Trump has tapped an unprecedented 13 billionaires for his administration. Here's who they are
President-elect Donald Trump has assembled the wealthiest presidential administration in modern history, with at least 13 billionaires set to take on government posts.
They include a wrestling magnate, a private space pioneer, a New York real estate developer, the heir to a small appliance empire, and the wealthiest man on the planet -- with several being donors and close personal friends of the incoming president.
In total, the combined net worth of the wealthiest members of his administration could surpass $460 billion, including Department of Government Efficiency co-head Elon Musk -- whose net worth of more than $400 billion exceeds the GDP of mid-sized countries.
Even discounting Musk, Trump's cabinet is still expected to be the wealthiest in history, with reported billionaires Howard Lutnick nominated as commerce secretary, Linda McMahon nominated as education secretary, and Scott Bessent nominated as treasury secretary. Together, Trump's expected cabinet is worth at least $7 billion.
Trump's ambassador picks also include several billionaires, including financier Warren Stephens, who has been tapped to serve as the ambassador to the United Kingdom, Conair executive Leandro Rizzuto Jr., tapped to serve as the ambassador to the Organization of American States, Charles Kushner, named the ambassador to France, and Tom Barrack, named the ambassador to Turkey.
"It's not a surprise that [Trump] surrounds himself with people who come from the same world that he does," said Jordan Libowitz, vice president of communications for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "The billionaire class of businessmen is who he is and who he wants to be seen as, and who he wants to be seen with."
The wealth of Trump's current cabinet rivals only that of his first-term cabinet -- which had a combined net worth of $3.2 billion -- and dwarfs the $118 million combined net worth of President Joe Biden's cabinet.
During Trump's first term, his secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, boasted the highest net worth, with Forbes estimating it to be roughly $2 billion. In contrast, the wealthiest official in the Biden administration is White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, whose disclosures from 2021 showed his net worth ranging between $90 million and $443 million.
While it's common for people with careers in business to serve in government, watchdog groups told ABC News that ultra-rich individuals with complex financial backgrounds and previous business dealings raise concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
"Being wealthy by itself is not a disqualifier," said Kedric Payne, senior director of Ethics at Campaign Legal Center, formerly deputy chief counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics. "It's just simply the potential conflicts of interest that are the concern."
"The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, and his Cabinet picks reflect his priority to put America First," Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told ABC News. "President Trump will continue to appoint highly-qualified men and women who have the talent, experience, and necessary skill sets to Make America Great Again."
Under federal ethics laws, Trump's wealthy nominees and appointees will have to divest themselves of stock holdings that could raise conflict issues, and will be required to release their financial disclosures. It's not yet clear if Musk and Ramaswamy will fall under the disclosure requirements, due to their DOGE positions being described as "outside" of the government -- despite the potentially massive impact they could have on the government.
"Luckily, there are laws in place that address this specific problem, and they're typically enforced," Payne said.
The Office of Government Ethics will review presidential nominees and appointees' assets and financial interests before the Senate confirmation process, and provide advice on how to avoid conflicts of interests if they are confirmed, according to Payne.
Here are the Trump administration's wealthiest members and how much they're reportedly worth.
Elon Musk, Department of Government Efficiency co-head: $439 billion
Musk is the world's richest person, with his stakes in Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, and artificial intelligence startup xAI making him worth over $400 billion, according to Forbes. The tech mogul spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help return Trump to the White House, and has emerged as one of the most influential figures in Trump's orbit.
Leandro Rizzuto Jr., Ambassador to the Organization of American States: $3.5 billion
Rizzuto's family made billions growing the hair product company Conair from a small family business run out of a Queens, New York, garage into one of the largest private companies in the United States. Forbes estimated the family's net worth at approximately $3.5 billion in 2017.
Rizzuto briefly served as Trump's principal officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Bermuda in 2020 after his 2018 nomination to be ambassador to Barbados failed in the Senate.
Warren Stephens, Ambassador to the United Kingdom: $3.4 billion
Stephens has spent his entire career with his family's Little Rock-based investment bank, becoming the firm's CEO and president in 1986.
He spent $2 million in 2016 to support a group that aimed to stop Trump from winning the Republican nomination, but donated to Trump in the 2020 presidential race, and eventually supported Trump 2024 election after initially throwing his support behind other Republican candidates.
Linda McMahon, Education Secretary: Up to $3 billion
McMahon, with her husband Vince McMahon, founded the company that later became World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. Under her leadership, WWE became the world's largest wrestling entertainment company, with Vince McMahon worth over $3 billion in 2024. The McMahons have since separated, and it's unclear how much of the company Linda owns individually.
A Trump supporter, she was the head of the Small Business Administration during Trump's first term in office.
Howard Lutnick, Commerce Secretary: $2.2 billion
Lutnick, who has been tapped to serve as the Secretary of the Department of Commerce, is the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm he joined in 1983. The billionaire businessman has led the investment first since 1991 and owns about 60% of the company, according to Bloomberg.
Charles Kushner, Ambassador to France: $1.8 billion
Kushner is a real estate developer who made his fortune building thousands of residential units across New Jersey. In 2005, Kushner was sentenced to 24 months in prison after pleading guilty to multiple felonies, including making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, assisting in the filing of a false tax return, and retaliating against a cooperation witness.
During his plea hearing, he admitted to retaliating against his sister for cooperating with law enforcement by having a prostitute seduce her husband and covertly film them having sex.
