According to a new report by the advocacy group Public Citizen, there are 57 people in Trump’s second administration and in key government positions whose personal wealth exceeds $100 million.
This is more than four times the combined total of the three previous U.S. administrations (George W. Bush and Joe Biden each had 5 such officials, while Barack Obama had only 3).
Key Figures and Findings of the Study
As noted in the study, 34% of the U.S. Cabinet are multimillionaires and billionaires (8 out of 23 members).
The administration includes figures such as Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Deputy Secretary of Defense Steven Fineberg, and Administrator of the Small Business Administration Kelly Leffler. Each of them is a member of the “billionaires’ club.”
Let’s not forget that for some time, key roles in the Trump administration were also held by the world’s first trillionaire (at the time still a billionaire), the richest person on the planet, Elon Musk.
Of the 57 ultra-wealthy officials, 17 serve as U.S. ambassadors abroad, while the remaining 40 head key federal agencies.
According to human rights advocates, 30 of these 57 individuals collectively donated more than $65 million to Trump’s election campaign and related committees.
Context and Criticism
Donald Trump makes no secret of his fondness for successful businesspeople, stating that he is bringing “the best professionals from the private sector” into government.
However, experts and advocates from Public Citizen have expressed concerns about a potential conflict of interest. They note a significant gap between the interests of multimillionaires in power and those of ordinary Americans, given that the average annual household income in the U.S. is about $64,500, while the median net worth is about $193,000.
