Meet the billionaires working with Trump on his second term
Getty Images
- Donald Trump has surrounded himself with fellow billionaires as he nears a second term as president.
- His cabinet nominees and advisors hail from various industries βand include the world's richest man.
- Here are the billionaires Trump is working with as he readies for the White House.
President-elect Donald Trump has long been associated with wealth. Trump, as his supporters like to say, was famously a businessman before he became president β or the host of a reality TV show. Even a young Barack Obama mentioned him as the epitome of success that Americans craved.
While some have questioned how successfully he ran his real-estate empire there is no arguing that he is now very rich. The net worth of the president-elect sits at $6.1 billion, according to Forbes' estimates as of December 23.
As Trump prepares for a second term as president, it looks as if like attracts like: He counts several billionaires among his advisors and cabinet nominees.
Trump's first-term cabinet was the wealthiest in modern times and included several multimillionaires among its ranks, including centimillionaires Wilbur Ross and Steve Mnuchin. Betsy DeVos, his former Secretary of Education, and her family were worth $2 billion when she held office, Forbes reported. More billionaires, including Diane Hendricks and Isaac Perlmutter, were among his early advisors.
There will be more clarity about the net worths of Trump's current cabinet picks and his remaining nominees when they file public financial disclosures due soon after their nominations become official.
These disclosures will also bring to light any conflicts of interest, which often result in large divestments. For example, in 2017, Steven Mnuchin, then the Treasury secretary nominee, agreed to divest from 43 companies and investments to comply with those standards.
Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in some cases, nominees from the private equity or venture capital worlds may find it difficult to divest their assets in time.
Vincent Viola, a Florida billionaire and Trump's pick to be Army secretary in 2017, withdrew his name from consideration after it became clear how difficult it would be to disentangle his financial holdings.
"You have to be prepared to divest of any asset," Canter told Business Insider. "The president needs to be able to call on any member of their cabinet and all of their senior officials, right? And not have to worry about whether by calling them and asking for their advice on a particular matter" they would create a criminal conflict of interest.
Here are the billionaires advising President-elect Trump and how rich they are. The net worths are based on Forbes estimates as of December 6 unless otherwise stated.
Allison Robbert-Pool/Getty Images
Elon Musk is by far the richest person to sign up to work for Trump, with a net worth of $435.5 billion.
Musk, the cohead ofΒ Trump's government efficiency commission, will work with conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy outside the federal government on the "Department of Government Efficiency." The duo has said they want to cut more than $2 trillion from the federal budget.
For now, Musk, the world's richest man, is not subject to divestment requirements as he's outside the Trump administration. Ethics experts say it remains to be seen if DOGE will meet the definition of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. This 1970s-era law sought to bring order to the external and sometimes secretive panels that advised the federal government. If DOGE does, Musk and Ramaswamy may be required to file financial disclosure forms. Most critically, DOGE may also have to hold open meetings and make its records available to the public.
Musk's approach to the federal government may mirror the one he takes at his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, which has made him very rich. His stakes in EV company Tesla β he owns about 13% of the trillion-dollar company β and rocket manufacturer SpaceX make up the bulk of his fortune. Musk illustrated his power when he played a leading role in killing an initial spending deal to avert a government shutdown. Congress later passed a pared down package, which billionaire said he approved.
Musk is known for his "hardcore" management style and has shown no problem conducting extensive layoffs, requiring his teams to work "long hours at a high intensity," and relentlessly cutting corporate perks.
He spent about $119 million boosting Trump's campaign β and his bet on the president-elect paid off. Since the election, Musk's fortune has grown by about $90 billion. The success of his companies, particularly SpaceX, has been tied to the government before. The New York Times reported that Tesla and SpaceX signed nearly $3 billion of government contracts last year.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is Trump's pick to be US ambassador to Italy.
Fertitta, worth an estimated $10.4 billion, previously starred in CNBC's "Billionaire Buyer," which chronicled his travels around the nation to find new potential products for his restaurants and casinos.
He is president and CEO of Landry's, a privately-owned restaurant and entertainment company. Among its properties are Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, Rainforest Cafe, and Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouses. Fertitta also owns Golden Nugget Casinos.
