What do Trump’s latest Cabinet nominees have in common? They all represent big money that backed him.
Names were also bolded in the original article.
The three latest nominees tapped by President-elect Donald Trump were major financial backers of his White House campaign.
Their selection deepens the role that wealthy donors are playing in shaping the new administration, despite Trump’s oft-repeated pledge to “drain the swamp” of special interests.
Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s pick for treasury secretary, served as his national finance chairman, helping organize dozens of high-dollar campaign fundraisers held across the country. The former Goldman Sachs executive and hedge fund manager also personally contributed at least $425,000 to support Trump’s presidential bid, through donations to the campaign, the Republican National Committee and state parties, according to Federal Election Commission data.
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, who Trump selected as his commerce secretary, was an early financial supporter of Trump’s campaign. He opened his Southampton, N.Y., estate for one of the campaign’s first fundraisers, which cost $25,000 a head. Ross personally contributed at least $200,000 to support Trump’s run, finance records show.
Trump selected Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts to serve as deputy commerce secretary. His father helped finance Future45, a super PAC that spent lavishly for Trump in the final weeks of the campaign. TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts gave the group at least $1 million through the end of September, FEC filings show. Joe Ricketts and his wife, Marlene, also contributed nearly $344,000 to support Trump’s campaign and the Republican Party.
This from the Hypocrite-Elect who accused Hillary of “pay for play” and peddling “access” to the State Department by accepting hefty fees for speaking when it was never shown that those who paid her got anything except her *presence *at events (which was probably worth every penny because it filled the tables).
He’s draining the swamp! That foul water needs to go somewhere, seems it’s going to be stored in his cabinet.
You are new to politics, aren’t you?
Leaper
December 1, 2016, 9:49am
4
Well, there’s also the fact that he’s a connected businessman who’s a complete political neophyte. Who ELSE is he gonna think of to help him run the country?
Traditionally, big donors are supposed to get the plum Ambassadorships to places like Paris, Rome, and Vienna. Not necessarily cabinet posts.
Ukulele_Ike:
Traditionally, big donors are supposed to get the plum Ambassadorships to places like Paris, Rome, and Vienna. Not necessarily cabinet posts.
Yep. Cabinet posts tend to be given to career politicians - who are usually not big donors. Former governors, former senators - people who have experience in governing.
Granted it tends to be people the President gets along with idealistically and personally - but it isn’t a highest bidder role.
Are you under the impression that you can buy a cabinet position for a few hundred thousand dollars? ROLFMAO.
SteveG1:
It is NOW
Damn you!!!
Except I was going to add “baby”.
Donald Trump is assembling the richest administration in modern American history
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.
Lots of money, no government experience–gives them a lot in common with their boss-to-be.
BTW, besides being the daughter-in-law of the founder of Amway, Betsy DeVos, DT’s choice for education secretary, is the sister of Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater .
Donald Trump has chosen charter school advocate and Michigan philanthropist Betsy DeVos to head the Department of Education, and the decision is already drawing criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. Besides her support of school voucher programs and her flip-flopping on the issue of Common Core, DeVos’ familial ties are causing concern amongst opponents to her opposition. DeVos’ brother is the infamous Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, the private military company whose contractors were responsible for the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007, among other incidents. But DeVos shouldn’t be held responsible for her brother’s actions.
Additionally, as reported by The Intercept, Prince became the subject of a Department of Justice investigation earlier this year for money laundering and attempting to sell mercenary services in Libya, a violation of U.S. defense export regulations. Moreover, Prince has funded several anti-LGBTQ ballot measures over the years and wants to criminalize abortion, according the The Intercept.
Prince, an avowed Mike Pence supporter, is an enemy to LGBTQ and women’s rights, and an architect of paramilitary forces…
I’ve been trying to bury my head in the sand when it comes to trump, but isn’t there some reluctance by anyone with a solid reputation to serve in his cabinet? Perhaps his choices all congregate at the bottom of the proverbial barrel.
We won’t know until he actually offers a job to someone with a solid reputation, will we?
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Memo to Trump supporters who thought he’d “be different”:
ThelmaLou:
…BTW, besides being the daughter-in-law of the founder of Amway, Betsy DeVos, DT’s choice for education secretary, is the sister of Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater…
Christ Jesus, this isn’t real, this is something Tom Clancy dreamed up after taking some of the brown acid!
I guess if DT needs his own private army (some day) it will be available.
“If they’re all rich, they must all be real smart!”
This is from the same article, but I left it out of my original quote:
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.
So *somebody *back in the family tree was smart. I guess.
“Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.” - Honore de Balzac
(As quoted for the motto of the novel The Godfather .)
Or in the case of Betsy DeVos, somebody back in her family tree was smart, then she married a guy who had someone even smarter in his family tree.
Well, if you can call the founder of a pyramid scheme smart.
Ludovic
December 1, 2016, 11:43pm
20
If you think about it, becoming sec of education is smart from such a person, because you can create stupid people who will buy in at the lowest levels of a pyramid scheme.
