Story highlights President Trump touted wealth of two Cabinet members as part of their qualifications. He said: "In those particular positions, I just don't want a poor person."

Paul Waldman: GOP thinking that wealth equates with virtue is not new; Trump just willing to say it. And it benefits rich in domestic policies.

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect, a left-leaning magazine, and a blogger for The Washington Post. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) When he ran for president, one of the many things that made Donald Trump stand apart from other politicians was the way he turned the implied into the literal.

Paul Waldman

Other candidates would try to impress you with their insights. Trump just says , "I'm, like, a smart person." Others portray themselves as resolute and strong. Trump says "I'm the most militaristic person" and tells a debate audience that he has a big penis. Others make detailed pledges to convince you that things will be great if they get elected. Trump says , "I will give you everything."

You can look at this as an admirable forthrightness -- the difference between him and the rest of his party isn't in what they believe, just in how willing he is to speak it out loud. Trump may tell more lies than any other politician any of us has ever seen, but there's never any mystery about what he wants his audience to think. He lacks the subtlety to conceal his feelings behind clever formulations and eloquent words.

That's never more true than when he's riffing in front of crowd of supporters, feeding off their energy and letting it all hang out. So it was that on Wednesday, at yet another campaign-style rally in Iowa, Trump lauded his top economic advisers -- billionaire Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs president -- for their business success. Then he said this:

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"This is the president of Goldman Sachs. Smart. Having him represent us, he went from massive paydays to peanuts ... these are people that are great, brilliant business minds and that's what we need, that's what we need to have so the world doesn't take advantage of us anymore."

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