President-elect Donald Trump has selected Vincent Viola to be the next secretary of the Army, choosing yet another billionaire to join his historically loaded team of top advisors and administrators.Trump appointed another billionaire who has benefited from public subsidies. The SunSentinel reported:
Viola is founder of Virtu Financial, an electronic trading firm. He also previously chaired the New York Mercantile Exchange and is a co-owner of the Florida Panthers National Hockey League team.
The Florida Panthers hockey team won one of the most important contests of its existence Tuesday, when the Broward County Commission agreed to give it $86 million in public funds.Billionaires benefiting from public money will be in charge of the federal government's multi-trillion dollar budget. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where this is going. We'll see how much trickles down to the economically disaffected voters who put Trump in office.
The agreement increases the public investment in the team to $342 million, county officials confirmed.
Update 2-4-17: Viola withdrew his nomination for Army Secretary citing "his inability to successfully navigate the confirmation process and Defense Department rules concerning family businesses."
