Trump’s Second Administration Includes 57 Officials Worth at Least $100 Million, More Than Four Times the Total Under the Previous Three Presidents
President Donald Trump has assembled a second-term administration containing an unprecedented concentration of ultrawealthy officials, according to a new report examining the financial backgrounds of his appointees.
The consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen found that 57 officials in the Trump administration are worth at least $100 million, including 17 ambassadors and 40 people holding senior positions throughout the executive branch.
That total is more than four times the combined number identified in the administrations of former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
The findings come as Trump and Republicans prepare for the November midterm elections with voters increasingly focused on the cost of living and the president’s management of the economy.
Eight Trump Cabinet Members Worth at Least $100 Million
The concentration of wealth extends into Trump’s Cabinet.
Eight of its 23 members are worth at least $100 million, according to the report. Among them are Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, both billionaires.
Other wealthy members of the administration include Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg and Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, who are also billionaires.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and special envoy Steve Witkoff are each worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
By comparison, the Public Citizen report identified five officials worth at least $100 million in George W. Bush’s administration and five under Biden. Obama’s administration included three.
The report does not count Trump himself. Forbes estimates the president’s fortune at more than $6 billion.
It also excludes Elon Musk, who advised Trump during an effort to reduce the size and workforce of the federal government but was not serving in the administration in the same capacity as the officials included in the report.
Trump Has Long Praised Wealth as a Measure of Success
Trump has repeatedly presented financial success as evidence of business ability and leadership.
“They have great competence, those people. Incredible competence. Some of the smartest business leaders,” Trump said last year while explaining the importance he places on advice from successful executives.
Presidents from both parties have historically appointed wealthy donors, executives and business leaders to government positions, particularly ambassadorships.
One prominent example stretches back more than a century. Industrialist and financier Andrew Mellon, one of the wealthiest Americans of the 1920s, served as Treasury secretary under Presidents Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.
But the number of extraordinarily wealthy officials serving simultaneously in Trump’s second administration is what distinguishes it from recent White Houses, according to Public Citizen.
The organization argues that such a heavy concentration of wealth inside the federal government raises questions about whose interests policymakers prioritize.
“When the people holding the reins of government are drawn overwhelmingly from the ranks of the ultra-rich, it leads to misplaced incentives and corruption, and begs the question, ‘Whose interests they are truly serving?’” Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert said.
Economic Approval Creates Political Challenge Ahead of Midterms
The report arrives at a politically sensitive moment for Trump.
His return to the White House was powered in part by middle- and working-income voters who listed inflation, household expenses and the economy among their biggest concerns.
Trump campaigned heavily on promises to reduce everyday costs and strengthen the economy.
During his second term, his administration has pursued tax cuts and regulatory changes while promoting investment in industries including artificial intelligence and other large-scale business ventures.
Trump has argued that encouraging investment from wealthy business leaders will produce broader economic growth.
But voters have become increasingly skeptical of his economic performance.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted last month found 32% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, down from 40% at the beginning of his second term.
That decline creates another challenge for Republicans as they seek to retain control of Congress in the November midterm elections.
The Public Citizen findings add another dimension to that debate, while Trump continues pitching his economic agenda to working Americans, a historically large number of the officials shaping that agenda come from the nation’s wealthiest ranks.
