Man of the (Very Rich) People

Wilbur Ross is the face of Donald Trump's experiment in government by-and possibly for-the plutocracy.

- Max Abelson

On the last day of November, President-elect Donald Trump chose Wilbur Ross as his nominee for secretary of Commerce. A few hours later, Ross, a 79-year-old Wall Street multibillionaire, stepped into Gramercy Tavern, a tasteful restaurant for the Manhattan elite, off Park Avenue. A wood beamed and chandeliered private dining room had been reserved for Navigator Holdings, a liquefied gas shipping company whose biggest investor is Ross’s private equity firm, WL Ross & Co. He and David Butters, Navigator’s chief executive officer, both arrived early. “Your interest is aligned to mine,” Butters recalls Ross saying. “The U.S. economy will grow, and Navigator will be a beneficiary.”

When the other guests arrived, they took turns congratulating Ross. As the executives enjoyed a menu that offers sherry-sauce sea bass and pear buckle, the mood was jovial, Butters says. One of their own could soon be running the cabinet department that is the conduit between government and corporate America. “It was like—we have a chance now,” Butters says. “We have a chance to make some differences.”

Although Trump ran as a populist, railing at the elite on behalf of blue-collar workers, he surrounded himself during his campaign with plutocrats. And now that he’s president, he’s elevating them to power. Trump’s proposed cabinet has a net worth of more than $6 billion. Ross is by far the richest, worth $2.9 billion, according to a Bloomberg estimate. And how he achieved his fortune—a well-known Wall Street tale of “vulture” investing at its shrewdest—takes on a different cast in light of his nomination.