The growing number of billionaires joining the Trump administration seemed humorous at first.
“How many billionaires does it take to change a light bulb at the White House?”
None. Billionaires don’t change light bulbs.
Thirteen billionaires — a baker’s dozen of wealth — have been nominated or appointed to high-level jobs in the administration of President-elect Donald Trump. The political resumes of these billionaires range from thin to nonexistent. Being wealthy and loyal to Trump seem the only qualifications for service.
The most political manual I have ever read is the Old Testament book of Proverbs. The material was designed as a textbook for young men who would take jobs in the government of King Solomon. The course description in chapter 1 makes clear the necessary qualifications for government service:
For learning about wisdom and instruction,
for understanding words of insight,
for gaining instruction in wise dealing,
righteousness, justice, and equity;
to teach shrewdness to the simple,
knowledge and prudence to the young —
let the wise also hear and gain in learning,
and the discerning acquire skill,
to understand a proverb and a figure,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
There’s not one word anywhere in the manual about wealth being a qualification for government service. We have known this for more years than creationists think the earth has existed — more than 6,000 years. Plato claimed the rich already believe “they are the fairest and tallest of all, the noblest of all, most connected on the father’s and mother’s side, and, of course, all the riches in the world.”
Aristotle, marble portrait bust, Roman copy (2nd century BCE) of a Greek original (c. 325 BCE); in the Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy.
Aristotle put it starkly: “Wealthy men are insolent and arrogant; their possession of wealth affects their understanding; they feel as if they had every good thing that exists; wealth becomes a sort of standard of value for everything else.”
Aristotle also warned: “Rich men also consider themselves worthy to hold public office; for they consider they already have the things that give a claim to office. In a word, the type of character produced by wealth is that of a prosperous fool.”
Jesus has a similar story about a rich farmer with a typical mindset: “I will build bigger barns, eat, drink and be merry.” His attitude that more is better and bigger is better brought a judgment from Jesus: “You fool.”
This raises the question of whether being rich is the best qualification for public service.
Ready or not, here come the billionaires and the lesser lights, the mere multi-millionaires, armed with riches but little wisdom:
- Elon Musk, Department of Government Efficiency co-leader: $439 billion
- Leandro Rizzuto Jr., ambassador to the Organization of American States: $3.5 billion
- Warren Stephens, ambassador to the United Kingdom: $3.4 billion
- Linda McMahon, Education secretary: $3 billion
- Howard Lutnick, Commerce secretary: $2.2 billion
- Charles Kushner, ambassador to France: $1.8 billion
- Jared Isaacman, NASA administrator: $1.8 billion
- Thomas Barrack Jr., ambassador to Turkey: $1 billion
- Steven Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East: $1 billion
- Frank Bisiganano, Social Security Administration commissioner: $1 billion
- Scott Bessent, Treasury secretary: Reported billionaire
- Vivek Ramaswamy, Department of Government Efficiency co-leader: $1 billion
- David Sacks, AI and crypto czar: Net worth unknown
- Kelly Loeffler, administrator of Small Business Administration: $800 million
- Doug Burgum, Interior secretary: $100 million
- Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: $100 million
McMahon, a professional wrestling tycoon, has been tasked with eliminating the Department of Education. Dr. Oz, a television celebrity, is supposed to privatize Medicare and Medicaid. The others are assigned to demolish funding for nondefense agencies, cut taxes for the super-rich, dismantle all regulations (from the environment to Wall Street), repeal Obamacare, dismantle trade agreements, and eliminate the debt ceiling.
“Musk claims our attention as the best example of what the billionaires are planning.”
Musk, as leader of the pack, the richest man in the world, claims our attention as the best example of what the billionaires are planning.
Emotional craziness
Billionaires are as enthralled by emotion as we are. Maybe Paul Krugman is right in The Rich Are Crazier Than You and Me. Krugman argues the rich are as crazy as the rest of us, are as prone to conspiracy theories as everyone, think they know everything, can solve every problem, and can transfer business success into governing effectively. He concludes, “Arguably, the craziest faction in U.S. politics right now isn’t red-hatted blue-collar guys in diners, it’s technology billionaires living in huge mansions and flying around on private jets. At one level it’s quite funny. Unfortunately, however, these people have enough money to do serious damage.”
