President-elect tapping mega-rich backers for positions that will give them power to cut spending on public services

Summary

Donald Trump is assembling the wealthiest U.S. administration in history, with a cabinet of billionaires and multimillionaires worth a combined $340 billion.

High-profile appointees include Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy for a new government efficiency role, alongside billionaires Linda McMahon, Doug Burgum, and Scott Bessent in key cabinet positions.

Critics argue this contrasts sharply with Trump’s working-class rhetoric, with analysts warning of policies favoring the wealthy at the expense of public services like education and social security.

Backlash over inequality and budget cuts is anticipated.

    • TwitchingCheese@lemmy.world
      0·
      19 days ago

      Well, yeah. If you drain all the clean water out of the swamp you’re just left with the decaying muck of a dying ecosystem. Almost like that metaphor never actually made sense.

    • weeeeum@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      18 days ago

      All here to turn government inefficiencies into profits. It’s not inefficient to contract a company with a huge amount of money for a sub par service with constant delays and price hikes!

    • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
      0·
      20 days ago

      News reporters, constantly shocked at everything Trump does. But not enough to call him out on anything.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
        0·
        19 days ago

        Even this quote employs weaselesque wording that defers to anonymous “critics” to make an accusation while maintaining a filamentous veneer of objectivity.

      • paraphrand@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        19 days ago

        They are shocked? Or just reporting on it?

        Why are these comments always filled with “DUH WE KNOW”?

        • pageflight@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          19 days ago

          I do think there’s use in reputable sources enshrining obvious facts about bad things going on. Nice to be able to point to them and say “see, it definitely is bad!” when people want to pretend it’s fine. (Or, “see, Exxon clearly knew decades ago,” for the good that does us.)

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    0·
    19 days ago

    Billionaires running a government… That can only have one direction; off a cliff. Trump’s legacy will be the destruction of the American state and all trump voters will hate him within the year,

    • GHiLA@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      19 days ago

      They’ll tell them extremist rioting leftists are the cause of everything.

      “2016 2”: This time it’s Personal.

      They’ll use the same excuses and fallbacks they used then, and the uninformed Americans will eat it up all over again.

      It’s so easy, they don’t even have to change strategy.

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
        0·
        18 days ago

        50 bucks say they will, within the year, as he will run the country of a cliff. They are dumb but once they start feeling their wallets hurt, they’ll change their tune.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    20 days ago

    Unrelated, but does anyone know how much tissue a guillotine can cut through in one motion using it’s own momentum?

    I just realized 1700s France could have probably saved a lot of manual labor by arranging their oligarchs in a little stack and then dropping the blade.

    Anyway, $340bn? Daaaaang that’s crazy. …well, have a good’n folks!

  • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    19 days ago

    I legitimately had someone I know (but no longer consider a friend) tell me that he believes Trump is a solid businessman and these choices may seem out of the ordinary but it is because nobody with his know-how has ever had an opportunity like this.

    Let’s never mind the first term.

    Dude literally thinks these are all wise choices that he doesn’t understand because he’s too dumb. He’s got the second part right.