--- title: Donald Trump Says He Doesn't Want A Poor Person in Cabinet description: At a campaign-style rally in Iowa Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump said he would not want a "poor person" to run the economy canonical: https://time.com/4828157/donald-trump-cabinet-iowa-rally-poor-person/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-22T12:02:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:16:15.738Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Says He Doesn't Want a 'Poor Person' in Cabinet Roles og:description: Trump chose a number of Wall Street executives for top positions in his administration og:url: https://time.com/4828157/donald-trump-cabinet-iowa-rally-poor-person/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51e4f60b4acde5c9/6988d2cdfb4eac9dbd89292d/trump-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: President Trump Holds 'Make America Great Again' Rally In Iowa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Says He Doesn't Want a 'Poor Person' in Cabinet Roles twitter:description: Trump chose a number of Wall Street executives for top positions in his administration twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51e4f60b4acde5c9/6988d2cdfb4eac9dbd89292d/trump-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says He Doesn't Want a 'Poor Person' in Cabinet Role > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 22, 2017 12:02 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S., on Wednesday, June 21, 2017. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S., on Wednesday, June 21, 2017. Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 22, 2017 12:02 PM UTC Contradicting rhetoric from his presidential campaign, [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4827871/donald-trump-iowa-rally-democrats/) explained why he chose Wall Street billionaires for several of his Cabinet roles during [a campaign-style rally](http://time.com/4826390/donald-trump-rally-cedar-rapids-iowa/) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wednesday evening. “So somebody said, ‘Why did you appoint a rich person to be in charge of the economy?’ I said, ‘Because that’s the kind of thinking we want … because they’re representing the country. They don’t want the money. And they had to give up a lot to take these jobs.” “We can’t have the world taking advantage of us anymore,” Trump added. “And I love all people, rich or poor, but in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person,” Trump added. “Does that make sense? If you insist, I’ll do it — but I like it better this way, right?” Trump appointed a number of Wall Street executives to his Cabinet, including Commerce Secretary [Wilbur Ross](http://time.com/4585879/donald-trump-steven-mnuchin-wilbur-ross-treasury-commerce/) of WL Ross & Co., and Treasury Secretary [Steven Mnuchin](http://time.com/4714754/steve-mnuchin-ethics-lego-batman-wyden/) of Goldman Sachs. Gary Cohn, the former president and COO of Goldman Sachs, is now Trump’s chief economic adviser and director of the National Economic Council. “He went from massive pay days to peanuts,” Trump said of Cohn at the rally. During his campaign in 2016, Trump railed against his opponents for their ties to Wall Street. He frequently criticized Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for accepting money from Goldman Sachs to deliver speeches. And, while Trump painted Wall Street executives as champions of the economy in his speech on Wednesday, he strongly criticized them in Jan. 2016 at a rally in Iowa. “I know Wall Street,” Trump said, [according to the Wall Street _Journal_](http://graphics.wsj.com/elections/2016/where-trump-stands-on-wall-street/). “I know the people on Wall Street … I’m not going to let Wall Street get away with murder. Wall Street has caused tremendous problems for us.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4828157/donald-trump-cabinet-iowa-rally-poor-person/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4828157/donald-trump-cabinet-iowa-rally-poor-person/"},"headline":"President Trump Says He Doesn't Want a 'Poor Person' in Cabinet Role","datePublished":"2017-06-22T12:02:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:16:15.738Z","description":"Trump chose a number of Wall Street executives for top positions in his administration","url":"https://time.com/4828157/donald-trump-cabinet-iowa-rally-poor-person/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51e4f60b4acde5c9/6988d2cdfb4eac9dbd89292d/trump-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51e4f60b4acde5c9/6988d2cdfb4eac9dbd89292d/trump-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Holds 'Make America Great Again' Rally In Iowa","caption":"President Trump Holds 'Make America Great Again' Rally In Iowa","creditText":"Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4828157/donald-trump-cabinet-iowa-rally-poor-person/","name":"President Trump Says He Doesn't Want a 'Poor Person' in Cabinet Role"}}]}] ```