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A report on the “unprecedented” wealth of President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration has social media buzzing over the disparate implications.

Despite the considerable number of billionaires with histories of donating to the Democratic Party, including helping Vice President Kamala Harris amass a war chest of over $1 billion that she squandered, attempts to denigrate their accomplishments were rampant.

This was especially true of those who surrounded Trump as he tapped 13 billionaires to be in his administration, prompting ABC News to report on the “richest presidential administration in modern history.”

Drawing a contrast between the current and incoming administrations as well as between the affluent and average Americans, an apparent othering began, “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 included 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,” read the report that referenced Linda McMahon, Elon Musk, Charles Kushner, Leandro Rizzuto Jr., Warren Stephens, Scott Bessent, Tom Barrack, Vivek Ramaswamy and more.

The report relayed a combined net worth that is estimated at over $460 billion, much of which belongs to the world’s richest man, Musk.

Contrasting Trump’s expected second and first cabinets, with combined net worths of $7 billion and $3.2 billion respectively, to President Joe Biden’s cabinet which had a net worth of $118 million, no comment was made about how chiefly career politicians had amassed such wealth in contrast to the business leaders in the private sector, all of whom were subject to divestments and financial disclosures to avoid conflicts of interest.

Instead, representatives from ethics groups danced around concerns about conflicts of interest as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington vice president of communications Jordan Libowitz told ABC News, “It’s not a surprise that [Trump] surrounds himself with people who come from the same world that he does. 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.”

Likewise, Ethics at Campaign Legal Center Senior Director Kedric Payne said, “Being wealthy by itself is not a disqualifier. It’s just simply the potential conflicts of interest that are the concern.”

White House press secretary designee Karoline Leavitt spoke more to what was actually at play when she 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.”

To that end, users on social media were quick to point out that the United States government was a complex business that had for too long been dragged down by paper-pushing bureaucrats whose biggest management accomplishment was managing to remain employed.

Kevin Haggerty
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