Raw Story

President-elect Donald Trump may have claimed that he would hire "the best people" to work in his incoming administration, but one thing's for certain — he is hiring the richest.

In fact, the combined wealth of Trump’s richest nominees and transition team officials "amounts to over $313 billion," according to a report from Americans For Tax Fairness.

Trump's pick for treasury secretary, hedge fund executive Scott Bessent, is set to answer questions at his confirmation hearing on Thursday. Bessent "has hundreds of millions of dollars in assets and owns property from North Dakota to the Bahamas," CNN reported.

ALSO READ: Fox News has blood on its hands as Trump twists the knife

CNN national political writer Fredreka Schouten pointed out the irony in an article for CNN.com Thursday, writing, "Trump is returning to the White House after making appeals to working-class voters in last year’s election, but he has assembled one of the wealthiest administrations in history – turning to nearly a dozen people worth at least $1 billion on their own or combined with their spouses’ assets – to oversee the nation’s policies and represent the US overseas as ambassadors."

Some of the more high-profile multi-millionaires and billionaires ready to take their place in the Trump administration are Elon Musk ($300+ billion), Vivek Ramaswamy ($1 billion), Doug Bergum ($100 million), and, of course, Trump ($5.4 billion) and incoming Vice President J.D. Vance ($4.8 to $11.3 million), themselves.

Americans For Tax Fairness broke out the names and net worths of some of the other wealthiest nominees and office holders. They include:

Linda McMahon, Education Secretary Nominee, $2.6 billion; Howard Lutnick, Commerce Secretary Nominee, $2 billion; Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary, $1 billion; Steven Witkoff, Special Envoy to the Middle East, $500 million; Chris Wright, Energy Secretary Nominee, $171 million; Robert F. Kennedy Jr. HHS Secretary Nominee, $15 million; Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Labor Secretary Nominee, $9.6 million; Michael Waltz, National Security Advisor, $9 million; Pete Hegseth, Defense Secretary Nominee, $6 million; Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary Nominee, $1 to $5 million; Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Nominee, $3 million; Brooke Rollins, Agriculture Secretary Nominee, $3 million; Elise Stefanik, UN Ambassador Nominee, $1.8 million; Pam Bondi, Attorney General Nominee, $1.8 million.

During his farewell speech Wednesday, President Biden warned Americans about allowing the super-rich to control the government.

“I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. And this is a dangerous concern. And that’s the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people,” Biden said. “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

View the list of the wealthiest nominees and office holders here and read the CNN Politics article here.

On CNN's newly launched "Table for Five" with host Abby Phillip, journalist Cari Champion butted heads with attorney Arthur Aidala during a heated discussion over companies abandoning their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies.

Conservative complaints about DEI has led to unfounded and unjust attacks on a multitude of government and corporate employees who are not white and male and Champion pointed out that if one if not white with an Ivy League education you become a target.

"You think about Ketanji Jackson, our [Supreme Court] Justice and I think of this woman and how hard she worked and they said she was a DEI justice," she stated. "And I thought to myself –– or like when you look at Kamala Harris or people who have went to Harvard and Yale and have the same exact, the same exact resume as their white counterpart, their white male counterpart, DEI is so trendy."

ALSO READ: Inside the parade of right-wing world leaders flocking to D.C. for Trump's inauguration

"And when it comes from someone from a conservative side and they label that, it becomes this truth," she noted. "I often ask my question when I look at [Fox News personality] Pete Hegseth, I wonder, if they say he's a DEI candidate, would that be unfair to say? I don't know why we can't use them? Cha cha cha cha cha. Why we can't use the same words?"

As attorney Aidala leaned into herto reply, she added, "I know, I'm gonna let you get to it. But why can't we use the same words that they use on us? "

"But it comes from the United States Supreme Court," the attorney interjected. "The decision last year about the Harvard admissions, and they just said it violated the 14th Amendment and it really had to do with, I think, Asian students who were being excluded from going to Harvard because there were too many Asian students."

"Their grades were very high and so that's where this all comes from," he added. "Corporate America is basically following, well, if they did it to Harvard –– don't worry, I can't even spell Harvard so, you know, I'm not from Harvard –– if they're going to rule there the next stop is corporations because you're only hiring this person because of the DEI.''

"That's just not true!" Champion exclaimed as CNN host Phillip stepped in.

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Donald Trump is being warned he needs to tap the brakes on some of his most prominent initiatives lest he find himself alienating voters who gave him the benefit of the doubt.

In a blunt editorial from the Wall Street Journal opinion page editors, the president-elect, who will assume power on Monday, was admonished that "half the country still dislikes him" and that he is on a short leash.

