A portrait of the Trump administration: white, young, ultra-rich men from Florida
The new president’s cabinet — one of the least diverse in recent decades — has the highest concentration of billionaires ever recorded
Every four years, when the incoming American president forms their new government, they have the opportunity to return favors, reward loyalty and set new priorities (such as, for example, the incentivization of cryptocurrencies). The new tenant of the White House also gets to send a message, while holding up a mirror to that society that they’re about to govern.
In the case of Donald Trump — who will be sworn into office on Monday and has already announced over 100 appointments in the last two months — that mirror reflects the image of an administration, rather than that of the population. And if we were to draw a portrait of the image, it would be a robotic one: that of an ultra-rich white man — notably younger than his predecessors — with a face that’s familiar to Fox News viewers. And, if possible, the man would be from Florida.
In such a large group of collaborators, there’s a little bit of (almost) everything… but if something unites them, it’s their proven loyalty to the boss. They’ve stuck with him over the last four years during his journey in the desert, which began after his defeat at the polls in 2020. He’s been plotting his revenge ever since.
This time, everyone in the administration is a Trump loyalist. This is a very different scenario than the one that followed the president’s 2016 victory. Back then, his election win was so unexpected — and his political experience was so limited — that he had to hastily surround himself with a team of collaborators who, in many cases, he barely knew. Members of his administration were often fired after just a few months on the job.
Eight years later, some 25 of Trump hires worked in his first administration. This is the case of the two main architects of his immigration policy: Tom Homan — the so-called “border czar” — and Stephen Miller, a young Rasputin who advised the candidate to successfully toughen up his xenophobic discourse during the campaign. Other returnees include Linda McMahon as secretary of education — a professional wrestling entrepreneur, whom Trump knows from his flirtations with that violent, circus-like spectacle — and Peter Navarro, who will be a senior counselor after spending four months in jail for contempt of Congress. Navarro refused to testify before the commission that was investigating the 2021 assault on the Capitol.
In addition to loyalty, these are other traits that define those who will have access to Trump’s Oval Office starting on Monday, January 20:
Diversity, what diversity?
Trump has made history by appointing Susie Wiles, the first female chief of staff in US history — perhaps the most powerful position in the White House — and a Latino, Marco Rubio, as Secretary of State. Otherwise, this administration won’t be characterized by its diversity. Of 98 senior appointments, only 16 are women. Among the 16 cabinet-level appointments, however, the proportion is higher: five women (including Pam Bondi, attorney general) versus 11 men.
In this select group, whites are overwhelmingly the majority, except for Rubio, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer (also Hispanic) and Scott Turner, one of the two African-American cabinet secretaries chosen by Trump (the other is former senate candidate and football star Herschell Walker, who will serve as US ambassador to the Bahamas).
On the broad payroll, there are about 15 people who aren’t white. Among them is Tulsi Gabbard, of Samoan descent — she’s been nominated as director of national intelligence — as well as two men who are the children of Indian immigrants: Kash Patel (FBI director) and billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who — alongside Elon Musk — will lead the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency.
Neither of these percentages can be surprising: Trump’s first administration was already predominantly male and white. And this time around, he built a campaign of misogynistic and xenophobic overtones with the promise of ending the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) policies that have governed American life for the last few decades. These affirmative action policies are demonized in Trump’s universe: he even accused his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, of having prospered thanks to them. For Musk — the most influential of his new collaborators — they’re at the origin of the worst evils. This week, he even blamed them for the devastation caused by the Los Angeles fires.
The new administration also follows the most diverse in history, formed by Joe Biden in the heat of the Black Lives Matter protests and under the influence of the #MeToo movement. Four years later, however, Trump won the elections with the support of young men who feel threatened by feminism. Those sudden awakenings seem to be a thing of the past. The president-elect — found liable by a jury for sexually abusing and defaming journalist E. Jean Carroll — also persists in his support for Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. This is despite the fact that the former Fox News host has been accused of rape and of creating a hostile work environment for women.
A government of the ultra-rich
Biden used his final remarks as president to warn of “the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-wealthy people.” He was referring to the massive presence of billionaires in the administration of his successor, who is also a billionaire. Trump already surrounded himself with very rich people in his first term… but this time, he has smashed all the records. As of this past Saturday, the net worth of Elon Musk — the richest man in the world and one of Trump’s closest collaborators — was estimated to be around $434 billion. At the top of the wheel of fortune, he has a huge advantage over the rest of his White House colleagues.
It’s possible to argue about where exactly is the line that separates the rich from the ultra-rich… but it’s clear that a dozen of Trump’s top appointments — from Ramaswamy to the secretaries of the treasury (Scott Bessent) and commerce (Howard Luttnick) — belong to the second category. Unsurprisingly, eight of his recruits were also major donors to his presidential campaign. And here, again, Musk stands out above the rest: he contributed over $260 million to Trump’s candidacy.
The Florida quarry... and Fox News
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — the politician who, for a brief moment in 2022, seemed capable of turning the page on Trump for the Republican Party — launched his failed presidential campaign with the publication of a political memoir that was intended to serve as a letter of introduction to the rest of the country: The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival (2023). He also pushed the slogan, “Make America Florida.”
His candidacy came to nothing, but the idea of bringing Florida’s conservative ideals to the broader United States also factors into the key appointments made by the man who crushed him in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.
Following his defeat in 2020, Trump retreated to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. Since his most recent election victory, the wealthy Florida town has become the epicenter of his presidential transition. It’s the place where all MAGA roads lead, as well as the destination of a handful of big tech entrepreneurs — such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, or Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg — who were more or less Trump’s enemies in the past. They all went there to kiss the president-elect’s ring. Musk, meanwhile, has practically moved into the new president’s mansion-golf club, with Trump hosting dozens more of his recruits, according to The New York Times.
Trump has mined his Florida quarry to fill a dozen diplomatic posts, from the US ambassador to Spain — Benjamín León Jr. — to the ambassador to Panama, Kevin Marino Cabrera. Both men are from Miami. Among the most prominent appointments with roots in Florida are Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, a well-known veteran of state politics (and decisive in the defeat of DeSantis); Rubio, the son Cuban immigrants; National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, or Bondi, who was the second choice for attorney general after the fall of Congressman Matt Gaetz, who resigned after being plagued by a scandal concerning his alleged relationship with a minor.
Waltz also meets the requirement of his connection with Fox News. He has regularly appeared on the conservative news network as an international politics analyst. In fact, among Trump’s hires, there are a dozen people close to the channel. Hegseth, for instance, has been an employee of the company since 2014 and used to host the weekend edition of the program Fox & Friends.
The oldest president and the youngest cabinet
When he takes office on Monday, Trump will surpass Biden as the oldest US president to be sworn into office in history. And yet, he has the youngest cabinet in decades. If we take the average age (54.1 years) of the six most important positions — vice president, chief of staff, attorney general and secretaries of state, treasury and defence — it would be (provided that the Senate approves these appointments) the youngest average age since the formation of the George H. W. Bush administration in 1989.
One never knows with Trump, but the American media attribute the youthful cabinet as a tactic to ensure the future of the MAGA movement, given that the law prevents the incoming president from seeking another term. Hence Trump’s decision to name J. D. Vance, 40, as vice president. He’s the third-youngest in history. And — although it’s very early — he’s also the unofficial Republican candidate for the White House in 2028.
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