Fertitta is a major GOP donor.
AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari
Stephen Feinberg is the secretive co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, a major private equity firm.
Cerberus has a number investments in the defense industry, including through its majority stake in Navistar Defense, a specialized military automaker. As one of the top Pentagon officials, Feinberg will likely face major potential conflicts of interest given that if he is confirmed by the US Senate his post would give him sway over the Defense department's budget.
Feinberg, Trump's pick to be deputy defense secretary, is worth an estimated $5 billion. During the first Trump administration, the billionaire investor led the president's Intelligence Advisory Board.
The investor's love of privacy is well known. In 2007, The New York Times reported that Feinberg was said to have jokingly threatened anyone who had his photo during Cerberus' annual meeting.
"If anyone at Cerberus has his picture in the paper and a picture of his apartment, we will do more than fire that person," Feinberg said, per the Times. "We will kill him."
Feinberg's firm took a major hit when its gamble on Chrysler Financial looked to not have paid off when the automaker filed for bankruptcy. In 2010, Cerberus sold its stake to Toronto Dominion bank for $6.3 billion, recouping most of its money, Forbes reported.
Danny Johnston/AP
Investor banker Warren Stephens is Trump's nominee to be the next US ambassador to Britain.
Stephens, who is worth $3.4 billion, operates the Little Rock, Arkansas-based investment bank, Stephens Inc., which has been tied to his family since the 1930s. The firm was a major player in Walmart's 1970 IPO and later helped finance the construction of the Superdome, home to the NFL's New Orleans Saints.
The ambassador to the Court of St. James, as the post is formally known, is considered one of the poshest assignments in the foreign service. Presidents often name major donors to the role. Trump's first ambassador to the UK was Woody Johnson, co-owner of the NFL's New York Jets.
Stephens donated $3.5 million to pro-Trump causes, including $2 million to Make America Great Again Inc., the main super PAC for the former president.
Stephens hasn't always been supportive of Trump. In 2016, he donated $2 million to a group trying to block him, The New York Times reported. Before Trump locked up the nomination, Stephens supported Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
"Over the last 38 years, while serving as the President, Chairman, and CEO of his company, Stephens Inc., Warren has built a wonderful financial services firm, while selflessly giving back to his community as a philanthropist," Trump wrote in his statement announcing Stephens' nomination.
Eugene Gologursky/Getty
Trump has chosen Jared Isaacman, who is worth $1.8 billion, to head up NASA.
A high school dropout, Isaacman made his money through two companies: payment processing firm Shift4, which is publicly traded, and aviation venture Draken International, which he sold to Blackstone.
Isaacman would bring real space experience to his role as NASA administrator.
He's been to space twice on SpaceX's civilian flights that he funded and he conducted the first-ever commercial spacewalk in September.
Isaacman said that leading NASA would be "the honor of a lifetime."
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Trump's pick for Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, is worth more than $1.5 billion thanks to his decades on Wall Street. He's been CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm, since 1991 and of its spinoff brokerage firm, BGC Partners, since its formation. Cantor Fitzgerald's deals include Johnson & Johnson's $1.9 billion acquisition of Ambrx.
In addition to his work at Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick is chairman of the Newmark Group, a roughly $2.6 billion commercial real estate giant.
Trump said that Lutnick would be his point person on trade, even though the US Trade representative, a Cabinet-level post, typically fills that role. If confirmed, Lutnick would oversee 13 agencies, including the Census Bureau and the Patent and Trademark Office. During Trump's first term, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, another former banker, was central to the White House's trade war with China.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Musk will co-lead the DOGE with fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy, who made his fortune in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, is worth $1.1 billion.
He founded Roivant Sciences, a drug company that went public in 2021. The company has a market cap of nearly $9 billion, and Ramaswamy, who was the company's CEO before stepping down in 2021 to focus on politics, owns about 10% of its outstanding shares.
In 2022, Ramaswamy cofounded Strive Asset Management, an investment company that takes a non-ESG approach to money management. The company counts Vice President-elect JD Vance, who attended law school with Ramaswamy, as an investor.
