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After Criticism, Trump Adds Women To His Economic Advisory Team

From left: Anthony Scaramucci, Carla Sands, Betsy McCaughey
Slaven Vlasic; Charley Gallay; Darren McCollester
/
Getty Images
From left: Anthony Scaramucci, Carla Sands, Betsy McCaughey

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has released a second list of economic advisers in less than a week, and this time the names are almost all women.

The advisers include several longtime GOP fundraisers, including Diane Hendricks, co-founder and chairman of ABC Supply in Wisconsin, who was called "America's richest self-made woman" by Forbes magazine.

New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, who wrote several influential but highly controversial articles criticizing Hillary Clinton's health care proposals in the 1990s, is also on the list. More recently, she has written books taking on the Affordable Care Act.

"We are continuing to work every day to bring in the best and brightest minds to save our country's economy," Trump said in a statement. "These new members of our team are some of the best economic minds around right now, and they will continue to bring new ideas to our campaign that will strengthen and grow our economy. We can finally Make America Great Again and ensure all Americans have a chance to succeed at the American Dream."

The release of the names comes six days after the Trump campaign put out an earlier list of advisers that was criticized for consisting entirely of white men.

Like the initial list, this one contains few people who would be considered actual economists.

A lone exception is Judy Shelton, senior fellow and co-director of the Atlas Sound Money Project, which is partly funded by the Koch brothers.

Several have ties to right-wing organizations, including Brooke Rollins, president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank. Also affiliated with the foundation is Kathleen Hartnett White, a staunch critic of President Obama's efforts to address climate change.

Others come from the worlds of business and finance, including Carla Sands, chairman of Vintage Capital group, an investment firm she founded with her late husband.

Liz Uihlein is president of Uline, Inc., a shipping and packaging company. She and her husband, Richard, are known for giving heavily to very conservative political candidates.

The only man on the latest list is Anthony Scaramucci, co-managing partner and found of the investment firm SkyBridge Capital.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Jim Zarroli is an NPR correspondent based in New York. He covers economics and business news.