Trump is stacking his White House roster with uber-rich backers

Trump is stacking his White House roster with uber-rich backers
Source: CNBC

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump greets Elon Musk before attending a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket, in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., November 19, 2024.

Donald Trump's first administration was chock full of super-rich figures whose combined wealth exceeded $5 billion, marking an unprecedented marriage of money and executive power. Trump's second term could make that total look like chump change.

More than half a dozen of the Republican president-elect's picks for his incoming administration are either confirmed billionaires or widely speculated to be. Numerous others are multi- or centimillionaires.

"The richest by far is Elon Musk," whom Trump has tapped to co-lead a bespoke advisory group tasked with slashing purported government waste.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is the world's wealthiest person, with estimates placing his net worth above $346 billion and as high as $362 billion.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur and former presidential candidate working with Musk on the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, is worth $1 billion, according to Forbes.

The nonprofit Americans for Tax Fairness last month estimated that the average net worth among Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and his top appointees is $616 million.

For comparison, Forbes estimated "the total net worth of President Joe Biden's entire Cabinet at $118 million."

The tax group's analysis is likely a low-ball estimate since it came before Trump announced a slew of other highly affluent picks. In the past week, he has picked billionaire financial services CEO Warren Stephens as his ambassador to the UK; billionaire investor Stephen Feinberg as deputy defense secretary; and venture capitalist David Sacks as his crypto czar.

Trump also picked Kelly Loeffler, a former U.S. senator who was reportedly considered the likely richest person on Capitol Hill while in office, to lead the Small Business Administration. Trump also has picked billionaire Massad Boulos, father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany, as a top Middle East advisor.

"And Trump chose Dr. Mehmet Oz" to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Oz was worth as much as $300 million in 2022 according to a New York Times analysis from when he filed during his failed bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania.