What did Donald Trump do today?

He said he "just doesn't want a poor person in his cabinet" because rich people have the kind of "thinking" he wants.

At another of his 2020 campaign rallies, Trump said, "I love all people -- rich or poor -- but in those particular positions, I just don't want a poor person." He added, "Somebody said, 'Why'd you appoint rich person to be in charge of the economy.' "I said, 'Because that's the kind of thinking we want.'" He was referring specifically to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, whose family fortune was made in diamonds over a century ago and who was groomed for a job with his father's firm, Goldman Sachs.

Trump is the heir to a real estate fortune and often claims to be a billionaire (which is indeed more likely to be true now that he is president) and his discomfort with people who aren't wealthy was known long before today. While there's no accurate way of assessing the wealth of his cabinet (or of Trump himself) based on information that Trump has been willing to release to the public, the minimum net worth disclosed suggests that at least seven are or are nearly billionaires. Trump also takes advice from billionaires like Carl Icahn (worth about $17B), which appears to be an excellent way for Icahn to make sure that he stays wealthy.

Because he calls himself a "populist," Trump is often thought of as having his base of support among the working poor. In fact, Hillary Clinton won a clear majority of votes below the US median income of $56,000, and Trump won the votes of wealthier Americans.

Why is this a bad thing?

• A president who thinks that inheriting wealth gives someone the right "thinking" insults the vast majority of Americans born poorer than Steven Mnuchin.

• Mainstream Christians who voted for Trump may be surprised to learn that he believes in the Gospel of Prosperity.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He saw yet another of his nominees caught lying about their credentials.

Trump nominated Joseph Otting this past Tuesday to the post of Comptroller of the Currency, one of the federal government's most important bank regulators.  Otting is a friend of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and--like Trump's failed Labor Secretary nominee--has had more professional experience defending himself for regulatory violations in his industry than enforcing them. 

Otting claims to have graduated from the School of Credit and Financial Management at Dartmouth College. Today, a spokesman for Dartmouth pointed out that not only is Otting not a graduate, but that Dartmouth has no such school.

The White House gave no indication that Otting's nomination would be withdrawn. Otting now joins a long list of Trump appointees who have lied about or fraudulently obtained credentials, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (who plagiarized some of the answers she provided during the Senate confirmation process), failed National Security Council nominee Monica Crowley (who plagiarized large portions of her doctoral dissertation), national security analyst Sebastian Gorka (whose doctoral degree itself is bogus). There is also the interesting case of Trump supporter David Clarke, who is under investigation by the Naval Postgraduate School for plagiarism of his 2013 master's thesis--and who may even be lying about having been offered a job in the first place, although the White House has been oddly noncommittal on the subject.

Why is this bad?

• It matters whether nominees to be powerful regulators of the financial system are caught lying about their qualifications.

• Presidents who appoint cronies to these positions without doing basic vetting of their resumes are essentially saying the jobs don't matter.

What did Donald Trump do today?

He refused to guarantee that his tax plan--hyped for years now as lowering taxes on the middle class--would lower taxes on the middle class.

Pressed for details today on whether Trump's sketch of a tax plan would mean middle-income families would see lower taxes, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would only say that "The details of taxes are very complicated." Given a specific scenario--a family of four earning $60,000--Mnuchin refused even to promise that their taxes would not go up.

For the wealthiest Americans, however, the picture is much clearer. The one-page document outlining Trump's agenda has few specifics, but there is no doubt whatsoever that it will massively reduce taxes for corporations and very wealthy individuals--in particular businesses structured the way the Trump Organization is. Assuming he pays any taxes at all at the moment, Donald Trump's personal taxes would absolutely go down under the Trump tax plan.

Trump promised during the campaign that he wanted his own taxes to go up and that he would "massively cut taxes for the middle class, the forgotten people."

So what?

• Some middle-class voters may have believed Trump when he said he wanted to lower their taxes and raise his own, rather than the opposite.

• It's bad to break campaign promises.

• Major policy documents produced in haste are usually not very coherent.

What did Donald Trump do today?

In the very first official act of his presidency, he signed an executive order that raised the cost of mortgage insurance by about $500 per household per year.

The Federal Housing Administration guarantees loans for millions of low- and middle-income American households, allowing home ownership by those with low credit scores or who cannot afford a 20% down payment. Mortgage insurance is required for all FHA loans, at rates set by the government. The Obama administration had recently taken steps to lower that rate, which in turn would have saved homeowners money.

In his inaugural address today, about an hour before signing the order, Trump said that for too long, "Washington flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth." The FHA is a government entity and will retain the surplus funds generated by the restoration of the rate increase.

Since the rate increase will make FHA loans more expensive, it is expected to decrease demand for them. Treasury Secretary-designate and former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin (along with other Goldman Sachs alums in Trump's administration) have forcefully advocated for eliminating government support of home ownership in favor of private lending.

Why is this a bad thing?

• If a president wants to be seen as an economic populist, it's probably a bad idea to raise government fees on low-income households at the behest of the banking industry.