ICYMI: CNN: Big Donors Secure Big Roles in the Incoming Trump Administration Arrow

Key Point: "The CNN analysis researched the more than 90 people that Trump had announced for high-level positions in the administration through Tuesday, which marked five weeks since his election victory. More than 30 of them had donated to his campaign or to one of the leading Trump-aligned outside groups, the review of FEC records found."

CNN: Big donors secure big roles in the incoming Trump administration

By Fredreka Schouten, David Wright, and Alex Leeds Matthews

• In all, eight of his Cabinet picks - led by Linda McMahon, the billionaire wrestling magnate Trump has selected to oversee the Education Department - and their spouses donated more than $37 million combined from their personal accounts to aid Trump, the review found, underscoring the proliferation of ultra-rich Americans now poised to shape US policy in the incoming second Trump administration.
  
• Musk has not been selected for a formal Cabinet job but is helping guide a new Department of Government Efficiency initiative and has played a pivotal role in the presidential transition […] the SpaceX and Tesla chief executive donated more than $277 million to federal elections this cycle, the lion's share of which - more than $262 million - benefited Trump.
  
• The CNN analysis researched the more than 90 people that Trump had announced for high-level positions in the administration through Tuesday, which marked five weeks since his election victory. More than 30 of them had donated to his campaign or to one of the leading Trump-aligned outside groups, the review of FEC records found.
  
• McMahon was the largest donor among Trump's Cabinet picks and the second most generous contributor, after Musk […] Most of the $21.2 million she donated went to Make American Great Again, Inc., the main Trump-affiliated super PAC that spent heavily on advertising to aid his campaign.
  
• Other seven-figure donors among Trump's Cabinet picks include Cantor Fitzgerald chief Howard Lutnick, whom Trump has tapped to serve as Commerce secretary; Scott Bessent, the hedge fund executive Trump has selected to oversee the Treasury Department; and former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, his choice to head the Small Business Administration.
  
• Some of Trump's early picks for ambassadorships follow that pattern and include billionaires who donated to his reelection effort. Among them: Arkansas investor Warren Stephens, named as the US' envoy to the UK, and Charles Kushner […] who donated $2 million to pro-Trump efforts and received a presidential pardon at the end of Trump's first term, is the father-in-law of Trump's daughter, Ivanka. Another donor, Tom Barrack, who oversaw the fundraising for Trump's first inauguration, is his choice as ambassador to Turkey.
  
• And incoming special envoy to the Middle East, real-estate tycoon Steve Witkoff […] donated $250,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC.