President Trump in an Iowa rally on Wednesday addressed backlash that his Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and others in his Cabinet were too rich, said he doesn’t want poor people in charge of the economy, Huffington Post reports.
“These are people that are great, brilliant business minds, and that’s what we need, that’s what we have to have so the world doesn’t take advantages of us. We can’t have the world taking advantage of us anymore. And I love all people, rich or poor, but in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? If you insist, I’ll do it, but I like it better this way.”
The majority of the President’s Cabinet is thought to be the wealthiest in American history, and according to a financial disclosure Trump himself has at least $1.4 billion in assets, lawmakers have dubbed the group a “cabinet of billionaires.”
During the rally, Trump cast off such criticism, saying the reason for appointing this caliber of people is to aid the country position itself better on the international stage. Referring to Gary Cohn, a former president of Goldman Sachs, he said “This is the president of Goldman Sachs. Smart. Having him represent us, he went from massive paydays to peanuts, to little tiny , I’m waiting for them to accuse him of wanting that little amount of money”.
The top annual salary for Cabinet officials last year was $176,461, three times the average U.S. household income in 2015.
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