According to the editors, "Mr. Trump has political running room, though it’s not unlimited. His victory was solid but no landslide," before adding, "... the GOP majority in the House is so narrow that a couple of willful Members can kill anything. Mr. Trump could quickly find himself in trouble if he exceeds his mandate from voters."

ALSO READ: Fox News has blood on its hands as Trump twists the knife

Applauding his plan to expel criminal undocumented immigrants, the editors stated he runs the risk of overreach if his plans also "means midnight raids on busboys, or separating mothers from children," in which case, "the politics could turn fast."

"The biggest risk in our view is Mr. Trump’s desire to court adversaries in search of diplomatic deals for their own sake. He won’t settle the Ukraine war in a day as he promised, but an ugly deal that favors Russia could be his version of President Biden’s flight from Afghanistan," the editors warned before suggesting, "Most important will be his courtship of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping. Former Trump security adviser John Bolton writes in his memoir that Mr. Trump said in his first term that a U.S. defense of Taiwan was implausible, and Mr. Xi can read. China could react to Mr. Trump’s tariffs with a blockade of Taiwan, or perhaps by taking nearby islands now controlled by Taiwan. How would Mr. Trump respond to avoid the risk of war? Would he cede Taiwan to Mr. Xi?"

They concluded, "If Mr. Trump focuses on settling scores rather than raising incomes, Democrats will sweep the 2026 midterms and progressives will return to power with a vengeance in 2028," before cautioning, "A second presidential chance would be a terrible thing to waste."

You can read the entire editorial here.

According to one columnist, Democrats have nothing to fear in the future with Donald Trump unable to run again in 2028 and, therefore, they should bedevil him at every turn and make the next four years unbearable for him.

In a column with the none-too-subtle headline of "Shove the Presidency Down Trump’s Throat," Jason Linkins of The New Republic suggests heaping problems on the president-elect to the point where they "Wake him up early and keep him up late."

Pointing out that Trump's extremist agenda precludes any reason to call for national "unity," Linkins wrote, "Rather than exert so much energy trying to thrust Trump out of the presidency, liberals would be well served to spend their time thrusting the presidency upon Donald Trump. Instead of searching for illusory quick fixes for the existence of the Trump administration, start demanding the Trump administration fix everything quickly."

ALSO READ: Inside the parade of right-wing world leaders flocking to D.C. for Trump's inauguration

According to the columnist, Trump proved in his first term that he doesn't handle stress well, fumbling every crisis, and that Democrats should make him a punching bag for everything happening in the country that is headed south.

"They [Democrats] need to raise a hue and cry over everything under the sun that’s broken, dysfunctional, or trending in the wrong direction; pile line items on Trump’s to-do list," he wrote before suggesting, "Every day, get in front of cable news cameras and reporters’ notepads with a new problem for Trump to solve and fresh complaints about the work not done."

"It’s always been something of a mystery why someone who was making it in America as an idle rich celebrity a--shole abruptly changed course and decided that what he really wanted to do with his life was to become responsible for an entire nation and its problems," he wrote and added Trump should be spending his golden tears enjoying life.

"In this universe, liberals would do well to find creative ways to make Trump regret his choices," he advised.

You can read more here.

Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday announced a ban on Red Dye No 3, a controversial food and drug coloring long known to cause cancer in animals.

Decades after scientific evidence first raised alarm, Red 3, as it is also called, is currently used in nearly 3,000 food products in the United States, according to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.

"FDA is revoking the authorized uses in food and ingested drugs of FD&C Red No 3 in the color additive regulations," said a document from the Department of Health and Human Services, published in the Federal Register on Wednesday.

The decision follows a petition filed in November 2022 by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and other advocacy groups, which cited the "Delaney Clause" -- a provision mandating the prohibition of any color additive shown to cause cancer in humans or animals.

Notably, the FDA determined as early as 1990 that Red 3 should be banned in cosmetics because of its link to thyroid cancer in lab rats.

However, the additive continued to be used in foods, largely due to resistance from the food industry. Manufacturers of maraschino cherries, for example, relied on Red 3 to maintain the iconic red hue of their products.

It's also present in thousands of candies, snacks and fruit products.

The United States is one of the last major economies to take action on the dye. The European Union prohibited its use in 1994, with similar bans implemented in Japan, China, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

CSPI hailed the decision as overdue and expressed hope it would lead to further action against other potentially harmful chemicals in food.

"They don't add any nutritional value, they don't preserve the food -- they're just there to make food look pretty," Thomas Galligan, a scientist with CSPI, told AFP.

"There's growing discussion across the political spectrum about food additives and chemicals, which reflects ongoing failures by the FDA."

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