Donald Trump is known to surround himself with the rich and famous. As he prepares to reenter the white House, he'll bring with him a new group of billionaires, business leaders and entertainers. Forbes identified 13 of them who are poised to shape his second presidential administration.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhyatt/2024/11/08/handicapping-trumps-brain-trust-the-new-trumpiverse/
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00:00Donald Trump is known to surround himself with the rich and famous.
00:03As he prepares to re-enter the White House, he'll bring with him a new group of billionaires,
00:07business leaders, and entertainers.
00:10Forbes identified 13 of them who are poised to shape his second presidential administration.
00:17Hi everybody.
00:18I'm Brittany Lewis, a reporter here at Forbes, joining me now is my colleague, Forbes staff
00:23writer John Hyatt.
00:24John, thank you so much for joining me.
00:26Thanks for having me, Brittany.
00:27Of course, last week we witnessed one of the most historic comebacks in modern day
00:31political history.
00:33Donald Trump re-won the White House four years after getting voted out.
00:37And you're reporting on the ultra-wealthy who are in Trump's orbit, who are also potentially
00:42in his ear the second time around.
00:45But let's rewind, let's back up four years ago.
00:48Who were some of the ultra-rich and wealthy in his ear his first term?
00:53So during Trump's first term, he brought with him folks who made their money on Wall
01:01Street, who he always respected as informal advisors, people he'd speak with on the phone.
01:07People like Carl Icahn, former famous corporate raider.
01:12His Las Vegas business partner, Phil Ruffin.
01:16People like Blackstone's founder, Steve Schwarzman.
01:21And most of his cabinet was made up of political people, but he also had some Wall Street folks
01:27like Steve Mnuchin, of course, his Treasury secretary.
01:33And Gary Cohen, a Goldman Sachs veteran who worked in the Trump administration as well.
01:38But he also had family in the White House, of course.
01:41He had Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who were key senior advisors.
01:46So he had a range of different types of advisors in his first term.
01:51A lot has obviously changed since he left the White House in early 2021.
01:55And in the past four years, some who previously served in the Trump administration have spoken
02:01out against Donald Trump.
02:03But who are the others who could potentially be returning the second time around?
02:07Yeah, you're right.
02:08I mean, people like Betsy DeVos, who was head of DOE in the first administration.
02:14She resigned after January 6th.
02:17She was one of those people.
02:18She has since suggested she'd be open to serving in a second Trump administration.
02:23She actually donated money to Elon Musk's PAC, too.
02:27But I mean, you know, Donald Trump doesn't forget people who go against him.
02:32He's already stated that he will not be welcoming back Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley to people
02:38who served in his administration, his first administration, and who signaled their willingness
02:44to rejoin.
02:46And of course, Nikki Haley ran against him and Mike Pompeo had said some not so nice
02:52things, at least in Donald Trump's mind, about him.
02:55So yeah, for his second administration, there is a new group of people who are poised to
03:03influence him in the administration.
03:06People like Elon Musk, who is, of course, the most prominent.
03:09He's the wealthiest person in the world.
03:12Controller of Tesla, SpaceX, X, formerly Twitter, an incredibly powerful and influential person.
03:20But Trump is also bringing with him a new group of people.
03:25People like Scott Besant.
03:28He's a little-known hedge fund executive who has become quite close to Trump and is a top
03:33contender for Treasury Secretary this time around.
03:37Also former rivals on the campaign trail, Vivek Ramaswamy and RFK Jr., both of whom
03:45endorsed Donald Trump and both of whom are slated for either cabinet positions or influential
03:51advisory roles.
03:53And then you have other people like Dana White, the president of UFC, who's been a longtime
03:57Trump friend, who was invited to speak by Trump at his victory speech.
04:03And so you have a bit more of a hodgepodge group of people this time around who are in
04:09Trump's orbit and who are poised to influence.
04:12Let's talk about exactly what's different about this crop of people, because when you're
04:16listing these names, they're business people, they're celebrities, they're political outsiders
04:21like Trump was touted almost a decade ago.
04:24So what's different about them?
04:26Well, I think one thing that's different about them is what you just said.
04:29They're not all, most of them don't have a political background per se.
04:34They made their money on Wall Street or in different types of business enterprises.
04:40I think one thing that's interesting about them, too, is that most of them were not original
04:46Trump people, excluding, say, Dana White, who's always been a friend of Trump's for
04:51decades and supported Trump through his 2016 campaign.
04:55You think about people like RFK Jr., for example, I mean, RFK Jr. was running as an
05:01independent candidate until August when he dropped out and endorsed Trump.
05:07You look at other folks like Elon Musk, Elon Musk famously stepped away from an advisory
05:13role he held in 2017, it's like a business counsel.
