Politics

Trump’s bringing several billionaires — and their conflicts — to Washington

Published

2 years ago

December 11, 2024

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.”

Like this content? Consider signing up for Blue Light News’s West Wing Playbook newsletter.

Politics

World Cup fuels ticketing reform demands

Published

8 hours ago

June 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Demands are growing for a political reckoning over ticket scams at the World Cup — and beyond.

The National Independent Venue Association and Fan Alliance, organizations representing and advocating for entertainment venues and artists respectively, sent a joint letter to Congress on Thursday, calling on lawmakers to ban speculative and ghost tickets, cases where resellers flog tickets they don’t actually have.

The letter — addressed to Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer — includes nearly two dozen accounts of fans who say they were scammed out of thousands of dollars trying to get tickets to the World Cup, which began last week. The groups are also asking fans to share their own stories with elected officials via the Fix the Tix Fan Action Center that launched last week.

“Every one of these stories erodes the public’s faith that consumers should and will be protected from fraud,” NIVA Executive Director Stephen Parker and Fan Alliance founder Donald Cohen wrote. “We urge Congress to work with us to prevent fraud like this in the future and finally enact ticket resale consumer protections that will protect Americans and ensure affordability.”

The letter flagged fans like Dacy Gillespie, who bought World Cup tickets for her sons on Christmas, only to learn on match day — months later — that the seller couldn’t deliver them. And Skylie Shore, who Parker and Cohen said spent well over $6,000 on tickets to the Scotland-Haiti match on June 13, but was forced to wait outside the stadium because she couldn’t access them as fans marched in on gameday.

“These examples reveal a consistent pattern: consumer deception, speculative ticket sales, and broken-hearted American families at the hands of resale ticketing companies like StubHub,” Parker and Cohen wrote.

In a statement, StubHub spokesperson Jack Sterne said that the platform does not allow speculative ticket sales, and blamed FIFA for users’ difficulty in accessing their tickets.

“We understand that attending the World Cup represents a significant investment in time and money, and we take our responsibility to every fan who books through our platform seriously,” Sterne said in a statement. “Many of the issues fans are facing trace back to the event organizer’s technology infrastructure, newly announced transfer restrictions, and a new app that was launched just a month ago.”

In response, FIFA said in a statement that the organization “can guarantee the validity and delivery of tickets purchased through its official platforms” and that FIFA.com/tickets “is the official ticket sales channel” for the tournament.

NIVA and Fan Alliance are urging congressional leadership to place universal price-gouging limits on ticket resale, enact stringent fines on perpetrators and a violation-reporting mechanism for ticket scams, and require secondary ticketing platforms to produce data on ticket fulfillment and consumer complaints.

The groups are not the only ones monitoring for evidence of shady ticket practices. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway issued a consumer guidance in advance of the tournament, urging match-goers to beware of fraud and promising to hold offenders accountable. And the FBI in May put out a public service announcement, warning fans against purchasing tickets on copycat websites modeled on FIFA’s.

“With the World Cup coming to Kansas City, excitement is high and, unfortunately, so is the potential for fraud,” Hanaway said in her statement. “Missourians should be able to enjoy this once-in-a-generation event without fear of being deceived. My office will hold accountable anyone who seeks to exploit our families, and we stand ready to assist anyone who encounters suspicious activity.”