The wealth of the richest is swelling. Thanks to Trump, they became richer by nearly $700 billion.

The ten richest Americans enriched themselves by nearly $700 billion last year, UPI reported, citing a report published on Monday by the Oxfam confederation of non-governmental organizations.

Oxfam estimated that inequality in the United States has increased even further. Up to 1 percent The richest US residents own half of the stocks listed on US stock exchanges. Meanwhile, the poorer 50 percent society has only 1.1 percent.

“The data confirms what people across the country already instinctively see: a new American oligarchy has arrived,” said Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America.

“Billionaires and megacorporations are boomingwhile working families struggle for housing, health care and food,” she wrote in a commentary to the report.

According to Oxfam, the Trump administration, backed by the Republican-controlled Congress, is “acting with stunning speed and scale, … using power to enrich the rich and powerful.”

Maxman said the Trump administration and Republican members of Congress “risk deepening” social inequality. And while their actions are not new, what is different is “the amount of undemocratic power they have now amassed.”

Oxfam, founded in 1942 in the UK as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, fights against poverty, hunger, climate change and inequality. It cooperates with local partners and communities in over 90 countries. (PAP)

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