Last night at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, the president-elect addressed criticism of his cabinet appointments, a motley group of plutocrats, hacks, and hangers-on. “One newspaper criticized me, ‘Why can’t we have people of modest means?’” Trump said. “Because I want people that made a fortune. Because now they’re negotiating with you.”
Never mind that these cabinet members should be negotiating for you and not with you. Trump was supposed to be an unorthodox Republican, a champion of the (white) working class. Instead his cabinet picks represent mainstays of the Republican elite: neoconservative hawks, Wall Street bankers, climate change deniers, a guy literally nicknamed the “foreclosure king.” His pick for Labor, Andrew Puzder, is even pro-immigration, a classic GOP elite position.
If voters were hoping to express their disgust at both Republicans and Democrats in electing Trump, too bad.
Update: CNBC is reporting that Trump will name Gary Cohn, the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, as the head of the National Economic Council.