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 is 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.
Full spreadsheet with source links (last update: March 24, 2025)
| First Name | Last Name | Agency | Title | Prior Employment | Former Clients/Business Interests |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gary | Andres | Health and Human Services | Assistant Secretary for Legislation | Republican Staff Director for House Budget Committee, House Ways and Means Committee; Biotechnology Innovation Organization; Dutko Worldwide | Andres has worked for the trade group Biotechnology Innovation Organization and lobbying firm Dutko Worldwide |
| Nancy | Beck | EPA | Senior Advisor, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention | American Chemistry Council. Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, Office of Management and Budget, EPA, White House, | Longtime chemical industry lobbyist and former Trump administration official who worked to scale back chemical regulations. Beck’s nomination to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission failed under the first Trump administration amid bipartisan opposition |
| 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 Bessent's career, he worked as a securities analyst and options trader at the investment arm of a Saudi Arabian family. |
| Jay | Bhattacharya | NIH | director | Standford Medical School professor. Hoover Institution Senior Fellow. Research Associate at Sphere Institute / Acumen LLC. Previously the RAND Corporation. | Bhattacharya has worked for Acumen LLC since 2001. According to federal contract award data, Acumen has been awarded more than $1 billion in contracts since 2005, with almost half awarded in the last six years. Almost all funding awarded to Acumen was for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services contracts but a recent NIH funded (through the Department of Interior) contract awarded to Acumen was worth more than $30 million. |
| Todd | Blanche | Justice | Deputy Attorney General | DOJ, WilmerHale, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, Blanche Law | Blanche led Trump's legal defense in his federal criminal case and in the criminal "hush money" trial over charges of deceiving voters. He previously represented Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Rudy Giuliani associate Igor Fruman. |
| Pam | Bondi | Justice | Attorney General | Lobbyist, Ballard Partners (2019-2024); Florida Attorney General (2011-2019) | Lobbied for Carnival Cruise Lines; General Motors, Amazon, Uber, private prisons company GEO Group, 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; |
| Emil | Bove | Justice | Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General | DOJ, Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi, Blanche Law | Co-counsel for Trump's legal defense in federal criminal case and in the criminal "hush money" trial over charges of deceiving voters. According to Blanche Law bio, also "represents clients in white-collar criminal and regulatory defense matters." |
| Doug | Burgum | 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. |
| Gustav | Chiarello | Health and Human Services | Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources | Senior Special Counsel to the House Committee on the Judiciary, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan; Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, chaired by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, Worked as an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC); | Worked at law firms White & Case LLP and Whiteford Taylor & Preston |
| Patrick | Davis | Justice | Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs | American Petroleum Institute | Prior to his nomination, Davis was senior counsel for the American Petroleum Institute. |
| Lynn | Dekleva | EPA | Deputy Assistant Administrator | American Chemistry Council, EPA, DuPont | Spent three years at a chemical industry lobbying group, more than 20 years at DuPont |
| Don | Dempsey | OMB | Associate Director for Health | CVS | Dempsey mostly recently worked as the head of policy and research for Better Medicare Alliance, a lobbying group backed by health insurers such as UnitedHealth and Humana that advocates for Medicare Advantage. Dempsey also previously lobbied for CVS. |
| Kyle | Diamantas | FDA | Acting Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods | Jones Day | According to the New York Times, as a partner in Jones Day, defended Abbott Laboratories in a suit about risks from the company’s infant formula. Also according to NYT, at a different law firm, he defended a cannabis company called Hemp Bombs and Whole Foods Market in suits concerning CBD products. |
| William | Doffermyre | Interior | Solicitor | Energy Transfer, Senior Director - Alternative Energy Group & General Counsel - Lake Charles LNG; former general counsel, Overseas Private Investment Corp. | Energy Transfer has numerous pipeline and fossil fuel infrastructure projects around the country that require regulatory approvals, including the Lake Charles LNG project in Louisiana.. |
| Alex | Dominguez | EPA | Deputy Assistant Administrator for Mobile Sources | Jim Massie & Partners, American Petroleum Institute, EPA, Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) | Lobbied for corporations and trade groups including NRG Energy, ONEOK, JERA Co., Biotechnology Innovation Organization |
| Sean | Duffy | Transportation | Secretary | BGR Group | A former member of Congress from Wisconsin, Duffy has been a Fox Business host, a district attorney and a reality TV star on MTV's "Real World" and "Road Rules: All Stars." Duffy has been a lobbyist for Partnership for Open Skies (inc. America, Delta, United), Polaris Industries |
