These are the 13 billionaires, business leaders and entertainers poised to shape Donald Trump’s second presidential administration.
By John Hyatt, Staff
During his victory speech on Tuesday night, Donald Trump was acknowledging those who helped fuel his astonishing political comeback when members of the crowd interrupted in a chant.
ELON. ELON. ELON.
“Oh yes. We have a new star. A star is born: Elon,” gushed Trump, who then launched into a four-minute riff about the world’s richest person – “a super genius” to whom the president-elect has promised vast powers to shape U.S. policy and federal spending.
Elon Musk is the most famous (and wealthiest) of a cabal of new allies as Trump prepares to reenter the White House. The 78-year-old Trump has long treasured his close alliances with the rich and famous, but this time around, he will bring with him a mostly new generation of loyalists that includes podcaster Joe Rogan and MMA star Dana White among others. This 2.0 contingent has curried favor with Trump through a combination of loyalty, campaign donations, endorsements and, of course, flattery. Some are expected to serve as cabinet members. Others will likely have unofficial roles as advisors with whom Trump speaks over the phone, on the golf course, on podcasts and via social media.
Besides Musk, there are hedge fund moguls John Paulson and Scott Bessent – two contenders for Treasury Secretary or other key economic roles – who have vowed to help Musk slash spending. “I would like to be part of it, either from the inside or the outside,” said Bessent, who worked for Trump nemesis George Soros for years, in an interview with the day before the election.
Political newcomers like Vivek Ramaswamy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., two other possibilities for cabinet positions or high-powered advisory roles, seek to remake entire federal agencies. Kennedy plans to push for the removal of fluoride in drinking water and to “remove corruption” at agencies like the Food and Drug Administration. On the campaign trail, Ramaswamy mused about shutting down the entire Department of Education.
Among tech power players whose stars have risen in Trump’s orbit: Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, a lifelong Democrat who sided with Trump because of his tech policies and who scored an invitation to Mar-a-Lago on election night, and TikTok shareholder Jeff Yass, who seemingly convinced Trump earlier in the year to back off his threats of banning the social media platform, which Trump later joined.
It’s highly likely that Trump will continue to consult some of the same folks he always has, starting with his family members. While daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner have said they will not return to their previous roles as advisors to the president, Kushner told last week that he could still informally advise Trump. Meanwhile his son Eric’s wife Lara, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, took a lead role in the campaign and stood right next to him during his victory speech.
Also not to be forgotten are the group of billionaires who have stood by him in the past: including Wall Street legend and fellow Florida resident Carl Icahn, Trump’s Las Vegas business partner Phil Ruffin, and former Marvel chief Ike Perlmutter, a Mar-a-Lago member who gave $10.1 million to a Trump-aligned Super-PAC this cycle—all of whom Trump solicited for informal advice during his first term on a range of topics, and all of whom sought to benefit financially from their relationship with the president.
There will be lots of jostling and schmoozing in the coming weeks. Who will win a coveted cabinet appointment or some other role will be a closely watched match of gamesmanship. If last time was any guide, even those in the inner circle should buckle up. Just ask Goldman Sachs veteran Anthony Scaramucci, who joined the White House as Director of Communications on July 21. He lasted only 10 days.
Trump’s New Brain Trust
Nathan Laine/Bloomberg
Elon Musk,
a former Barack Obama supporter, has remade himself as a MAGA stalwart. The 53-year-old CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, Musk originally supported Ron DeSantis in the Republican primaries before going all in on Trump. He donated $119 million to a pro-Trump PAC, mobilized a get-out-the-vote operation in swing states, and endlessly promoted Trump’s candidacy on his social media company X. Trump has publicly marveled at Musk’s “genius” and vowed to give Musk an extraordinary amount of power to shape the federal budget. (Musk, the planet’s richest person, says he wants to eliminate $2 trillion in annual spending.) The two have become so close that Musk featured in a Trump family photo posted online the day after the election.
Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
Howard Lutnick,
CEO and controlling shareholder of the $9 billion (annual revenue) financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, is a longtime Trump pal who is co-chairing the Trump transition team. The 63-year-old tycoon donated $5 million to Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC and accompanied the candidate on the campaign trail, including introducing Musk at Trump’s October Madison Square Garden rally. Lutnick first shot to fame after September 11, 2001, when 658 employees of Cantor Fitzgerald, including Lutnick’s brother, perished in the attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Lutnick, who was taking his son to his first day of Kindergarten, promised to rebuild and take care of the employees’ families, raising $180 million for them in the first five years. As transition co-chair, Lutnick has vowed to staff the second Trump administration with personnel who are “loyal” to the boss.
Rob Kim/Getty Images
John Paulson,
a hedge fund mogul and Queens native like Trump, made his $3.8 billion fortune betting against subprime mortgages in 2007, and sold Trump the Doral Resort in Miami in 2012. The 68-year-old billionaire gave only $800,000 to Trump’s campaign this cycle but has emerged as an influential economic advisor to Trump, and is reportedly a leading candidate for Treasury Secretary. Paulson has said that he wants to extend Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and work with Musk to slash federal spending, including by eliminating renewable energy subsidies enacted by Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act.
Andrew Harre/Bloomberg
Linda McMahon,
the co-chair of the Trump transition team with Lutnick, served as head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, and gave $15.8 million to Trump’s 2024 campaign. The 76-year-old businesswoman is poised to play an even more influential role in Trump’s second administration as the cofounder of America First Policy Institute, a think tank (and Project 2025 alternative) that has drafted nearly 300 executive actions for Trump to consider signing. McMahon previously helped her billionaire husband and fellow Trump ally Vince McMahon run wrestling promotion giant WWE, which he founded, and which was one of the biggest funders of the now-defunct Trump Foundation. (Vince is reportedly under federal investigation for alleged sex trafficking, which he has denied.)
