn’t a criticism or a conspiracy . . . but it’s important to recognize that everyone’s perspective and policy and government is shaped by the kind of life you’ve lived,” said Nicholas Carnes, a political scientist at Duke University. “The research really says that when you put a bunch of millionaires in charge, you can expect public policy that helps millionaires at the expense of everybody else.”

Future appointments could further increase the wealth of Trump’s cabinet. Harold Hamm — a self-made oil industry executive who ranks 30th on the Forbes 400, a list of the wealthiest Americans, with a net worth of $16.7 billion, — is on Trump’s shortlist for secretary of energy. Andrew Puzder, a restaurant industry executive, has been floated for labor secretary.

Trump is hardly the first president to dole out cabinet positions to wealthy Americans. The Commerce and Treasury departments in particular tend to be headed by politically connected donors or Wall Street executives, said Matt Grossman, a political scientist at Michigan State University.

“Of course, it’s not uncommon for the wealthy to be overrepresented in political positions of all kinds, and in appointment processes you tend to get people who are already well-connected to the incoming president,” he said.

Penny Pritzker, the current commerce secretary, comes from one of America’s wealthiest families, and her net worth is estimated at $2.5 billion. Former treasury secretaries Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Paul H. O’Neill both had personal wealth in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

The tradition goes back in history. Andrew Mellon, one of the wealthiest Americans in the early 20th century, served as treasury secretary under three administrations. Eisenhower’s cabinet garnered the nickname “nine millionaires and a plumber.”

Mellon was first appointed by President Warren G. Harding, and he helped steer the U.S. economy through the “Roaring Twenties” — and into the Great Depression.

He is widely credited with pioneering an early version of the tax policies that form part of Trump’s economic agenda, which proved successful in the 1920s. It was the notion that the government could speed up the economy — and increase federal revenue — by cutting taxes on the rich.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.0d4f60c7df59

“It fits into Trump’s message that he’s trying to do business in an unusual way, by bringing in these outsiders,” said Nicole Hemmer, an assistant professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. But Trump and his team, she added, won’t be able to draw on the same sort of life struggles that President Obama did, in crafting policy to lift poor and middle-class Americans.

So what are the policies that have created the poor in America and put the middle class down in the dumps? Policies created by Trump's Cabinet? No. Policies created by Obama, the Obama Cabinet, the Bush Cabinet, the Clinton Cabinet, Bush I Cabinet and on and on and on.

Trump's Cabinet didn't open the borders and flood this country with poor people running drugs for the cartels. Previous Cabinets did that.

Trump's Cabinet didn't sign a free trade agreement that sucked our jobs out of the country leaving a flood of unemployed Americans now trapped in poverty. Previous Cabinets did that.

Trump's Cabinet didn't start wars it couldn't or wouldn't win that sucked trillions out of coffers and risked the lives and limbs of our Armed Service Members. Previous Cabinets did that.

Trump's Cabinet didn't run up $20 trillion and growing national debt with absolutely nothing to show for it. Previous Cabinets did that.

Americans in 30 states voted for Change across the board on November 8, 2016. Change at the borders. Change in trade policy. Change in tax policy. Change in foreign policy. Change in spending policy.

Trump's Cabinet is going to deliver that Change. And by the mid-terms, there won't be a Democrat-controlled state left in this great more perfect Union.

And there won't be a defense contractor left standing who wants to tell the American People they support Free Trade Treason sucking our jobs, money and lives out from under US. Are you listening United Technologies? We need Defense Contractors who put America First and Last. We are not going to spend our hard-earned tax dollars enriching defense contractors who want to hire foreign labor and produce in foreign lands, because that works at cross-purposes with defending the national security of the United States.

So, we not only need a Vetting program for immigrants, we need a Vetting program for Defense Contractors before they get another red cent from US taxpayers.

He is getting the best and the brightest because this country needs to be run like a business that makes money not loses it. Making money creates jobs, better and fair trade deals create jobs. Rebuilding this country and making our US foundation stronger will also create jobs. These people know how to do that and they do it well. When the country makes money we all make money as we will have jobs to straighten out our economy and prosper. We will all be better for it.

The authors, Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson from the Washington Post, are carrying the Democrat message in this article. It will be interesting to see how people that are accustomed to their own money, know how to earn it and use it effectively will fare over a group of professional politicians that have become wealthy on the back of government and favors. JMO

Originally Posted by Newmexican

The authors, Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson from the Washington Post, are carrying the Democrat message in this article. It will be interesting to see how people that are accustomed to their own money, know how to earn it and use it effectively will fare over a group of professional politicians that have become wealthy on the back of government and favors. JMO

Absolutely,
They are getting silly, but it will get even more ridiculous.

Nest week, they will complain they are the tallest, or maybe all still have hair, or don't have hair, etc., etc.

Maybe, just maybe, if they have their own money, they won't be so tempted to steal from the American taxpayer.