The White House’s 2025 salary disclosure reveals a payroll that catapults select advisers to the legal pay ceiling while eight headline names—including Secretary of State Marco Rubio—draw no West Wing salary at all.
At a Glance
- Senior adviser Jacalynne Klopp leads the list at $225,700.
- Thirty-three high-ranking aides, among them Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, earn $195,200.
- Eight officials are listed at $0 compensation for their White House roles.
- 108 staffers make between $59,070 and $80,000.
- Congress has required this annual pay report since 1995.
Big Earners and the Zero-Dollar Club
According to the newly filed report, Klopp is the sole staffer at the Executive Schedule Level II cap of $225,700, a figure pegged to the federal pay tables maintained by the Office of Personnel Management. Just below her sits a cohort of 33 aides—ranging from border czar Tom Homan to chief of staff Susie Wiles—each collecting $195,200, the maximum allowed for Level IV officials, as first tallied by Fox News.
In stark contrast, the payroll lists eight marquee names at $0, including Rubio (serving concurrently as national security adviser) and cryptocurrency policy czar David Sacks. An independent tally by Axios notes that unpaid advisers now occupy posts “once reserved for salaried gatekeepers,” raising conflict-of-interest alarms among watchdogs.
Watch a report: Inside Trump’s White House Salaries — Who Earns What in 2025
Stratified Pay Bands
Beneath the headline figures, the report shows a steep internal ladder. Speechwriters earn from $92,500 to $121,500, while entry-level correspondence aides cluster at the $59,070 floor. Overall, 108 employees fall below $80,000, giving the Executive Office a pay spread of nearly four-to-one from lowest to highest. Axios calculates that roughly one in ten West Wing staffers now earn the legal maximum, up from six percent under President Biden.
Federal pay specialists point out that Klopp’s rate outstrips the $221,900 ceiling applied to career Senior-Level (SL) civil servants, reviving debate over parity between political and career employees. The gender split is also notable: preliminary counts show men holding about two-thirds of top-tier slots, repeating gaps flagged in earlier White House pay audits.
Optics, Policy, and Public Backlash
Conservatives hail the unpaid cohort as evidence that seasoned private-sector figures will “serve for love of country,” yet ethics groups counter that outside income streams muddy accountability. Democrats, already hammering Trump over proposed agency layoffs, argue that six-figure salaries for insiders clash with the president’s calls for budget restraint.
With the federal deficit still hovering above $1 trillion, lavish West Wing paychecks—and volunteer power brokers whose finances lie elsewhere—risk fueling a narrative of a two-tier government. Whether the administration can reconcile its fiscal messaging with a payroll studded by maximum earners and zero-salary influencers may shape the next round of hearings on executive-branch ethics and spending.
For now, the 2025 disclosure offers a rare, dollar-by-dollar snapshot of who commands the most influence inside Trump’s West Wing—and who can afford to wield it for free.
