Icahn is the wealthiest, and certainly the most notorious, of Trump's assembly of billionaires. His net worth reached a high point of some $24 billion in 2014, when he was No. 25 on the Forbes 400 list of the world's richest individuals. A run of bad investments has dropped him to an estimated $17 billion, and No. 65 on this year's list. Nonetheless, his current net worth is equal to the wealth of all of the other Trump appointees combined, bringing the total to more than $34 billion. This vast sum represents a greater concentration of riches by far than in any previous government in Washington.
Over the past several days, Trump has announced a handful of other nominations, all consistent with the ultra-right character of his administration. He appointed Peter Navarro, a business professor at the University of California at Irvine, to head a new National Trade Council.
Navarro is a longtime Democrat, having run unsuccessfully for mayor of San Diego and for a congressional seat. He advocates a virulently anti-Chinese policy on trade, similar to that of the AFL-CIO bureaucracy. Navarro and Wilbur Ross worked together on Trump's trade policy during the campaign, and Trump issued a statement saying that Navarro "has presciently documented the harms inflicted by globalism on American workers, and laid out a path forward to restore our middle class."
Other new appointments include a trio of right-wing press spokespersons. Sean Spicer, the top liaison between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, will be White House press secretary. Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, will be counselor to the president. Fox News commentator Monica Crowley will be press representative for the National Security Council.
The ultra-right character of the new administration was underscored by a report that Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, tapped to head the Office of Management and Budget, spoke to a chapter of the John Birch Society during the summer, praising the group and encouraging it to continue its work.
Another nominee, Representative Ryan Zinke of Montana, nominated for secretary of the interior, told voters during his 2014 campaign for Congress that Hillary Clinton was "the real enemy"the Antichrist."
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