Elon Musk, Tilman Fertitta, and Linda McMahon… Peep the Billionaires Trump's Tapping for His Next Crew
US President-elect Donald Trump is set to smash the record he set back in 2016 by putting together the wealthiest cabinet ever. Check out the list of billionaires who’ll be part of his crew.
Elon Musk
The dude who started Tesla and SpaceX? Yeah, he's become like, Trump's main man these last few months. Trump's got him and this other billionaire, Vivek Ramaswamy, running the new Department of Gov't Efficiency (DOGE), a kind of advisory squad that's gonna try to "ditch the government red tape, kill the over-regulations, chop the pointless spending, and totally revamp the feds,” according to the big man himself. (Forbes says he's worth like, $430.9 billion).
Tilman Fertitta
This guy owns the Houston Rockets and Landry’s, the restaurant and entertainment spot. Trump picked him to be the U.S. Ambassador to Italy. (Forbes says he's got about $10.4 billion).
Warren Stephens
Trump’s pick for U.S. Ambassador to the UK, which still needs Senate approval, is a major donor to Trump's campaign. He’s the head honcho at Stephens Inc., an investment bank from Arkansas that his uncle started way back, like a century ago. They were the ones who took Walmart public back in the day. (Forbes says he's sitting on about $3.4 billion).
Linda McMahon
The former CEO of WWE is Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, if the Senate says it's cool. She was co-chair of Trump’s transition team with billionaire Howard Lutnick. She also used to run the Small Business Administration back in Trump's first term before heading up the America First Policy Institute, a think tank that raked in millions for Trump's election. (Linda McMahon is hitched to Vince McMahon, the ex-WWE chairman and CEO, who's got an estimated $3 billion).
Jared Isaacman
Trump wants this guy, Jared Isaacman, to run NASA. He’s the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, this company out of Pennsylvania. He also started this defense company called Draken International back in '11 and sold it to Blackstone in '19 for a nine-figure score. (Forbes says he's worth around $1.8 billion).
Howard Lutnick
This dude, who co-chaired Trump's transition team, is the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. Trump's got him down for Secretary of Commerce (also needs Senate approval). He’s known for rebuilding Cantor Fitzgerald after they lost 658 employees in the 9/11 World Trade Center attack (Forbes says he's chilling with around $1.5 billion).
Kelly Loeffler
She’s a former Republican senator from Georgia who Trump wants to head up the Small Business Administration. She’s married to Jeff Sprecher, the billionaire founder of Intercontinental Exchange, who's got an estimated $1.1 billion.
Vivek Ramaswamy
This bio-tech entrepreneur, one of the youngest billionaires around, made his cash with Roivant Sciences. He started it like ten years back, took it public in ‘21, and actually got a few drugs on the market. Then he decided to run for president himself. (Forbes says he's got about $1 billion).
In Other News
Trump's also picked some other rich folks (but not billionaires) for his team. John Phelan, who started MSD Capital, is gonna be Secretary of the Navy, and Charles Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s father-in-law and the founder of Kushner Companies, is gonna be U.S. Ambassador to France. Massad Boulos, who’s Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law and a top advisor to Trump on the Middle East, is being called a big shot businessman, but the New York Times says he runs a truck dealership in Nigeria worth about $865,000.
Background
Trump, a billionaire himself with an estimated $6.1 billion, has been quick to build his cabinet since he won the election, and he's going for rich folks and Wall Street execs, just like he did in his first term. All the talk about Trump's picks has been about some of his more controversial ones, like his first pick for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz, who bailed because of some growing sex scandal. Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is also on thin ice because of a sexual assault claim that surfaced in ‘17 and now, some issues with the booze.