President-elect Donald Trump is billed as someone who can transform the GOP into a populist, working-class party – a champion of the "forgotten man" – but his burgeoning dream team may be worth $35 billion, according to a Politico report.
The news outlet's net-worth estimations for the projected regime, which is billed as "Trump's team of gazillionaires" include:
- Trump, who claims to be worth $10 billion
- Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose family is worth $5.1 billion
- Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross ($2.9 billion)
- Considering oil magnate Harold Hamm ($15.3 billion)
- Considering Mitt Romney ($250 million)
- Considering Steve Mnuchin ($46 million)
- Former NYC Major Rudy Giuliani ("tens of millions of dollars")
- Deputy Commerce Secretary Todd Ricketts (billionaire family owns the Chicago Cubs)
- Potential HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson ($26 million)
- Chief Strategist/Chief Counsel Stephen K. Bannon ("likely earned millions off the show 'Seinfeld' alone")
- Potential Labor Secretary Andrew Puzder ("made more than $4.4 million in 2012")
"Put together, Trump’s Cabinet and administration could be worth as much as $35 billion, a staggering agglomeration of wealth unprecedented in American history," Politico's Ben White and Matthew Nussbaum wrote. "The median household income in the U.S.? About $55,000."
Trump's big-ticket team "risks undermining the fundamental basis of his campaign" before he even takes office, they added.
The criticisms of Trump's transition team also came earlier this month from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
"The American people are watching to see if you were sincere in your campaign promises to look out for the interests of working families, rather than the interests of the rich and powerful," Warren wrote in a Tuesday, Nov. 15 letter to Trump. "Unfortunately, you already appear to be failing."
Neera Tanden, president of Center for American Progress and a close Hillary Clinton confidante, piled on, per Politico.
"These picks are a betrayal of his message to working class voters," Tanden told the online news outlet. "Trump claimed he would fight the global elite billionaire class, instead he's handing them the keys to agency after agency."
Larry Sabato, from the University of Virginia, is not surprised by the Trump appointments to date, telling Politico: "A billionaire tends to have billionaire friends."
"I don't think anyone expected union leaders from Michigan to be appointed to the Trump cabinet," Sabato added. "It certainly suggests what we've always known about Trump: He says one thing and does another. He's very flexible."
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