Future White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on Wednesday tried to calm worries that President-elect Trump’s recent appointments to his Cabinet are betraying his promise to work for everyday people.
Priebus said on MSNBC Wednesday that Trump’s appointments of Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, both billionaires who are enmeshed in Wall Street, to treasury secretary and commerce secretary respectively are not signs he’s turning is back on the working class already.
“All the people President-elect Trump is bringing in have his same mindset and his same goals, and that’s what we’re going to try and work together to do,” Priebus said.
“Steve is going to be in lock step with the vision of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, there’s just no question about it,” he added of Mnuchin. “They wouldn’t be offered a position if they didn’t follow through with the exact things Donald Trump wanted.”
Trump has been criticized for nominating Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs alumnus and hedge fund manager, as his treasury secretary after railing against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Ted Cruz for their Goldman connections during the campaign.
Priebus said Mnuchin, who is now heavily involved in financing blockbuster movies in Hollywood, is an example of the type of real, outsider presence Trump wants to bring to his Cabinet.
“People in America were just starving for something real and authentic and genuine,” Priebus said. “People were tired of the plasticized Washington, D.C. people and that’s why he swept the Midwest, because people are starving for real.”
