Donald Trump’s Administration Will Be the Wealthiest in Modern U.S. History

Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, gets on an elevator after speaking with reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016, in NY. While that is what was said by Mnuchin, it seems to be break away from what has been communicated during and after the campaign by Donald Trump and his team.

“Well, our first priority is going to be the tax plan”, Steve Mnuchin told reporters gathered at the Trump Tower in NY, just hours after word leaked out that he’d be the nominee for treasury secretary.

The Commerce secretary typically serves as the government’s liaison to the business world and oversees a vast bureaucracy, including the Census Bureau, the Patent Office and implementation of the nation’s trade laws. They also say the individual tax plan, which reduces the top rate from 39 percent to 33 percent, but also puts a cap on deductions, will provide a big income tax cut for the middle class, but no reduction in taxes for the rich.

The fund raised $1.36 million, according to NY state tax filings, suggesting that Ross’s contribution was less than $700,000.

What about these claims from Mnuchin and Ross that their policies will boost the USA growth rate to between 3 percent and 4 percent a year – about twice what it is now. Mnuchin worked for Goldman Sachs for 17 years.

Rebranded as OneWest the bank grew to become one of California’s largest lenders. The bank has denied these claims. A graduate of Yale University, he pledged $10 million to help build its management school.

Like Mr Trump, he has also criticised the Dodd Frank act – brought in by the Obama administration to stabilise the banking system – saying it prevented banks lending to smaller businesses. His daughter Ivanka joined a telephone call his father had with Argentine President Mauricio Macri earlier this month and attended a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, raising concerns about possible conflicts of interests.

So. everything’s negotiable. Maybe taxes on the rich will go up, or at least not go down by almost as much as he has promised. Though Mnuchin can now be seen in movie theaters playing a banker in Warren Beatty’s new film Rules Don’t Apply, he has a lower profile than most tapped to head the Treasury department. He also supports a 15% top corporate tax rate, down from 35% today.

This has always been a sore point for congressional leaders who have gone after multinationals that are, in their opinion, not paying their fair share.

Mnuchin said he wanted to bring “a lot of cash back to the US”, proposing a one-time 10 per cent repatriation tax to return corporate tax revenue held overseas.

American companies have an estimated $2.6 trillion in profits sitting untaxed overseas. “We’ve had a very good run”.

And then there’s the politics. Ross convinced creditors to drop a plan to strip Trump’s name and ownership from the Taj Casino, a victory that set the stage for Trump’s eventual resurrection. Both nominations are subject to Senate confirmation. Some Republicans have said they should be wound down or eliminated. It’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out.

Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker and Hollywood financier, confirmed in an interview Wednesday on CNBC’s Squawk Box that Trump had asked him to serve in the administration.

So far, the president-elect is tapping people with deep ties to Washington and Wall Street as he fills out his Cabinet, turning to two power centers he vilified as greedy, corrupt and out of touch with Americans during his White House campaign.