President-elect Donald Trump has added another billionaire to his team. Trump announced Monday that he would nominate Vincent Viola, the billionaire owner of the Florida Panthers hockey team, to serve as secretary of the Army. "Viola's business experience makes him well positioned to help guide a Fortune 10-sized company, the U.S. Army," Trump's transition team said in a statement.
Viola, who made his fortune trading and investing in stocks, is the founder and current executive chairman of the high-speed electronic trading firm Virtu Financial. Previously, he was the chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Viola graduated from West Point in 1977, and he was a big donor to the academy's Combating Terrorism Center, established after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was also involved in producing a textbook about battle strategy.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Viola joins a long list of billionaires and millionaires chosen for the new administration, including Betsy DeVos, Trump's pick for education secretary; Wilbur Ross, the nominee for commerce secretary; Linda McMahon, chosen to lead the Small Business Administration; Todd Ricketts, the deputy commerce secretary-designee; Stephen Mnuchin, the treasury secretary nominee; and Elaine Chao, Trump's choice for transportation secretary.
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliablespeed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
