Trump's billionaire brigade poised to upend Washington: ‘We are in a post-conflicts-of-interest world’

With a combined net worth of over $450 billion, the tech titans who have arrived in President Donald Trump’s inner circle — including venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, investor David Sacks and Elon Musk — are poised to disrupt Washington with their focus on innovation and deregulation.

They have their sights set on everything from defense contracts for new drones and lasers to venture-backed medical innovation.

We brought together POLITICO’s emerging tech reporter Derek Robertson with Business Insider reporters Madeline Berg and Peter Kafka to dissect what this means for Washington.

Our reporters tell us that Trump’s billionaire allies are interested in moving federal policy at the faster pace they’re accustomed to in Silicon Valley — and in a direction that could help their businesses.

“I think we are in a post-conflicts-of-interest world,” Kafka says, noting that Trump could feel more empowered and unrestrained during his second term in office.

Robertson echoed the sentiment, saying these billionaires could be “essentially setting policy for fields that they stand to massively profit from.”

But they also could be in for a rude awakening, in which their interests might clash with the prerogatives of Congress to set spending priorities.

The next four years will test how much leverage the world’s richest men really have in the White House. As they exercise it, particularly in an age of unprecedented income inequality, it could force a big political question: How will this newfound influence among the billionaire class land with the country’s working class?

Kafka sums it up simply: “Do people feel richer or poorer?”

To see the full conversation, which is a collaboration with Business Insider, watch the video.