05:18He stepped away from that during Trump's first administration after Trump pulled the US out
05:22of the Paris Climate Accords.
05:25And Elon Musk backed Ron DeSantis in the primaries for this election.
05:30And he only jumped on the Trump train this past summer.
05:35And of course, he did so in a big way, infusing $119 million, mobilizing to get out the vote
05:41operation in Pennsylvania, making X into a very hospitable place for Trump and pro-Trump
05:48messages.
05:50And so you see, not uncommon with Trump, a fairly transactional nature in some of these
05:56people that he's brought in.
05:57Either they gave large amounts of money to his campaign, or they endorsed him early on
06:04back when it wasn't clear if he would be the Republican candidate in 2024.
06:09And so in that sense, it's kind of a return to usual in terms of Donald Trump, kind of
06:14having a more transactional nature and transactional approach to politics and political allies.
06:19As you mentioned with some of this group, they were late to the Trump train, so to speak.
06:25And Trump seemingly doesn't forget a slight.
06:27He values loyalty.
06:28So why does he in particular embrace this group support?
06:32Well, you're 100 percent correct.
06:35He values loyalty.
06:37But we also know that he loves people who once were against him and then pledged their
06:44fealty to him.
06:45And so in the case of some of these people, one person I haven't mentioned, Mark Andreessen,
06:50the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, you know, he's somebody who's never been a supporter
06:56of Republican politics.
06:57And he only endorsed Trump this time around because of what he viewed as the Biden administration's
07:03hostility to the technology sector.
07:07And so he's a great example of somebody that Trump has embraced because, you know, it's
07:12evidence of maybe a turning tide of an expanding of the Republican base of voters, a realignment,
07:23if you will.
07:24And so I think in the case of some of these people, one, they were never ardent Trump
07:28critics.
07:29The likes of Nikki Haley have not been invited back for a reason, right?
07:33They were speaking out against Trump specifically.
07:37But whereas some of these other people, maybe they weren't Trump fans or, you know, they
07:41weren't Trump donors as soon as they became Trump fans and became Trump campaign surrogates
07:47or donors.
07:48I mean, it's a great way for Trump to show that he's expanded the Republican base.
07:54He's bringing in new groups of voters.
07:56And I think that was a key message that he had on the campaign trail.
08:00And I think we see that with the inclusion of really influential figures, people like
08:05Elon Musk, people like Joe Rogan, who are not necessarily political by nature, but who
08:12are part of this sort of new MAGA universe or as we call it, the Trump Trumpverse.
08:18And to your point, I mean, someone who was a real turncoat, who was really spoke out
08:23against Trump now pledged his loyalty to him, J.D. Vance.
08:27And he's number two in on Trump's ticket is now vice will be vice president.
08:31But when you're looking at the billionaires, the celebrities who are in Trump's orbit,
08:36let's talk money here.
08:37So who's the richest?
08:38It would have to be Elon Musk.
08:42As of the time we're recording this, he's worth about three hundred and fifteen billion
08:46dollars, and that's about 40 billion dollars more than he was worth the day before the
08:53election.
08:54Investors have been pouring money into Tesla since Donald Trump emerged victorious.
08:58And so it's proven to be a phenomenal bet for Elon Musk.
09:03One hundred nineteen million dollars into his pack.
09:07Forty billion dollars richer.
09:08I mean, that's an incredible return on investment.
09:11But you're right.
09:12Elon Musk is not the only wealthy Trump surrogate.
09:15You have people like Vivek Ramaswamy.
09:17He's a billionaire.
09:19You have Marc Andreessen, another billionaire, John Paulson, prominent hedge fund executive.
09:26He's worth about four billion dollars and he's another potential candidate for treasury
09:31secretary or another key economic adviser role.
09:35And then you have people like Doug Burgum.
09:37He was the short lived candidate for president in the Republican primaries.
09:43He endorsed Trump pretty early.
09:45He stunk for Trump.
09:46He was briefly in the discussion for a potential vice presidential pick.
09:53And so like Trump himself, a billionaire, you know, he likes to surround himself with
09:57folks who also have money.
10:00So no surprise to see that a lot of these names, they're rich, they're successful, they're
10:04powerful, their household names.
10:07Who do you think would be the most influential in the White House in Trump's ear?
10:11Well, I think Elon Musk is the obvious answer, just based on what we've seen already.
10:18There's been reporting, first reported by Axios, that Elon Musk participated in a call
10:24between President-elect Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
10:30And so we're already seeing Elon Musk wielding an extraordinary amount of power, unprecedented
10:37amount of power as a private citizen business owner, tagging along on phone calls with major
10:45foreign leaders is something we haven't seen before.
10:49But I think a dark horse in terms of somebody who's going to be very influential in the
10:54second Trump administration is Linda McMahon.
