Financial disclosures reveal just how wealthy Trump's top advisers are
That many of President Trump's top advisers are drawn from the ranks of the financial elite is no surprise, but White House disclosures Friday night revealed just how wealthy the president's confidants really are. The combined assets of 27 White House officials topped $2.3 billion when they joined the administration, The Washington Post calculates, with investments and holdings spanning a wide range of business sectors.
One of the richest officials is Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, who is alone worth at least $252 million (the key economic adviser's wealth could top $600 million, as government forms allow officials to report ranges of wealth rather than specific figures). Chief strategist Stephen Bannon reported between $13 and $56 million.
The disclosures also reveal President Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, continue to benefit from their business interests worth as much as $700 million. The couple remain beneficiaries of the 267 real estate assets in the Kushner empire even though Kushner has stepped down from managing his family's company amid conflict of interest concerns.
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Ivanka Trump maintains a stake in the president's controversial Washington, D.C., hotel property, but it is not clear she is earning income from that tie. This information comes from Kushner's disclosure alone; Ivanka's formal role in the White House was just announced, and she has yet to file disclosures of her own.
Trump himself does not have to make another disclosure of his finances until 2018. In the meantime, all the forms released Friday are available via Politico.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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