Donald Trump has reshaped the Republican Party to embrace a brand of populism that prioritizes its working-class base and is at least outwardly skeptical of corporate power.

But since his second election last month, Trump has leaned heavily on aides and Cabinet picks who share a distinctive characteristic with him: wealth from complex business entanglements.

Trump has appointed a raft of rich business people and investors — including several billionaires and multiple Wall Street executives with complex financial interests — to fill out top roles in his administration, raising a vast array of potential conflicts of interest that could span the federal government and complicate Senate confirmations.

The billionaires set to join the second Trump administration include Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street CEO who Trump tapped to be Commerce secretary; Warren Stephens, the CEO of an Arkansas financial services firm who he picked to be ambassador to the United Kingdom; presumptive NASA administrator nominee Jared Isaacman; and deputy Defense secretary Steve Feinberg.

“It opens up the door for there being a lot more possible conflicts of interest because their personal wealth is so vast,” said Delaney Marsco, director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center.

The potential for conflicts cover a wide variety of industries from health and defense to the financial and cryptocurrency sectors.

The selections exemplify how Trump’s brand of economic populism has still carved out room for the ultra-wealthy. Despite running as a critic of corporate power and economic elites, several of the people Trump has chosen and considered for top roles come from backgrounds in business and finance.

With so many nominees presenting such conflicts of interest — and the general indifference from both Trump and his supporters — the ho-hum response to a new administration populated with so many ultra-wealthy picks is yet another example of how Trump has shattered the Overton window on ethics.

Morgan Ackley, a spokeswoman for the transition team, defended Trump’s appointments and said delivering on the campaign’s promises means “appointing respected professionals and industry leaders to usher America into a new Golden Age. These highly qualified men and women have the talent, experience, and necessary skill sets to Make America Great Again.”

To be sure, the president-elect is expected to pursue policies from trade to labor to antitrust that align with the populist vision he ran on. Some selections — like presumptive Labor secretary nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who is seen as an ally to unions — represent shifts from the pre-Trump GOP orthodoxy.

The wealthy picks and their potential conflicts have become an early focus for the left, including Democratic lawmakers who are fighting the nominees.

One target: Trump’s pick to run Medicare and Medicaid, heart surgeon and TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz. Democrats argued in a letter Tuesday to Oz that he has many conflicts of interest, including “deep financial ties to private health insurers” — documented in the disclosures he filed in his failed 2022 Pennsylvania Senate bid — and “previous advocacy for Medicare privatization.” The lawmakers asked him to provide assurances that he will “commit to fully divesting of any and all financial holdings related to the insurance industry if you are confirmed.”

Trump’s economic picks are also expected to face scrutiny. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is poised to become the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, has criticized Treasury pick Scott Bessent, a hedge fund executive, as having “expertise [in] helping rich investors make more money, not cutting costs for families squeezed by corporate profiteering.”

Lutnick, the Commerce pick who also co-chairs the Trump transition team, has said he will step down from his companies and divest his interests upon Senate confirmation. He has close ties through his firm Cantor Fitzgerald to a controversial foreign cryptocurrency firm called Tether. The connection could become a focus given Trump’s pledge to overhaul crypto regulations in his second term.

And then there’s Elon Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth now estimated at more than $400 billion, who could have an opportunity to shape regulations, contracts and budgets in a way that benefits his own interests. Because his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, will be set up outside of the federal government, the Tesla, SpaceX and Starlink CEO won’t be subject to conflict of interest laws. But by deploying his own wealth to serve as the president’s political enforcer, Musk may be able to maintain his proximity to the president for some time — and to push policies that could improve his own bottom line.

Still, while several of Trump’s picks are facing questions about whether they can be confirmed by a GOP Senate that includes several moderates who will be up for reelection in 2026, conflict of interest issues haven’t been a major focus.

Sen. Mike Rounds, a moderate Republican from South Dakota who is seen as a swing vote on some controversial nominees, said Trump’s wealthy picks “have been successful and they have a different way of looking at things outside of government.”

“The founding fathers wanted folks coming from the business communities to be a part of this process, and that’s healthy,” he said. “You want individuals that get it from the inside, that understand it, and can see what’s going on in the industry. So no, I don’t have a concern in that regard.”

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Donald Trump is expected to be named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” — and to celebrate the unveiling of the cover, the president-elect will ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning, according to three people familiar with the plans granted anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge the honor.

Last year, pop superstar Taylor Swift won the honor. To mark the magazine cover reveal, Time CEO Jessica Sibley rang the opening bell.

Trump was also named Time Person of the Year in 2016 after he won the presidential election. He joins 13 other U.S. presidents who have received the recognition, including President Joe Biden.

A short list for Time Person of the Year was announced Monday on NBC’s “The Today Show” and included Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, Kate Middleton, Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Time already announced NBA star Caitlin Clark as Athlete of the Year, Elton John as Icon of the Year and Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices as CEO of the Year.

A spokesperson for Time said the magazine “does not comment on its annual choice for Person of the Year prior to publication. This year’s choice will be announced tomorrow morning, Dec. 12, on Time.com.”

The incoming president has long been fixated with being on the covers of magazines, especially Time.

The “Person of the Year” goes to a newsmaker who has had a significant impact on the year’s events, and in the past has included people ranging from Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II to Vladimir Putin and Joseph Stalin.

Trump in 2013 called the magazine’s annual list of influential people “a joke and stunt of a magazine that will, like Newsweek, soon be dead. Bad list!”

And in 2015, Trump complained that he was not chosen for the magazine cover that instead went to then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But he went on to call being named “Person of the Year” a “great honor.”

“It means a lot, especially me growing up reading Time magazine. And, you know, it’s a very important magazine,” Trump said.

Trump has been featured on the magazine cover three times this year.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), one of the staunchest critics of the American health care system writ large among U.S. lawmakers, condemned the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Tuesday — but added that people “can be pushed only so far,” in an interview with the Huffington Post.

“The visceral response from people across the country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system,” Warren said, pointing to the outcrying of support from people online in support of Luigi Mangione, who is a suspect in the killing.

“Violence is never the answer,” Warren added. “But people can only be pushed so far.”

A spokesperson for the Massachusetts senator didn’t immediately respond to Blue Light News’s request for further comment.

Mangione has been charged with multiple counts in connection with the killing of Thompson, including one count of second-degree murder. On Wednesday morning, multiple outlets reported that fingerprints taken from the 26-year-old graduate of the University of Pennsylvania matched some of the prints found at the midtown Manhattan crime scene.

Written on the bullet casings at the crime scene were “deny,” “defend,” and “depose,” a possible nod to former Rutgers Law professor Jay Feinman’s 2010 book, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who, like Warren, is a steadfast critic of the health care industry, also put the murder in the larger context of Americans’ frustration with the system.

Thompson’s murder was “outrageous,” Sanders said Tuesday, according to the Huffington Post. He added that what the outpouring of anger at the health care industry “tells us is that millions of people understand that healthcare is a human right and that you cannot have people in the insurance industry rejecting needed health care for people while they make billions of dollars in profit.”

At least one Democrat was much more blunt in their condemnation of Mangione. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman called him an “asshole that’s going to die in prison,” also in an interview with HuffPost.

“Congratulations if you want to celebrate that,” he added. “A sewer is going to sewer.”