Tracker: Trump Appointees’ Corporate Conflicts of Interest

Donald Trump’s nominees for cabinet positions and other important political appointments are riddled with conflicts of interest. As was the case with Trump’s first administration, his second administration appears to be handing people with clear corporate conflicts of interest the power to regulate and oversee corporations.

Public Citizen is following the money — and holding them accountable.

Name	Agency	Title	Prior Employment	Former Clients/Business Interests	Source
Scott Bessent	Treasury	Secretary	Billionaire founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, formerly chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management	Other former clients include Jim Rogers, Jim Chanos, and Stanley Druckenmiller. Early in his career, he worked as securities analyst and options trader at the investment arm of a Saudi Arabian family.	Sources
Pam Bondi	Department of Justice	Attorney General	Lobbyist, Ballard Partners (2019-2024); Florida Attorney General (2011-2019)	Lobbied for 30 corporate, foreign government, and organization clients including: GEO Group. private prisons company seeking more government contracts; lottery and gaming company IGT Global Solutions which was battling the Justice Department; as a foreign agent for the government of Qatar; KGL Investment Company KSCC - a Kuwaiti company; Republic Services to oppose being required by the government to remove nuclear waste from a toxic waste dump in Missouri; Carnival Cruise Lines; General Motors, Amazon, Uber	See more
Doug Burgum	Department of the Interior	Secretary	Billionaire, former software company exec (sold to Microsoft), real estate investor	Burgum is a close ally of billionaire oil and gas executive Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources. His family has leased land to Continental Resources.	See More
Sean Duffy	Department of Transportation	Secretary	BGR Group	Duffy has been a lobbyist for Partnership for Open Skies (inc. America, Delta, United), Polaris Industries	See more
Howard Lutnick	Department of Commerce	Secretary	Cantor Fitzgerald	Lutnik has ties to the crypto industry (Tether) and the financial exchange FMX. Lutnick has already been accused of mixing his business interests and transition duties.	See more
Dr. Marty Makary	FDA	Commissioner	Surgeon and public policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University	Makary is an executive of the telehealth company Sesame, which connects consumers to physicians who can prescribe compounded weight-loss drugs. In 2023, he received $40,000 in payments from Harrow Eye, LLC, a company that makes pharmaceutical products to treat eye conditions. He serves on the board of directors of Harrow.	See more
Linda McMahon	Department of Education	Secretary	Trump's first Small Business Association Administrator; chair of the board of the America First Policy Institute, a right wing think tank focused on enacting Trump's agenda; chair of the pro-Trump America First Action SuperPAC	WWE: As Trump’s SBA Administrator in 2017, McMahon and her husband made at least $100 million off “dividends, interest on investments and sales of stocks and bonds."	See more
Elon Musk	Department of Government Efficiency	Co-Director	Billionaire entrepreneur (Tesla, X, SpaceX, Neuralink)	Himself, the companies he owns (several of which are under federal investigation)	Sources
Dr. Mehmet Oz	Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services	Director	Daytime TV personality; failed Senate candidate	Dr. Oz is the global advisor for iHerb, a supplement company. He has repeatedly been accused of promoting dubious products on his TV shows. For example, he promoted a product made by a company called PanTheryx, in which he held a major investment stake. Disclosure forms from his 2022 Senate run revealed a vast array of investments, many in health care related businesses, including up to $600,000 in UnitedHealth, the major insurer. He reported more than $2 million in Amazon stock, which has major health care interests, and lesser holdings in numerous drug companies.	See more
Andrew Wheeler	Transition Team	N/A	EPA Secretary under Trump; Director of the Virginia Office of Regulatory Management under Gov. Glenn Youngkin; Lobbyist for Faegre Baker Daniels	Wheeler has business ties to Murray Energy, Nuclear Energy Institute, Whirlpool Corp, Sargento Foods and chemical company Celanese Corp.	See more
Michael Waltz	National Security	Advisor	Member of Congress since 2019. Army veteran. Founded and sold the defense contractor Metis Solutions.	Waltz has close ties to the defense industry. He help found and then sold the defense contractor Metis Solutions. The sale may have netted him as much as $25 million. In his most recent House financial disclosure, Waltz disclosed he is an investor, and is owed a future equity stake in, the AI company BoodleAI.	See more
Susie Wiles	White House	Chief of Staff	Lobbyist, Mercury Public Affairs (Feb. 2022-Nov. 2024); Lobbyist/Managing Partner, Ballard Partners (2011-Sept. 2019); Trump Presidential Campaigns	Wiles has been registered to lobby on behalf of 42 clients including corporations, govt. contractors, and a foreign political party. Some examples: Republic Services, Pebble Partnership-Northern Dynasty Minerals, and Swisher tobacco company. As Chief of Staff, she'll be in a position to influence permits, approvals, and contracts that her former lobbying clients paid her to lobby for.	See more
Chris Wright	Department of Energy	Secretary	Liberty Energy CEO	Wright has extensive business connections in the oil & gas and fracking sectors.	See more
David Bernhardt	Transition team	N/A	Chair of the Center for American Freedom at America First Policy Institute; Interior Secretary under Trump, lawyer for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck	Bernhardt’s previous lobbying clients included oil & gas and resource extraction interests Cobalt International Energy, Samson Resources, the Rosemont Copper open pit mine in Arizona, and the Cadiz Inc. groundwater pumping project in California. He also represented the Independent Petroleum Association of America and Haliburton Energy Services as legal clients.	See More