| John | Eisenberg | Justice | Assistant Attorney General for National Security | Kirkland & Ellis | At Kirkland & Ellis, Eisenberg focused on white-collar and internal-investigation matters, and data-security issues. Eisenberg was NSC counsel at the time of Trump’s 2019 call with Zelenskyy that led to his impeachment. |
| Robert | Foster | FDA | Chief Counsel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services | Legal officer at two biotech companies, HELP Committee counsel, advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at HHS. | Previously worked at MiNK Therapeutics, SaponiQx. Executive advisory board for Autonomous Therapeutics, Inc. |
| David | Fotouhi | EPA | Deputy Administrator | Gibson Dunn, EPA | Represented Alliance for Automotive Innovation in challenging EPA asbestos ban represented International Paper in “forever chemicals” litigation |
| Joe | Gebbia | DOGE | unclear | AirBnB founder/Musk friend | Billionaire co-founder of Airbnb and Elon Musk ally serving DOGE in an unclear formal capacity “improving the slow and paper-based retirement process.” Gebbia also co-founded Airbnb spinoff Samara and is a Tesla board member. |
| Dario | Gil | Energy | Undersecretary for Science and Innovation | IBM | Prior to his nomination, Gil was an IBM executive and research director focused on developing AI and emerging technologies. |
| Kyle | Haustveit | Energy | Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy | Devon Energy | Haustveit worked for oil and gas driller Devon Energy as a petroleum engineer. Devon partners with Delfin Midstream, a long-delayed LNG export project overseen by the Department of Energy that Sen. Ted Cruz has been pushing to approve. |
| Amaryllis | Kennedy | OMB | Associate Director for Intelligence and International Affairs | X (formerly Twitter) | The daughter-in-law of Kennedy is HHS Secretary RFK, she and worked for RFK’s presidential campaign. Her reportedly “above market” compensation for her campaign work is under investigation by the FEC. The former undercover CIA operative also worked at Twitter until 2015. |
| Robert | Kennedy Jr. | Health and Human Services | Secretary | JW Howard Attorneys - senior attorney Kennedy & Madonna (now Madonna & Madonna) - partnership Dragonfly Therapeutics - investor | According the STAT News, financial disclosures show Kennedy invested in the biotech company Dragonfly Therapeutics. Dragonfly-owned drugs fall under the purview of the FDA. |
| Michael | Kratsios | White House | Office of Science and Technology Policy Director | Most recently spent four years as managing director for Scale AI, a firm that employs low-wage workers abroad under conditions that have been criticized as psychologically damaging. Spent seven years at Thiel Capital earlier in his career. Previously served as Chief Technology Officer in the first Trump administration, as as Under Secretary of Defense. | Washington Post reported that "Scale AI has paid workers at extremely low rates, routinely delayed or withheld payments and provided few channels for workers to seek recourse, according to interviews with workers, internal company messages and payment records, and financial statements." |
| Sriram | Krishnan | White House | Senior White House AI Adviser | Became partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz in 2020, where he recently led early-stage crypto investments in Europe at the firm's London office. Previously worked at Microsoft, focused mostly on Azure cloud services. Subsequently served in senior roles at Snap, Facebook, Yahoo, and Twitter. Reportedly a "trusted confidant" of Elon Musk. | Co-hosts The Aarthi and Sriram Show podcast with wife, tech entrepreneur Aarthi Ramamurthy. Pro-immigration views sparked racist online MAGA backlash. Born in India, immigrated to US in 2007, became US citizen in 2016. |
| Scott | Kupor | White House | Office of Personel Management | Andreessen Horowitz (first employee). Former executive at Hewlett Packard and Opsware (which HP acquired). Worked in finance prior to tech at Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers. Member of numerous boards of directors of a16z portfolio companies. | Former chair of the National Venture Capital Association. Posted that he is looking forward to helping Musk, Ramaswamy, and "the entire DOGE team make efficiency a central tenet of the federal government." Author of a book on venture capital investing blurbed by former Google executive Eric Schmidt and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. |
| Stuart | Levenbach | OMB | Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy, Science, and Water | Baker Hughs | Levenbach recently was director for government affairs and public policy for the Americas at Baker Hughes, an industrial energy technology corporation. During Trump’s first Term, Levenbach served as NOAA’s chief of staff and attempted to interfere with the agency’s climate report. |
| Howard | Lutnick | 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. |
| 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. |
| Kate | McGreggor | Interior | Deputy Secretary (nominated) | Vice President, Environmental Services at NextEra Energy; Deputy Interior Secretary; Deputy Chief of Staff, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Land and Minerals Management U..S Senior staff member for the House Committee on Natural Resources, serving under Republican former Chairmen Rob Bishop (R-UT) and Doc Hastings (R-WA). | NextEra has bid on Interior Department solar development proposals; MacGregor was so known for solving industry problems during first Trump administration that “We’ll call Kate” became an an inside joke among industry officials. |
