WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump plans to add another wealthy business person and elite donor to his Cabinet, saying he would nominate fast-food executive Andrew Puzder as labor secretary.
Puzder heads CKE Restaurants Holdings, the parent company of Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s and other chains. In 2010, he published a book called Job Creation: How it Really Works and Why Government Doesn’t Understand It.
“Andy will fight to make American workers safer and more prosperous by enforcing fair occupational safety standards and ensuring workers receive the benefits they deserve, and he will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages,” President-elect Trump said in a statement.
The president-elect spent a busy 48 hours as more of his Cabinet choices were revealed.
He officially picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier whose policies have helped fossil fuel companies, as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
He named the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, Linda McMahon, to head the Small Business Administration.
And he selected retired Marine Gen. John Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security, according to people close to the transition.
Trump’s selections for labor secretary and for EPA director have major implications for Ohio.
Ohio is among the top five states for dirty air and production of carbon dioxide and toxic substances. It also has several old urban areas, among them Akron, facing a high price tag for sewers that pollute rivers and lakes. Relaxation of clean air and water standards could bring immediate financial relief in exchange for health risks.
Moreover, polling by the Your Vote Ohio project showed Ohioans most concerned about jobs, wages and trade. The state workforce was devastated by plant modernization in the last 15 years.
Puzder’s opposition to overtime rules and higher minimum wages would keep wages low. He argues that higher wages and workpace safety rules lead to more automation and loss of jobs.
Puzder, in a statement, said he was honored “to help President-elect Trump restore America’s global economic leadership.”
The Californian was one of Trump’s earliest campaign financiers, serving as a co-chairman of his California finance team and organizing fundraisers well before most major donors got on board with the eventual Republican nominee.
Together with his wife, Puzder contributed $150,000 in late May to Trump’s campaign and Republican Party partners, fundraising records show.
As one of Trump’s most outspoken defenders, Puzder frequently appeared on cable news and Twitter to talk up the benefits of having a business leader in the White House.
A week after Trump’s election, Puzder said he agreed with Trump’s aim to ease business regulations.
“We’ve reached the point where overregulation is doing meaningful damage to our businesses,” he said last month at the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference in Las Vegas, citing high labor costs, increased health care costs and “political and social” policies as hindrances.
Union leaders decried Puzder as a secretary who would look out for millionaires — but not workers.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement that Puzder’s “business record is defined by fighting against working people.”
As Trump continued to select top aides, he may have breathed new life into the candidacy of a secretary of state contender.
Trump said he planned to name his choice for the key Cabinet post next week and insisted that former rival Mitt Romney still had a chance.
Trump, who has met twice with the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, denied he was stringing Romney along to make him pay for earlier remarks that Trump was unfit to be president.
Three sources close to the selection process said late Wednesday that Romney’s stock was on the rise again after a period in which the celebrity businessman had cooled on the candidacy of the former Massachusetts governor.
Trump has changed his mind repeatedly throughout the Cabinet selection process.