Interest Conflicts in the Cabinet

January 13th, 2025

Roshan Shivnani

As the next president of the United States, Donald Trump is now going through the process of selecting his cabinet appointments. It’s important to note that the most senior leadership positions require Senate Confirmation, meaning in theory, his selections would need to be politically appetizing enough to secure the required votes. Despite this, Trump has already announced the vast majority of his prospective selections, many of which see a challenge cabinet members are already too familiar with: a conflict in interests.

One announcement Trump made was selecting Scott Bessent for the position of Treasury Secretary. It mostly caught the public eye because of Bessent’s other leadership positions, like founding the investment firm Key Square Capital Management and serving as chairman of the investment committee at Bessent-Freeman Family Foundation. To quell concerns, he delivered a letter to the Treasury Department's ethics office and gave public announcements about the action he would take to avoid having such conflict of interests, like selling his shares of Key Square Capital Management and resigning from the Bessent-Freeman Family Foundation.

While actions taken by Bessent and others in similar positions may have been enough to address public concerns, many Trump appointments will be subject to even less regulation, despite their apparent conflicts of interest. Some clear examples are Elon Musk, one of America’s most famous public figures, and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Both individuals serve on the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE,) where they are lead advisors for Trump as he attempts to achieve his goal of slashing federal spending by $2 trillion. Musk has clear connections to the government, because his businesses (like SpaceX) receive billion-dollar government contracts and crucial subsidies for his companies to dominate their respective industries. Despite Musk’s clear interests in companies and now, power in the government, he will likely face little to no ethics regulation. That’s because Trump established DOGE from “outside of government,” which means that Musk and co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy will not be subject to government conflict of interest laws.

From the Treasury to new budgetary departments, government positions will be filled with individuals who have interests in their personal lives while possessing the control of federal power. Hopefully, for Americans, these individuals either separate those interests before taking positions of power or face scrutiny and regulation from the public before any real harm can occur. Unfortunately, a more realistic world will be one where both the people and the government have to question every move across a new presidential cabinet and whose interests are responsible for governmental decisions.