Musk has not yet worked a day in his new, undefined government agency, known as DOGE, but he already is demonstrating his character. He seems insolent, petulant, thin-skinned and arrogant.
He criticized McKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos. Musk murmurs, “Super-rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse” should be listed among “reasons that Western Civilization has died.”
Scott, in the eyes of Musk, gives too much money to liberal nonprofits. He calls her benevolence “concerning.” Scott has donated more than $19 billion to charities since 2019. In contrast, Musk’s charitable giving record ranks him among the least-charitable billionaires in the world. Forbes estimates he has given $280 million to charity in his lifetime. He recently announced a $5.7 billion gift to charity. Forbes reports there have been no announcements from any nonprofit of receiving such a gift from Musk. Eliza Haverstock, in “Here’s Where Elon Musk’s $5.7 Billion Gift Likely Went” says, “If true, that would be a gift equal to roughly 2.3% of his net worth — not a huge percentage, but more than 20 times what he had previously given to date.”
“Musk’s charitable giving record ranks him among the least-charitable billionaires in the world.”
Musk lashed out at Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut. He called her an “awful creature” and “she needs to be expelled from Congress.”
Why? She had the audacity to criticize Musk. DeLauro slammed Musk for interfering in the recent spending bill that kept the federal government open.
When Rep. Richie Neal, the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, shamed the unelected bureaucrat for trying to kill the bipartisan spending bill, Musk had a temper tantrum.
In Musk’s mind, he is rich enough to buy Neal out of his seat and threatened to do so: “Oh … forgot to mention that I’m also going to be funding moderate candidates in heavily Democrat districts, so that the country can get rid of those who don’t represent them, like this jackass.”
Even the Republicans are concerned. Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, for instance, flagged the downside for democracy: “If we’re not careful, you’re only going to get the individuals that are millionaires-plus that’s able to serve in Congress, and that’s not what it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be the people’s house.”
All this seething conflict broke into open warfare in the days around Christmas as Trump was forced to choose between supporting Musk (who favors H-1 visas for professional workers) and the MAGA base (that wants to cut off all immigration).
The repercussions for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson getting the spending bill passed are so serious that his future as speaker is in doubt — a perilous thing because the speaker of the House plays a key role in certifying the presidential election results.
Promo on Trump picks from an India publication.
The billionaires are up to nothing good
The billionaires are not coming to help ordinary Americans. We are about to see Musk Comes to Washington to Create Havoc and Hardship — a horror movie. In addition to crony capitalism, he will bring with him a host of discredited and previously buried old gods: the market god, the god of free market fundamentalism, and the survival of the richest.
Trump has not invited the best of us to come to Washington, D.C. He has invited the hogs and the sharks. They are coming to help themselves.
If the American people thought the Nov, 5 election was akin to giving Trump their Christmas list, they are about to awaken to a bag full of coal and switches. The American people are not on Musk’s list of those who are to be helped. Instead, the people stand to lose.
Anyone in the mood will listen to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his second inaugural address: “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals. We know now that it is bad economics.”
The billionaires have a century-old grudge they carry around in a tattered old sack filled with hatred and disdain for FDR and President Barack Obama. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” created a social safety net Musk and his fellow conservatives deeply resent. And Obama, with his honest appraisal of the empathy deficit among conservatives — their failure to care about the poor — now faces an all-out attempt to erase his legacy as the first African American president.
The rich are crazier than the men sitting on feed sacks in a north Louisiana farmer’s supply in the 1970s, exchanging theories on how they could run the country better than the president. I grew up listening to men like this in small towns across Louisiana. They gathered every morning for coffee and opinions — both dark. But no one took a word of what was said in hyperbolic extremes to heart. These guys went back to work every day and knew they were only blowing off steam.
Musk, on the other hand, believes his line of bile, and he is bringing the entire load to Washington.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.
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