Donald Trump ran for president by selling the notion that he would be a fighter for working-class, blue-collar values. But he has selected a slew of obscenely wealthy people to help him run the government when he takes control in January—and their net worths are nowhere near the average American family’s.
Of the people Trump has tapped for his upcoming administration, six are billionaires and five of them have publicly known net worths. They are Elon Musk ($332.6 billion), Linda McMahon ($2.5 billion), Howard Lutnick ($1.5 billion), Vivek Ramaswamy ($1.1 billion), and Doug Burgum ($1.1 billion). Money manager Scott Bessent has also been nominated for treasury secretary and while it is known that he is a billionaire, his exact net worth is not yet public knowledge.
Musk and Ramaswamy have been named to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE—which is not an official government agency, so they will not need Senate confirmation. The others will require a congressional vote.
The total known net worth of Trump’s billionaire picks so far is a whopping $338.8 billion, for an average of $67.7 billion. That is substantially more than the net worth of the average American family, which was around $1.06 million as of 2022. (Keep in mind that the average is driven way up by extremely affluent households—like Musk, Ramaswamy, and McMahon’s.)
