ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� President Donald Trump鈥檚 brash populism has always involved incongruence: the billionaire businessman-politician stirring the passions of millions who, regardless of , could never afford to live in his Manhattan skyscraper or visit .
His second White House is looking a lot like the inside of Mar-a-Lago, with extremely wealthy Americans taking key roles in his Republican administration.
The world鈥檚 richest man, , is overseeing a new Department of Government Efficiency. Billionaires or mega-millionaires are lined up to run the treasury, commerce, interior and education departments, NASA and the Small Business Administration, and fill key foreign posts.
鈥淗e鈥檚 bringing in folks who have had great success in the private sector,鈥� said Debbie Dooley, an early 2015 Trump supporter and onetime national organizer in the anti-establishment Tea Party movement. 鈥淚f you need to have brain surgery, you want the proven brain surgeons.鈥�
Others raise concerns about conflicts of interest at odds with Trump鈥檚 pledge to fight for 鈥渇orgotten men and women鈥� in a country where the median household net worth is about $193,000 and median annual household income is about $81,000.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to conceive how the wealthiest set of Cabinet nominees and White House appointments in history will understand what average working people are going through,鈥� said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who served under President Bill Clinton and has warned for decades about the nation鈥檚 widening wealth and wage gaps.
Countered Dooley: 鈥淭rump sets the agenda. If they won鈥檛 enact his policies, then they will hear him say what we hear on 鈥楾he Apprentice鈥� all the time: 鈥榊ou鈥檙e fired!鈥欌��
Here is a closer look at some of Trump鈥檚 picks, their net worth according to Forbes and Yahoo Finance, and what the choices could mean:
Elon Musk
Musk (net worth estimated above $400 billion) is chairing , which is a special commission charged with slashing federal spending. The extensive ties his businesses have to the government have raised questions about Musk's potential conflicts in the role.
Linda McMahon
McMahon was picked to be . She is the wife of Vince McMahon, who is worth at least $3 billion.
The former WWE wrestling executive will lead an agency that many conservatives have called for abolishing altogether. While that鈥檚 a heavy lift politically, McMahon and Trump have endorsed an expansion of 鈥渟chool choice,鈥� programs that steer taxpayer money to private school tuition. She also could be in charge of implementing Trump鈥檚 proposals to withhold federal money from public schools 鈥� K-12 and higher education 鈥� that do not meet White House demands to modify or scrap diversity programs.
Doug Burgum
The former made his money as a software entrepreneur, selling his business to Microsoft for more than $1 billion in 2001. The latest federal financial disclosures show his personal holdings to include assets with ranges that exceed $100 million but do not provide a precise value of his net worth. Disclosure forms also do not require him to include certain trusts if Burgum himself is not the beneficiary. Burgum impressed Trump during his own failed bid for the GOP鈥檚 2024 presidential nomination. As interior secretary, Burgum will be charged with implementing Trump鈥檚 鈥淒rill, baby, drill鈥� promise 鈥� making it even easier for energy companies to tap fossil fuel resources, including from public lands.
Scott Bessent
Forbes has not yet identified Bessent as a billionaire, but the veteran hedge fund manager certainly is worth many hundreds of millions. At Treasury, he will play key roles in selling and implementing a number of Trump鈥檚 signature policies: reinstating the 2017 tax cuts tilted to corporations and wealthy individuals, imposing tariffs on many imports and cutting taxes on overtime wages, Social Security benefits and tip income.
Reich, the former labor secretary, noted that Bessent and his fellow wealthy Cabinet designees stand to benefit personally from Trump鈥檚 tax ideas. Trump tax policies, which helped widen the deficit in Trump鈥檚 first term, are juxtaposed with Bessent鈥檚 warnings about the dangers of rising U.S. debt and the cost of annual interest payments to the government鈥檚 bond holders.
Howard Lutnick
An apparent runner-up to head Treasury, Lutnick (estimated net worth $1.5 billion) has been nominated to be . Lutnick, who made his fortune as a financial services executive, is still slated for a high-profile post that will put him at the center of Trump鈥檚 promised trade wars with China and other nations, including Mexico and Canada. Commerce also oversees several agencies, including the Census Bureau, whose calculations are key to determining the funding distributions of programs across the federal government.
Kelly Loeffler
The named to lead the Small Business Administration was the wealthiest member of the Senate during her brief stay on Capitol Hill. Loeffler is married to Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, the publicly traded firm that owns the New York Stock Exchange. That鈥檚 not the center of commerce for the SBA鈥檚 usual clientele. The agency was founded in 1953 and describes itself as 鈥渢he only cabinet-level federal agency fully dedicated to small business鈥� by providing 鈥渃ounseling, capital, and contracting expertise as the nation鈥檚 only go-to resource and voice for small businesses.鈥�
As a senator, Loeffler faced ethics complaints over alleged insider trading tied to stock trades she and her husband made as members of Congress first started receiving briefings related to the coronavirus pandemic. The trades occurred weeks before the pandemic caused markets to plummet. Justice Department and Senate inquiries later found no wrongdoing on Loeffler鈥檚 part.
Jared Isaacman
Isaacman, another financial services billionaire, was through Musk鈥檚 company, SpaceX. This choice, as much as any, illustrates Trump鈥檚 lean to the wealthy private sector, given that billionaires like Musk and Amazon chief Jeff Bezos are now competing in a space sector that was once the province of the federal government and the agency that Isaacman would lead as NASA administrator.
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An earlier version of this story erroneously stated that Doug Burgum has an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion. The latest federal financial disclosures show his personal holdings to include assets with ranges that exceed $100 million but do not provide a precise value of his net worth.
Bill Barrow, The Associated Press