10:58She's currently co-chair of the Trump transition team.
11:02She served in Trump's first administration, actually, as the head of the Small Business
11:05Administration Department.
11:08And in addition to co-chairing the transition team this time around, she is also very influential
11:14in the America First Policy Institute.
11:18That's a think tank that was set up by Larry Kudlow and some other Trump first term people.
11:26And it's sort of like a Project 2025 type group that has been crafting policies and
11:35executive actions.
11:37But unlike Project 2025, this is really geared around a second Trump term.
11:42It's not just for any Republican candidate who may have emerged in 2024.
11:47It's really geared around Trump's vision for American politics and for policymaking.
11:53And so I think she, by virtue of helping to identify people to work for Trump, but also
12:01in terms of crafting these executive actions, crafting this policy agenda, she's going to
12:05be very influential.
12:06I want to talk about someone else who could wield some influence.
12:11And that's Joe Rogan.
12:12He's the king of podcasting.
12:14He millions of views, subscribers listens.
12:18How influential do you think he will be and how loud is he supporting Trump in the wake
12:24of his victory?
12:25Yeah.
12:26So, I mean, he's one of, if not the biggest podcaster in the United States.
12:32Of course, he endorsed Trump on the eve of the election.
12:36And Trump considered it such a big deal that he, while he was addressing a rally crowd
12:42on the eve of the election, he kind of interrupted himself to say that he just got in word that
12:47Joe Rogan had endorsed him.
12:48And he he touted that as being huge.
12:51And it was, frankly.
12:52I mean, we did see a massive boom for Trump among the 18 to 29 year old voter base, especially
12:59men.
13:00And we know that that is the core of the Joe Rogan audience.
13:03And so I think a big question going forward is, you know, will Trump continue to have
13:10those conversations with Joe Rogan, those informal telephone calls that he's known for
13:17having with his various coterie of advisers, both official and unofficial?
13:23And, you know, if so, what are those conversations look like?
13:26I mean, Joe Rogan is not steeped in policymaking, but he has his finger on the pulse of what
13:35young men are thinking and how they're viewing the world.
13:38And so I think in terms of Donald Trump's desire to make the MAGA movement outlive him
13:45to his successor, you know, people like Joe Rogan are going to be very influential in
13:50in crafting that ideology and in ensuring the Trump legacy sort of lives on.
13:57It's really interesting.
13:58Trump's on the phone with these people.
14:00Trump and Elon Musk were on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
14:04Would any of these people on this list hold positions in the White House under Trump?
14:09Yeah, certainly.
14:10So you look at somebody like Scott Besant, hedge fund executive, formerly worked for
14:17George Soros, interestingly.
14:20So another example of somebody who, you know, originally worked for, you know, a liberal
14:26icon in George Soros, liberal billionaire mega donor has now, you know, come full come
14:31fully around and is fully on board with Trump.
14:34He's being floated as potential Treasury secretary.
14:37Vivek Ramaswamy is being floated as a potential head of a department.
14:43Doug Burgum has been rumored to be in contention for Department of Energy.
14:49And so some of these people could definitely have top White House roles.
14:53I think others, though, people like Joe Rogan, people like Dana White, those folks are likely
14:59to more remain informal advisers, people who Trump speaks to casually and who he hears
15:07out to kind of get their read on the political situation and sort of the politics around
15:12governing.
15:13This really is a hodgepodge of advisers, as you said.
15:17So I want to talk about the precedent here.
15:19How does this kind of influence differ from White House's past?
15:23Well, I think in the case of Elon Musk, especially, we've never seen anything like it.
15:29We've never seen somebody of Elon Musk's wealth, which in itself is unprecedented.
15:35He's the wealthiest person in the world right now.
15:37Nobody's ever been as wealthy and powerful as Elon Musk with the extent that of influence
15:45he has over the administration right now.
15:48Of course, SpaceX is a major government contractor, partner of NASA's.
15:54He wields total control over X, formerly Twitter.
15:58So he is setting the agenda and making the key decisions around algorithms and news feeds
16:06affecting how people view the news and what kind of information they receive.
16:12So this sort of shadow presidency role that he's trying to carve out for himself is not
16:20something that we've ever seen before.
16:22I think in the case of the other folks, I think it's less abnormal and more sort of
16:28par for the course.
16:30All presidents have advisers and people they speak with, though.
16:34I think in the case of Trump, he's definitely somebody who is not bound by the norms or
16:42confines of traditional policymaking in government.
16:46Right.
16:47Well, John, there's certainly a lot to look out for in the next four years.
16:50And as time marches on, I know you will be reporting all about it.
16:54John, hi.
16:55Thank you so much for joining me.
16:56Thank you, Brittany.