Opponents warn the administration is set to be packed with tycoons who will do nothing to fulfil his promise of helping working-class Americans

The appetisers were young garlic soup with thyme and sautéed frogs’ legs, diver scallops with caramelized cauliflower and caper-raisin emulsion. Donald Trump ate a prime sirloin with citrus glazed carrots; Mitt Romney chose lamb chops with a mushroom bolognese sauce.

At Jean-Georges, a three-star Michelin restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in New York, it’s a rich man’s world, and one where the US president-elect feels at home. This has also been evident in his appointments so far, as the so-called “blue-collar billionaire” looks set to preside over the wealthiest administration in modern history.

Trump's conflicts of interest: a visual guide Read more

Trump, a former host of reality TV show The Apprentice, is surrounding himself with the 1%: billionaires and millionaires, investment bankers and venture capitalists, Wall Street insiders and family fortune heirs, many educated at elite schools. It is the most brazen embrace of big money since the 1980s era of Ronald Reagan, Tom Wolfe’s Masters of the Universe and Oliver Stone’s Gordon Gekko.

“It is a throwback to the ‘greed is good’ mentality,” said Marge Baker, executive vice-president of the liberal pressure group People For the American Way. “It’s also alarming that the president-elect said he believes what’s good for his business is good for America. That’s not how you want the leader of your country to be making decisions.”



Baker added: “When you’ve got Wall Street billionaires setting the agenda it’s not likely to benefit average Americans. Research shows that the wealthy have different priorities and policy priorities, for example on healthcare and the minimum wage.”

The Trump cabinet’s emphasis on tax cuts and deregulation is also likely to echo the Reagan era. Election rival Hillary Clinton warned during the campaign: “Trump is trickledown economics over and over again. I called it trumped-up trickledown economics.”

Igor Volsky, deputy director of a pro-Clinton thinktank, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said: “The same trickledown policies we saw in the 80s [that] didn’t help ordinary Americans are going to be put forward again. If you look at large parts of the cabinet it does feel like going back in time.”

The very people who heard Trump’s blunt, populist message about unrigging the system would be the ones to suffer its betrayal, Volsky added. “He’s going to perpetuate a system that helps the very richest Americans at the cost of programmes that help middle and lower-income Americans.”



Andrew Mellon, one of the richest Americans of the early 20th century, served as treasury secretary in three administrations. George W Bush’s first cabinet was criticised for containing high rollers in 2001. But Trump has taken the mix of democracy and plutocracy to a whole new level.

The Politico website suggested the new president’s team could be worth $35bn – some have made political donations worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The median household income in the US is about $55,000.

Trump’s supporters have said they welcome the fact he is a businessman, not a politician beholden to special interests, and hope he will run America like an efficient corporation. But several members of the administration could face accusations of a conflict of interest – that they are forming policy with at least one eye on their own businesses, or those of their cronies.

Neil Sroka, spokesman for the liberal organisation Democracy for America, said: “You’ve got a group of entitled, out-of-touch billionaires who are going to be bossed around by a bigoted, out-of-touch billionaire. It is beyond credibility that they are going to be able to accurately reflect the needs of working-class citizens who rely on leaders in Washington to fight for them.”



The appointments were self-serving, Sroka added. “What this rogues’ gallery of billionaires that Trump is trotting shows is that he isn’t interested in protecting working people. He wants to curry favour with a millionaire and billionaire class that he’s always sought the approval of.

“This is a class that dines on lobster steak and caviar every night. They’re not figuring out how to put food on the table. They’re figuring out how to make a few more millions before they go home at night.”

