Mar/Apr 2017 Issue

What’s Lily White, Filthy Rich, and Has 14 Penises?

Trump’s Cabinet picks, by the numbers

In his election victory speech, Donald Trump promised that “the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.” Since then, he’s assembled the wealthiest administration in US history, with key posts going to billionaires, millionaires, Wall Street insiders, and big donors who embody “the rigged, broken, corrupt system” he vowed to fix.

Illustrations by Mattias Mackler

Data as of February 2, 2017, before Viola withdrew as the nominee for secretary of the Army. The Cabinet includes the 15 executive department heads and the vice president. Cabinet-level positions include the heads of the Small Business Administration, the Office of Management and Budget, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Council of Economic Advisors, and the White House chief of staff, US trade representative, and United Nations ambassador.

Sources

Net worth of Trump Cabinet picks: Financial disclosures, Bloomberg, Forbes

Net worth of Obama and Bush Cabinets: Forbes

Countries’ DP: World Bank

Medicaid expansion: AP, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Trump University fraud settlement: New York Times

Wealth of 126 million Americans: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances; Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University; Census Bureau

128 million Americans voted: David Wasserman, Cook Political Report

1% net worth: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances; Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University

Median net worth of US households: Edward Wolff, New York University

Past Cabinet diversity: New York Times

Growth of 1% incomes: World Wealth & Income Database

Growth of federal minimum wage: Department of Labor

Cohn bonus: New York Times

Viola net worth: Bloomberg

Warren net worth: Bloomberg

Paulson net worth: Forbes

Hamm net worth: Bloomberg

Icahn net worth: Bloomberg

Mercers net worth: The Atlantic

Trump campaign donations from millionaires and billionaires: Demos

Trump net worth: Forbes

Trump’s self-claimed net worth: Forbes; Trump; Timothy O’Brien, Bloomberg; Wall Street Journal; New York Times; Trump financial disclosure form

Think Like a Billionaire sales: Trump financial disclosure form

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We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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