Trump’s 17 cabinet picks have more money than a third of Americans combined

Well, just recently Trump said he never really liked the "drain the swamp" line at first, but decided to give it a try. When he saw how much his fans ate it up, he kept promising to do exactly that.

Now then, the job of POTUS isn't something one man alone can do. A successful president surrounds himself with competent advisors. Even the fictional "President Camancho" from the movie Idocracy knew he wasn't smart, and found the smartest man in the world to advise him.

And now we're starting to see how these cabinet level positions Trump has filled are shaping up:

The 17 people who US president-elect Donald Trump has selected for his cabinet or for posts with cabinet rank have well over $9.5 billion in combined wealth, with several positions still unfilled. This collection of wealth is greater than that of the 43 million least wealthy American households combined—over one third of the 126 million households total in the US.

Affluence of this magnitude in a US presidential cabinet is unprecedented.

How about another way of looking at this:

It would take about 120,000 households with the the United States median net worth of about $83,200 to match the wealth of just the four richest members of Trump’s cabinet—Betsy DeVos, Wilbur Ross Jr., Linda McMahon, and Rex Tillerson.

Source

What happened to that swamp? What happened to getting money out of politics?

So let me get this straight, to fight globalism you elected a guy who's hiring insanely wealthy globalists?

I can hear it now though...

But Trump is a successful businessman, he's just what America needs!

First of all, he's not a great businessman. Now that that's out of the way business and government don't have the same mission, and their goals are more often than not at odds.

Businesses are primarily concerned with maximizing profit for the individual at the expense of others.

Governments are tasked with supporting the people they serve. All the people. Rich, poor, white, black ect...

This leads back to Citizen's United. Are corporations people? Do you agree with that? No? Business and government are not the same, nor are they interchangeable. They can depend and rely on one another, supporting each other for increased gains and benefit for all parties, but they are not one in the same.

Another news outlet also has picked up on this story:

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.”

It's true, these people live in a different reality than the average American. Just as the rural American in a "flyover state" has nothing in common with someone living in Los Angeles, these insanely wealthy people have nothing in common with...well, the common man.

“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.”

Link

And these are the people who are going to be advising Trump, helping him draft his agenda and what his focus will be for the next 4 years.

I hate to break it to most, but we're not one lotto ticket away or one lucky break from becoming that wealthy ourselves -- no matter how hard any of us work. The chances that any of us would ever gather that much personal wealth in a life time are incredibly small....otherwise, we'd all have billions of dollars to our name.

Drain the swamp?

No, it's more like Trump has replaced "swamp" with a vast bayou of billionaires with multi-national, global corporate ties.

I'm not a religious man, but envy is a sin for a reason.

We are not far from a "let them eat cake" moment in our rapidly developing have or have not society

a reply to: Kettu

If he picked any politician the left would complain he's keeping the establishment.

If he picked anyone with business or similar experience the left would complain he's playing favorites/conflict of interest/pay to play.

If he picked someone from who's left, those without experience the left would complain they lack experience.

Ugh.

originally posted by: ksiezyc
a reply to: Kettu

If he picked any politician the left would complain.
If he picked anyone with business or similar experience the left would complain he's.
If he picked someone from who's left, those without experience the left would complain.

Ugh.

Thank you.

What this OP states is that Trump has picked a cabinet of successful people.

That bastard!!!!... LOL

What he didn't do is pick a cabinet based on gender, sexual preference, skin color or how they identify themselves politically.

So.. the left is confused. Go figure.

a reply to: projectvxn

Envy? Shoot the messenger who points out that Trump is demonstrating the huge discrepancies between his actions and the promises he made to his supporters. Envy, indeed.

a reply to: GreyScale

Well you know we can't have successful people running the place. We need diversity and what's meant by that is any non white male that's a Democrat...that's what I've to understand diversity as. Maybe it's just me though.

Just finished reading your comment. You said as I am now saying too essentially.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Envy? Shoot the messenger who points out that Trump is demonstrating the huge discrepancies between his actions and the promises he made to his supporters. Envy, indeed.

What's he supposed to do hire the homeless dude begging for change?

You would think having successful people who understand money management would be a good thing considering how deep in a fiscal hole we are thanks to the last two administrations.

1/3 of America is that bad off, eh?

Thanks Obama.

a reply to: Kettu

Sounds like we have the right people in charge. We need that kind of business experience to turn our Government into an efficient, business instead of the gluttonous pile of liberal goo it is today.

We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Franklin D. Roosevelt 1936

Thats why everyone should have voted for GJ. I wont hold it against you all. But if you dems start a civil war or reps go full on rape and pillage I will. =p

Still though, I think we would have been in wwiii if Clinton had won. So, silver linings.

originally posted by: projectvxn
I'm not a religious man, but envy is a sin for a reason.

So is greed!

a reply to: pirhanna

No offense but Johnson seems to be an idiot. I'll give you this, he can be funny, just for the wrong reasons.

If you had one idea worth $1.00 and a million people liked it, you would be a millionaire.

But they don't, and you aren't.


I brought this shiny trophy though

a reply to: Kettu

An appeal to poverty. He is rich, therefor he is not fit, is just as ridiculous as saying the same about poor people.

Cool.

It's about time people are appointed that don't need the money.

originally posted by: WhateverYouSay

originally posted by: projectvxn
I'm not a religious man, but envy is a sin for a reason.

So is greed!

Being successful in this country is always derided as greed.

It's like we're appealing to the lowest common denominator in order to make the least successful feel better.

a reply to: Kettu

The 17 people who US president-elect Donald Trump has selected for his cabinet or for posts with cabinet rank have well over $9.5 billion in combined wealth, with several positions still unfilled.

So? Why should I be upset with people who were successful? Isn't that who you would want in those positions?

The only way to get this country's job creation restarted is to get the richest people to start creating businesses. That will trickle down to get other businesses started. Why should our government be giving loads of money to businesses that are run by business leaders who will flop.

The only problem with this is that these people should be starting new businesses that create jobs, not working for our government. But they do have a lot of influence in our country and abroad.