Trump’s picks so far

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for education secretary. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Betsy DeVos, education secretary. Daughter-in-law of Richard DeVos, co-founder of marketing company Amway. The family has a net worth of $5.1bn, according to Forbes. Her lobbying for school vouchers has been criticised for undermining public sector schools (which critics note neither she nor her children attended). DeVos’s brother is Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, a private security contractor notorious for its lucrative and deadly role in the Iraq war.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Elaine Chao arrives at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump in November. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Elaine Chao, transport secretary. Daughter of a shipping magnate, she made more than $1m from serving on the boards of News Corp, Wells Fargo, Ingersoll Rand and Vulcan Materials in 2015, public records show. Chao was in Bush’s cabinet and is married to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, whose net worth in 2014 was $22m, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest South Carolina governor Nikki Haley will be the US ambassador to the United Nations. Photograph: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Nikki Haley, ambassador to the UN. South Carolina governor earned half a million dollars for a memoir in 2012. She and her husband Michael, a member of the South Carolina national guard, reported a total income of $170,661 last year.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former Goldman Sachs banker Steven Mnuchin who will be Trump’s treasury secretary. Photograph: Andrew Gombert/EPA

Steven Mnuchin, treasury secretary. Studied at Yale, where he reportedly drove a Porsche, and followed in his father’s footsteps to work at Goldman Sachs, where his stake was worth a reported $46m when he left in 2002. Started his own hedge fund and financed Hollywood films. Mnuchin reportedly profited from the 2008 housing crash after buying the IndyMac bank hit by losses on risky mortgages with US government help. Also served as the Trump campaign’s finance chairman. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown said: “This isn’t draining the swamp – it’s stocking it with alligators.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Republican congressman from Georgia, Tom Price, who will serve as health and human services secretary. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Tom Price, health secretary. Orthopaedic surgeon staunchly opposed to Obamacare. Six-term Republican congressman ranks 44th in the House with an estimated net worth of $13.6m in 2014, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Todd Ricketts, co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, will be deputy commerce secretary. Photograph: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

Todd Ricketts, deputy commerce secretary. Family is worth an estimated $5.3bn, according to Forbes, having made their fortune through a discount brokerage that processes 400,000 transactions per day. Co-owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Wilbur Ross meets Trump at Trump National golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Wilbur Ross, commerce secretary. Net worth of $2.9bn, according to Forbes. Dubbed a “vulture” and “king of bankruptcy” because of his knack for extracting a profit from failing businesses. Helped Trump keep control of his failing Taj Mahal casino in the 1990s by persuading investors not to push him out. An explosion at a mine in West Virginia, which his company had bought a few weeks earlier, killed 12 miners in 2002.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Senator Jeff Sessions is set to be attorney-general. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

Jeff Sessions, attorney general. From Alabama and known for hardline stance on immigration. Ranks 25th in the Senate with an estimated net worth of $7.5m in 2014, according to opensecrets.org.

Non-cabinet posts

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, will be a close adviser to Trump. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and close adviser. Property tycoon, publisher and multimillionaire. Went to Harvard, allegedly after his father, a developer, donated $2.5m to the university. At age 26 he bought an office building on Fifth Avenue for a record $1.8bn. Masterminded Trump’s astounding election win with a “stealth data machine”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Steve Bannon, former head of Breitbart News and Trump’s chief strategist. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Steve Bannon, chief strategist. Studied at Harvard and worked at Goldman Sachs for four years. Believed to be worth tens of millions of dollars, in part from his stake in royalties from the TV show Seinfeld. Executive chairman of Breitbart News, he is described by critics as a white nationalist, a charge he denies.

Under consideration for cabinet

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mitt Romney could be a surprise choice for secretary of state. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Mitt Romney, potential secretary of state. Private equity investor. During the 2012 election campaign, when he was the Republican nominee, Romney estimated his personal fortune at $250m. Barack Obama described him at the time as a “vulture capitalist”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who rivals Romney to be secretary of state. Photograph: Peter Foley/EPA

Rudy Giuliani, another potential secretary of state. Lawyer and former New York mayor reported to be worth tens of millions of dollars. His complex web of foreign connections might cost him the job.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ben Carson could be housing secretary. Photograph: Steve Marcus/Reuters

Ben Carson, tipped for housing secretary. The retired neurosurgeon has an estimated fortune of $26m.