Mic • James Dennin
Though reports differ on exactly how much Puzder is worth, they suggest he is at least a millionaire, so his appointment would further balloon the collective net worth of Trump’s Cabinet, which is already the richest in modern history.
Back in 2010, Puzder helped take once-public CKE Restaurants private by selling the company to Apollo Equities, a private equity fund that specializes in helping to turn around troubled businesses.
That has helped shield a lot of the details about Puzder’s compensation from the public eye. In fact, Puzder told the St. Louis Business Journal that the “most positive” aspect of the sale for him was that “we no longer have all the regulatory requirements that come with being a public company.”
Corporate profile pages on Bloomberg and Equilar don’t list any compensation information for Puzder. In 2014, the Huffington Post and Mother Jones reported a 2012 salary figure for Puzder of more than $4 million — via Forbes — but Puzder’s corporate profile on Forbes appears to have since been deleted.
Based on other evidence, outlined below, it seems likely Puzder is at least a millionaire — although possibly not quite as wealthy as some of the other heavy-hitters among Trump’s chosen Cabinet. Education secretary pick Betsy DeVos, for example, has an estimated net worth of more than $5 billion, and commerce secretary pick Wilbur Ross’ net worth is close to $3 billion.