Trump Transition: Trump Doubles Down on Selling Out Working Families, Driving Up Costs

This week, Donald Trump’s Wealthy-First agenda of selling out working families to serve the interests of his donors and cabinet of cronies was on full display. First, Trump took another step toward imposing a national sales tax, which would be devastating for working families and result in “higher prices nearly everywhere they turn” on everything from groceries to cars.

Then, he bowed to his special interests backers by firing the watchdog responsible for standing up to shady financial actors who swindle consumers, installing Wall Street insider and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to oversee the agency, while freezing its critical work. And Trump gave his billionaire campaign donor Elon Musk unfettered access to Treasury Department data, causing chaos and confusion – even as Musk has numerous conflicts of interest and regulatory interests before the federal government.

But Trump’s betrayal of working families doesn’t end there. His cabinet appointees are shaping up to be a cesspool for corruption. The Republican-led Senate confirmed Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi, who faces numerous potential conflicts of interest with at least five of her lobbying clients having had run-ins with the agency she will now lead, as well as Chris Wright as U.S. Energy Secretary, an oil man and Project 2025 contributor with interests before the Department.

Even Trump admits that his tariff-driven economic agenda would cause “pain” for consumers – with higher prices that are expected to hit Americans living paycheck to paycheck the hardest. Instead of lowering costs this week, he once again delivered only for the bottom line of his cabinet of cronies and billionaire backers.

Meanwhile, red flags continue to be raised involving Trump’s nominees and cabinet:

Russ Vought, Noted Enemy of Social Security/Medicare and Incompetent Project 2025 Architect Behind Federal Funding Freeze Debacle, Back at the Trump OMB. Vought was confirmed on a party-line vote If it wasn’t clear before, it is now with Russ Vought returning to the White House as OMB Director: the Trump administration agenda is one in the same with the extreme Project 2025 agenda. Vought is among at least five other Project 2025 alumni that Donald Trump tapped to serve top posts in his administration. A new Accountable.US review found that the administration has already taken up nearly 20 Project 2025 mandates just in its first weeks. Add Trump’s repeated denials of Project 2025 on the campaign trail to the list of tens of thousands of false and misleading claims he’s made. Vought was confirmed after Senate Democrats protested by holding the Senate floor overnight, railing against Vought as a dangerous choice.

Before he was even confirmed, his incompetence already managed to upend countless American lives, as someone who played a “key role” in the ham-fisted Trump federal funding freeze that disrupted access to critical aid from Medicaid, veterans’ housing, community health centers to Meals on Wheels for seniors.

Unfortunately, working Americans and seniors should prepare for more pain in service to more Trump tax breaks for billionaires and corporations. Vought’s return to the Trump administration also means that Social Security and Medicare are not as safe as the President has claimed. Vought is a longtime enemy of these critical programs, and the author of previous Trump budget plans to gut them — and will likely be an eager partner in the unelected leader of ‘DOGE’ Elon Musk’s alarming new targeting of the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Kash Patel Claims He’ll Go After Human Trafficking, Yet Made Millions Consulting for a Chinese Company Notorious for the Practice. The vote on Patel was postponed after Senate Judiciary Democrats objected to moving forward before examining more of his troubling past. During his confirmation hearing, Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, vowed to investigate human trafficking if confirmed. Yet a new review from Accountable.US found Patel has profited millions from a Chinese fast fashion company notorious for forced labor, Shein. Strangely, no comment yet from Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Senator Tom Cotton, who have previously raised concerns about Shein’s exploitative practices.

More Alarming Friendships for Tulsi Gabbard. Trump National Intelligence Director Nominee Tulsi Gabbard has already raised eyebrows with her cozy relationships with foreign adversaries. Now, new research from Accountable.US reveals that Gabbard has deep financial connections to Thomas Datwyler—a GOP campaign operative at the center of multiple campaign finance violations, dark money networks, and election scandals.

ACCOUNTABLE.US IN THE NEWS:

NPR: Treasury Secretary Bessent, tapped to run CFPB, orders staff to halt work: “But consumer advocates decried the tapping of Bessent. “While [Trump] parades a crowd of corporate lobbyists, billionaire donors, and Wall Street insiders like Scott Bessent to lead our country, we’re looking at the end of basic protections for American consumers,” said Tony Carrk of Accountable.US, a corruption watchdog group, in a statement.”
Raw Story: ‘Buy political influence’: Trump pick Kash Patel accused of ‘truly shocking’ China scandal: A new review by Accountable.US of the Trump nominee’s financial disclosure revealed that Patel holds between $1 million and $5 million in stock for Elite Depot Ltd., which is the ultimate controlling party of the Chinese fast fashion brand Shein, which has fallen under bipartisan for their business practices, including the use of forced Uyghur labor. “It’s hard to take known grifter Kash Patel at his word he will fight human trafficking after getting rich consulting for a Chinese fast fashion company notorious for its forced labor,” said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US. “Since Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio and Senator [Tom] Cotton (R-AR) have spoken out about Shein’s exploitative business practices, will they also raise red flags about their preferred FBI Director candidate profiting off it?”

Inside Philanthropy: The America First Policy Institute’s Deep Ties to the Trump White House: [Linda] McMahon, Brooke Rollins, and Larry Kudlow created AFPI after Trump’s election defeat in 2020. AFPI doesn’t disclose its donors, but the New York Times reported that the fledgling organization received backing from conservative Texas fracking billionaire Tim Dunn. Dunn has long been a prominent figure in Texas politics and was one of Trump’s largest donors during the recent campaign, according to the Texas Tribune. His 2022 tax $lings show donations to AFPI. According to Accountable U.S, the conservative Searle Freedom Trust was also an early funder.
Common Dreams: Trump’s Billionaire Appointee Targets Consumer Protections by Halting All CFPB Operations: Tony Carrk, executive director of the progressive watchdog group Accountable.US, said in a statement Monday that “we can only hope that Bessent continues former Director Rohit Chopra’s legacy standing up to price gouging and fraud, but I fear his appointment opens the floodgates for corporate abuse and financial scams.”

Meanwhile, red flags continue to be raised involving Trump’s nominees and cabinet:

ACCOUNTABLE.US IN THE NEWS:

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