What did Donald Trump do today?

He appointed a billionaire to a major government post for the fourth consecutive day.

Trump reportedly offered Stephen Feinberg the number two position in the Defense Department today. Feinberg is a billionaire investor with no military experience, but he does have investments in companies that would stand to benefit from his influence over massive defense contracts.

This is at least the fourth consecutive day on which Trump has offered a major role in the government of the United States to one of its 800 wealthiest people. Since Feinberg is at least the ninth billionaire overall that Trump has chosen for this term so far, that means that more than 1% of all American billionaires are directly plugged into Trump's government. Taking the size of a typical presidential administration at about 400 people in major roles, the equivalent figure for non-billionaires would be something like 0.00015%.

Why does this matter?

• Putting government exclusively in the hands of the very rich is a bad idea.

• Government employees should not have billion-dollar conflicts of interest.