After serving his sentence, Kushner made a series of successful investments in the New York real estate market, including the purchase of a midtown skyscraper for nearly $2 billion. He was subsequently pardoned by Trump at the end of Trump's first term.
His son Jared Kushner is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, and the Kushner family's overall net worth is approximately $1.8 billion according to Forbes.
Jared Isaacman, NASA Administrator: $1.8 billion
Isaacman is a pioneer in private space exploration who made his fortune by founding the payment processing company Shift4 Payments.
In addition to his stake in Shift4 -- which processes a third of the customer payments made to American hotels and restaurants -- Issacman sold his tactical aircraft company Draken International, LLC, to the investment company Blackstone for a reported nine-figure sum.
Thomas Barrack Jr., Ambassador to Turkey: $1 billion
In 1991, Barrack founded the private equity real estate firm Colony Capital, which now manages more than $80 billion as DigitalBridge Group.
A close friend of the president-elect, Barrack chaired Trump's first inaugural committee and in 2022 was acquitted of federal charges accusing him of illegal foreign lobbying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
Steven Witkoff, Special Envoy to the Middle East: $1 billion
After first meeting Donald Trump in a New York deli in the 1980s, Witkoff climbed New York's real estate ladder alongside Trump, ultimately building a personal fortune of a billion dollars.
Witkoff has remained close to Trump for decades, testifying as an expert witness at his New York civil fraud trial in defense of the former president, and golfing with Trump during his second assassination attempt in September. Despite his limited experience in foreign affairs, Witkoff was named Trump's Special Envoy to the Middle East.
Frank Bisiganano, Social Security Administration Commissioner: $1 billion
Bisiganano was one of JPMorgan Chase's most influential executives during the 2008 recession, before taking over the financial services company First Data Corporation. Bisiganano became the CEO of Fiserv -- a leading financial technology firm -- when the company bought First Data in 2019. A hefty executive compensation package -- more than $100 million in 2017 -- and his stake in the company contributed to his net worth exceeding $1 billion, according to Fortune.
Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary: Reported billionaire
A protege of Democratic megadonor George Soros, Bessent worked as the chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management before founding his own firm, Key Square Group. Bessent developed a reputation for bold bets on macroeconomic trends, including making more than a billion dollars by betting against the British pound in the 1990s, followed by a similar trade against the Japanese yen in 2013 that netted more than a billion dollars in profits.
At one point, Bessent's Key Square Group managed more than $5 billion.
During the campaign cycle, Bessent was a major fundraiser and emerged as a key economic adviser to Trump.
Vivek Ramaswamy, Department of Government Efficiency co-head: $1 billion
Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and 2024 presidential candidate, made his fortune through his 10% stake in Roivant Sciences, a biotech company he founded in 2014. After leaving Roivant in 2021, he founded Strive Asset Management, which manages approximately $1.7 billion -- including offering an "anti-woke" index fund.
During his long shot bid for the White House, Ramaswamy loaned and contributed $26 million to his own campaign.
David Sacks, AI and Crypto Czar: Net worth unknown
Sacks is a member of the so-called "PayPal Mafia," a group of tech entrepreneurs who founded successful companies after eBay purchased PayPal in 2002. He launched a series of companies including the workplace communications company Yammer and the venture capital firm Craft Ventures. Sacks' podcast with fellow venture capitalists Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg hosted Trump for a one-hour episode in June.
As Trump's AI and crypto czar, Sacks is tasked with supercharging the development of AI and cryptocurrency development with minimal regulation.
Kelly Loeffler, Administrator of Small Business Administration: $800 million
Loeffler is a former Georgia senator and the former CEO of Bakkt, a cryptocurrency trading platform. She owned a minority stake in the WNBA's Atlanta Dream in 2010 before selling her stake in 2021 amid criticism stemming from the Black Lives Matter movement. Loeffler is married to billionaire and major Trump donor Jeffrey Sprecher, the CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange.
She was appointed to fill a vacated Senate seat in Georgia in 2020 but was defeated in a special election in 2021. Trump recently named Loeffler to serve as the co-chair of his inaugural committee and nominated her to lead the SBA.
Doug Burgum, Interior Secretary: $100 million
Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, got his start in the software business in 1983 when he mortgaged a quarter million dollars worth of farmland to found Great Plains Software. Microsoft eventually purchased the company for a billion dollars in 2000, and Burgum went on to run a real estate development firm and venture capital company.
He was elected governor of North Dakota in 2016 and was reelected in 2020. He ran a long shot presidential campaign and dropped out before the primaries, though he was one of Trump's final three picks for vice president.
Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: $100 million
Dr. Oz is a heart surgeon-turned-TV-host who became famous for his program "The Dr. Oz Show." He was previously the director of the Cardiovascular Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital and vice-chairman and professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
In 2003, Oz began his television hosting career with his show "Second Opinion" on the Discovery Channel, and later became a regular on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." In 2009, Oz debuted his own "Dr. Oz Show," which ran until 2022, when Oz ran for the Senate in Pennsylvania and lost.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Oz promoted the treatment of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug unproven in treating COVID-19. He has faced criticism over his claims about weight-loss products and over his past statements on vaccination.
Oz has defended his endorsement of controversial medical products by saying that he goes against the "established grain," and that he always puts patients first.
During his Senate run, he valued his assets between $100 million and $315 million, according to a federal financial disclosure.