Michael Simon/Getty Images
Dana White,
president of mixed martial arts company UFC, supported Trump during all three of his presidential campaigns. Their relationship began in Trump’s pre-political days, when Trump was a fan of White’s fighting competition and hosted MMA events at his properties. In June 2021, when Trump was still persona non grata after the January 6 riot, White welcomed Trump at a UFC event in one of Trump’s first public appearances after leaving office. During his victory speech in the early hours of Nov. 6, Trump invited White to offer a few words. “No one deserves this more,” White thundered from the podium. Some in the MAGA world are calling for White to become Trump’s new press secretary, though White has said he has no “personal political aspirations.”
Vincent Alban/Bloomberg
Scott Bessent,
a mild-mannered hedge fund executive who formerly worked for liberal philanthropist George Soros, carved a role for himself in MAGA-land earlier this year after endorsing Trump early in the Republican primaries and giving $3 million to Trump PACs and Republican Party committees. A key economic advisor whose name is being floated for a cabinet position, Bessent has advocated for reducing federal spending and remaking the Federal Reserve to give the chairman less power. “I think we are going to have a major international economic realignment,” Bessent told in an interview the day before the election, during which he confirmed his interest in working for Trump. “I would like to be part of it, either from the inside or the outside.”
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Vivek Ramaswamy,
the 39-year-old biotech billionaire who ran in the Republican primaries as a Trump-friendly alternative and flamed out early, was a ubiquitous Trump surrogate during the general election. The Indian-American entrepreneur, who bought an activist stake in media firm Buzzfeed earlier this year and who is the author of the best-seller Woke, Inc., has advocated for shutting down federal government agencies including the FBI and Department of Education. The Millennial entrepreneur is reportedly under consideration for a cabinet position. “We’re gonna bring him in,” Trump said during a rally in Pennsylvania on October 9. “He’s going to be a part of something that’s going to be really big.”
Jason Mendez/Getty Images
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,
scion of the Kennedy political dynasty, endorsed Trump in August after suspending his own presidential campaign as an independent candidate. The former Democrat and environmental lawyer has built a loyal following as a vaccine skeptic; he has called for shuttering entire departments of the FDA and removing fluoride from drinking water. RFK, Jr. has said that Trump will put him in charge of the public health agencies, including the Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services, in a supervisory role. “He’s going to make America healthy again,” Trump said during his victory speech. “Go have a good time, Bobby.”
Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Marc Andreessen,
the Silicon Valley venture capitalist with an estimated net worth of $1.9 billion, endorsed Trump in July before giving $2.5 million in support of his campaign. A lifelong Democrat, Andreessen explained his political shift on a podcast with his investment partner Ben Horowitz, who also endorsed Trump (before partially backtracking and donating to Harris in early October). Andreessen cited the Biden administration’s hostility to the tech sector – including toward cryptocurrencies, an important plank of Andreessen Horowitz’s investment portfolio, and toward mergers and acquisitions, a pillar of the venture capital industry – as driving his Trumpian embrace. The Internet entrepreneur was expected to dine with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on election night.
Timothy Mellon,
an heir to the Mellon banking fortune, was Trump’s largest single donor in 2024, pumping $150 million into Trump’s Make America Great Again super PAC, more than even Musk. He also backed RFK, Jr. (before he dropped out) with a $25 million donation. Mellon’s policy objectives are unclear, but in his business career as a railroad owner he went to war with labor unions, and has donated to conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation. The reclusive 81-year-old lives on a ranch in Wyoming and has not been photographed in years. Despite all his giving, he insists he’s not as wealthy as he seems. “Billionaire NOT!” the grandson of banking tycoon (and 1920s U.S. Treasury Secretary) Andrew Mellon wrote in an email to earlier this year.
Jeff Bottari/Getty Images
Joe Rogan,
the former standup comic and UFC commentator turned podcaster, interviewed Trump for three hours ten days before the election and then publicly endorsed Trump on the eve of the election. Fellow Trumpfluencer Dana White thanked “the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan” while addressing Trump’s crowd during his victory speech. His podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, has more than 18 million subscribers and has garnered 5.6 billion views on YouTube. “He is the biggest there is in that world, by far,” Trump boasted to a crowd while announcing Rogan’s endorsement.
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Jeffrey Yass,
the cofounder of market making giant Susquehanna, is a longtime Republican party megadonor and one of the world’s 30 wealthiest people, with an estimated $50 billion fortune that includes a $21.5 billion stake in TikTok’s parent company ByteDance. A libertarian who backed other candidates like Tim Scott and Vivek Ramasawmy during the Republican primaries, Yass reportedly met with Trump earlier this year and instructed his advisors to lobby Trump’s team in support of TikTok, which Trump had previously tried to ban while in office. Earlier this year, Trump spoke out against an effort in Congress to ban the app, and in June, Trump joined TikTok, where he now has 14 million followers.
Steven Ferdman/Getty Images
Doug Burgum,
the businessman, North Dakota governor and short-lived presidential candidate, was on Trump’s shortlist for vice presidential candidates. One reason Trump likes Burgum: He began his career in business, bootstrapping a software business before selling it to Microsoft, where he worked as an executive for years before entering the political fray. Burgum (whose personal wealth estimates is north of $100 million) is being floated as a potential Energy Secretary.
Update on 11/10/24: This article previously stated that Timothy Mellon gave $125 million to Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC. It’s actually $150 million.