Like Vance and Trump, Ramaswamy built his political reputation on the foundation of his business experience. Ramaswamy was harshly critical of corporate ESG and DEI initiatives, which he railed against in his 2021 best-selling book "Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam."
During the 2024 Republican presidential primaries, Ramaswamy stood out from the rest of the field by just how much he embraced Trump β a sign of loyalty that he quickly noticed. Despite his lack of political experience, Ramaswamy repeatedly qualified for debates while other more conventional picks struggled to meet the polling and donor thresholds. He dropped out of the field after finishing fourth in the Iowa Republican caucuses and quickly endorsed Trump.
During the summer, Ramaswamy bought a stake in BuzzFeed to remodel the online publication in his conservative image.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Linda McMahon, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, is the cochair of his transition team and led the Small Business Administration during the president-elect's first term.
According to multiple reports, McMahon hoped to be named Commerce Secretary, but that post fell to Lutnick after failing to get the Treasury Department role.
She doesn't have much experience in education policy, but she has spent the past few years leading the America First Policy Institute, a think tank that many in Trump's orbit flocked to after he lost the 2020 election.
When he announced her role, Trump pledged that McMahon would champion school choice, a long-sought-after conservative goal to allow public funds to cover the costs of sending children to private and charter schools. Some in the Republican Party have even argued for the dissolution of the Education Department entirely and ceding the policymaking power to state and local governments.
While not a billionaire in her own right, McMahon donated $15 million to Trump's campaign and is married to Vincent McMahon, the former executive chairman of WWE-owner TKO Group Holdings, worth $3 billion.
The McMahons cofounded and ran WWE, and Linda served as CEO for over a decade. Vincent resigned from TKO's board of directors earlier this year after a former employee filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual misconduct.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Former US Sen. Kelly Loeffler is Trump's pick to lead the Small Business Administration.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to serve out former Sen. Johnny Isakson's term which he resigned from early due to health concerns. Loeffler went on to lose the 2020 Georgia Senate runoff to Sen. Raphael Warnock, part of a pair of Peach State defeats that handed Democrats control of the US Senate.
She led cryptocurrency company, Bakkt, which is connected to the Intercontinental Exchange. Loeffler's husband, Jeffery Sprecher, is CEO of the Intercontinental Exchange and chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. Sprecher is worth an estimated $1.1 billion.
According to The New York Post, Trump Media and Technology Group, Truth Social's parent company, is nearing a deal to buy Bakkt.
Loeffler is among a handful of failed US Senate candidates whom Trump is set to tap to new roles in his second administration.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Steven Witkoff will serve as Trump's special Middle East envoy, as well as the cochair of his inaugural committee.
A real estate developer, Witkoff is worth at least $1 billion thanks to his stake in the development company the Witkoff Group, which is responsible for luxury condos, hotels, and office space across the country, and his personal portfolio of homes in New York City, the Hamptons, and Florida. He's also partnered with Trump on the cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial.
Witkoff, like many on this list and in the broader Trump cabinet, has no formal experience in his role. During Trump's first term, the president-elect relied on Jared Kushner, his wealthy son-in-law, to play a similar role, which later resulted in the Abraham Accords, a series of deals to normalize relations between Israel and four Arab states.
DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, Trump's nominee for Treasury secretary, is likely a billionaire β though Forbes has not yet crowned him one.
A Wall Street veteran, Bessent has worked for George Soros twice and was behind two of the financier's most lucrative bets, the shorting of the British pound and Japanese yen. In 2017, he launched his own firm, Key Square Capital, which has struggled to produce consistent returns.
While he has supported Democrats in the past, Bessent is now fully aligned with Trump. This election cycle, he donated $3 million to Trump-aligned PACs and Republican committees.
Bessent prevailed amid intense private jockeying to lead the Treasury Department, securing the role without Musk's blessing, who had backed Lutnick instead. Markets reacted positively to Bessent's appointment, but Trump soon clarified that this more conventional pick would not limit his tariff commitment.
