Inside Donald Trump's Wealthy Cabinet and Administration Picks

The president-elect isn't the only billionaire in his administration.

ByABC News
December 2, 2016, 5:27 PM
Todd Ricketts in Chicago, Dec. 10, 2010; Betsy DeVos in Bedminster Township, New Jersey, Nov. 19, 2016; Wilbur Ross in Bedminster, New Jersey, Nov. 20, 2016.
Todd Ricketts in Chicago, Dec. 10, 2010; Betsy DeVos in Bedminster Township, New Jersey, Nov. 19, 2016; Wilbur Ross in Bedminster, New Jersey, Nov. 20, 2016.
AP Photo | Getty Images | AFP/Getty Images

— -- While Donald Trump's cabinet selection process is far from finished -- there are still eight spots that have not been announced -- nearly all of the picks that have been announced are wealthy individuals, in addition to himself.

By comparison, when then-President George W. Bush assembled his cabinet of millionaires after the 2000 election, media outlets called it the wealthiest cabinet in history, as The Washington Post pointed out.

But that pales in comparison to the wealth that will be represented in Trump's cabinet.

The Telegraph reported that Bill Clinton had seven multi-millionaires in his first cabinet as did Ronald Reagan; and George H.W. Bush had six multi-millionaires. In the case of George W. Bush, 13 of his 16 cabinet members were worth at least $1 million in 2001, the paper reported.

ABC News could not independently verify the net worth of any of Trump’s cabinet picks, but the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans and some public records offer a sense of their wealth.

At least one member of Trump's administration is on the Forbes 400 list. Wilbur Ross, his pick for commerce secretary, is worth an estimated $2.5 billion, according to Forbes, and ranks No. 232 on its list.

Two of Trump's picks for top-level positions come from extraordinarily wealthy families. Todd Ricketts, who is the son of the founder of TD Ameritrade, was tapped to be Trump's deputy secretary of commerce. His family is worth an estimated $5.3 billion, according to Forbes.

Betsy DeVos was named as Trump's pick for education secretary and her father-in-law is the co-founder of multi-level marketing company Amway. The DeVos family is worth an estimated $5.1 billion, according to Forbes.

Three of Trump's picks for cabinet positions -- subject to Senate confirmation -- have had to detail their financial standings because they're in public office or are married to someone who is: Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., who was announced as Trump's pick for secretary of health and human services, Elaine Chao, Trump's pick for secretary of transportation, who is married to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Trump's pick for attorney general.

PHOTO: House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Health and Human Services Secretary, at the Brookings Institution, Nov. 30, 2016 in Washington.
House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Health and Human Services Secretary, at the Brookings Institution, Nov. 30, 2016 in Washington.

Federal financial disclosure forms allow the signers to identify income in ranges. The nonprofit and nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics estimates public officials' wealth based on their financial disclosure forms, providing the most accurate publicly available estimates of their income.

Price had a net worth estimate of $13.6 million in 2014, which was the most recent data available, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That figure ranks him as the 44th wealthiest member of the House of Representatives on the Center for Responsive Politics list.

McConnell, whose disclosure forms jointly list both his and his wife's incomes and investments, had an estimated net worth of nearly $22.2 million in 2014, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

McConnell's 2015 disclosure form identifies certain income his wife received during that year, including a $50,000 payment for a speech she made for the Alliance for Public Awareness in Paris and a $25,000 payment for a speech to the Real Estate Roundtable in Washington, D.C.

Sessions, who is in his fourth term as a senator from Alabama, had an estimated net worth of $7.5 million in 2014 and was the 24th wealthiest member of the Senate, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

PHOTO: Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 17, 2016.
Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 17, 2016.

ABC News could not independently verify the net worth of Steve Mnuchin, Trump's pick for treasury secretary, who worked at Goldman Sachs for 17 years before going on to found his own investment firm, Dune Capital.

Mnuchin led a group of investors who bought the failed IndyMac bank, rebranding it as OneWest Bank and eventually selling it last year, to CIT group for approximately $3.4 billion.

The only member of Trump's cabinet whose wealth is completely unknown is Gen. James Mattis, who served in the military for 41 years and retired in 2013. His net worth could not be independently verified by ABC News and he has never had to publicly release financial disclosure forms.

As Trump continues to round out his cabinet, another multi-millionaire could be added to the list.

Mitt Romney is believed to be one of the contenders for secretary of state. During his failed presidential bid in 2012, Romney's campaign reportedly said that his net worth was around $250 million and Forbes estimated that it was closer to $230 million that same year.

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