| Linda | McMahon | 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 | Founded World Wrestling Entertainment with husband Vince McMahon and served as CEO. 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." |
| Elon | Musk | DOGE | Co-Director | Billionaire entrepreneur (Tesla, X, SpaceX, Neuralink) | Musk's companies, including SpaceX and Starlink are major federal contractors. and Tesla received a $465 million government loan in 2010. |
| Janette | Nesheiwat | Health and Human Services | Surgeon General | Physician, Medical Director for CityMD urgent care provider in New York, Fox News medical contributor | Nesheiwat is the creator and proprietor of the supplement BC Boost. |
| Jim | O'Neill | Health and Human Services | Deputy Secretary | Worked at HHS under George W. Bush. Mithril Capital. ADvantage Therapeutics | Founded by Peter Thiel, Mithril Capital has many investements in the health care space, including companies developing diabetes treatments, AI technologies and antibody treatments. O'Neill also serves on the board of ADvantage Therapeutics and the Seasteading Institute. |
| Mehmet | Oz | Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services | Director (nominated) | 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. |
| Audrey | Robertson | Energy | Assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy | Co-Founder, Franklin Mountain Energy, acquired by Coterra Energy | Board member of Liberty Energy, former firm of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, private equity and investment banking executive with Copper Trail Partners, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors and Goldman Sachs. Vice chair of New Mexico Oil and Gas Association |
| David | Sacks | White House | AI & Crypto Czar | Currently co-founder and partner in venture capital firm Craft Ventures and co-founder of Glue, an AI-enhanced Slack competitor. Former Paypal executive, CEO and founder of Yammer (which Microsoft acquired for $1.2 billion), and founder of Geni, a genealogy website. Invested in and served as interim CEO of Zenefits, whose CEO resigned amid allegations of widespread violations of state insurance broker licensing laws. | Sacks has made "notable investments" in Addepar, Affirm, Airbnb, CloudKitchens, Eventbrite, Facebook, Getaround, Gusto, Houzz, Intercom, Lyft, Opendoor, Palantir, PlanGrid, Postmates, Quora, Reddit, Scribd, Slack, SpaceX, Twitter, Uber, Vanta, Wish, and Xoom. He also is a "board member or observer" for CloudTrucks, ClickUp, Knock, OpenPhone, Roboflow, Rumble, Scratchpad, SentiLink, Sourcegraph, and Vendr. Additional corporations Craft Ventures is invested in include: Meta and Elon Musk's Neuralink, The Boring Company, and xAI. On crypto, he reportedly holds significant amounts of Solana crypto (SOL) and is an investor in crypto investment firm Multicoin Capital. |
| John | Sauer | Justice | Solicitor General | Missouri Attorney General's office, Cooper & Kirk, James Otis Law Group (private firm) | Sauer represented Trump in a case before the US Supreme Court arguing the president should be immune from prosecution. He also led states filing amicus briefs supporting overturning the 2020 presidential election. Sauer is a Federalist Society member, and has litigated to restrict abortion rights, protect restrictions on transgender participation in school sports, and claim government pressure on social media corporations to reduce COVID misinformation violates the First Amendment. |
| Kathleen | Sgamma | Interior | Bureau of Land Management Director (nominated) | Western Energy Alliance | Represented numerous oil and gas companies leasing land from the federal government for oil and gas drilling |
| Gail | Slater | Justice | Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division | JD Vance's Senate office, Fox, Roku, Trump White House, Internet Association | Slater worked as general counsel for the Internet Association, Senior Vice President For Policy and Strategy at Fox Corporation, and as a Vice President for Roku, for which she lobbied Congress on antitrust legislation as recently as 2023. The Internet Association, which dissolved in 2021, was a lobbying group representing many of the largest tech corporations, including Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Paypal, Twitter, and Uber. . |
| Aaron | Szabo | EPA | Assistant EPA Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation | Faegre Drinker Consulting, CGCN Group, White House, Nuclear Regulatory Commission | Lobbyist for trade groups and companies including American Chemistry Council, American Petroleum Institute, Duke Energy, Exelon Corp., Hilcorp Energy, TC Energy |
| Michael | Waltz | White House | National Security Advisor | Member of Congress since 2019. Army veteran. Founded and sold the defense contractor Metis Solutions. | Helped found and then sold 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. |
| 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. |
| Thomas | Williams | OMB | Associate Director for Defense | military contractors | Williams is a former executive at Cape and Astra Space Operations |
| Chris | Wright | Energy | Secretary | Liberty Energy CEO | Wright was a board member of nuclear fission startup Oklo, His company, Liberty Energy, invested in Fervo Energy, a geothermal energy startup. |
| Lee | Zeldin | Environmental Protection Agency | Administrator | Member of Congress 2015-2023 and ran unsuccessfully for NY Governor in 2022. In 2023, Zeldin founded Zeldin Strategies, a corporate consulting firm helping clients with "strategy, public relations, acquisitions, crisis management, and much more." | Clients included Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Marwood Group, Softheon |
