WASHINGTON – Donald Trump spent much of his first term feeling stung and betrayed by those he’d placed in power. This time, he’s not taking chances.
As he works to fill his administration a second time, Trump has turned to a head-spinning mix of candidates. Many of those he’s chosen are personal friends. Others are familiar faces on Fox News Channel or other conservative outlets. Some have extensive experience in the areas they’ve been chosen to lead, while others have seemingly none. Some seem chosen to shock and awe, some to reassure, others to unleash chaos.
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Recent converts to his cause are lined up shoulder to shoulder with longtime allies. China hawks could serve in positions of power alongside a peace activist. But whatever the differences in ideology or strength of resume, above all, they will be there to carry out Trump’s will.
In his first term, Trump grated at efforts by aides and advisers to “manage” the newcomer to Washington and grew frustrated by the leaks that emanated from rival factions engaged in ideological warfare and competing for his ear.
Now, aides and allies said, he’s putting loyalty above all else, aiming to cut down on the infighting and maximize his ability to reshape Washington during his second tour in the Oval Office.
“When he was elected the first time,” Trump “didn’t have that kind of wealth of experience in D.C. or the relationships with people in Washington,” said Marc Lotter, a former aide who now works at America First Policy Institute, which is closely tied to his transition. “So many people he turned to were trying to take advantage of that to get him to their view, rather than fulfilling what was his view and what he was elected to do.”
Now, Lotter said of Trump, “if he makes a decision, he wants them to execute on it.”
Presidents always install trusted aides and those likely to support their agendas. But critics fear Trump is building an administration designed to root out any significant internal pushback to his policies and impulses.
Bearing grievance, an appetite for retribution and a list of those he wants to target, Trump will enter office with far fewer guardrails and checks on his power than last time. He will return to Washington with a Republican-controlled Congress and a conservative Supreme Court, containing three justices he appointed, that ruled he is largely immune from prosecution.
Trump has long said the biggest mistake of his first term was choosing the wrong people. He had arrived in Washington as an outsider who had never served in government and says he relied on others for personnel recommendations.
“We did such a good job. But we’ll do a much better job now because I know the people now. I know the good ones, the bad ones. I know the weak ones, the strong ones. I know the stupid ones. I know the smart ones. I know them all,” he said at a rally in North Carolina during the race’s final stretch.
He has blamed aides for stymying his first-term efforts, lashing out at them as “dumb” and weak. The degree to which Trump faced pushback from his own appointees was often a reflection of the extraordinary nature of his orders.
His first term was filled with examples of aides who tried to outmaneuver Trump by slow-walking or ignoring directives they saw as ill-advised. Sometimes, they tried to mount 11th-hour campaigns to reverse them. Other times, they dragged their feet, hoping Trump would forget what he'd ordered and move on to something else.
One major example came just weeks before leaving office: Trump signed informal paperwork drafted by some of his political aides ordering all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan immediately, only to face intense pushback from his national security team. He ended up reversing course.
When he pushed to send active-duty U.S. troops to contain mass protests in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by Minneapolis police, aides resisted, concerned over illegal use of the military against the country's own citizens.
In 2016, Trump filled much of his team with high-powered business leaders, many of whom had worked in the industries they were tasked with regulating. They included names like Rex Tillerson, who had led energy giant ExxonMobil before becoming secretary of state.
Trump also tried to surround himself with a cadre of military brass he liked to refer to as “my generals." This time, Trump has gone in a very different direction.
In many cases that means expertise is not required. Lee Zeldin, nominated as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has little history with climate or regulatory issues. Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman nominated to lead the nation's intelligence community, has been embraced by Kremlin allies for her dovish views on the war in Ukraine. And Pete Hegseth, a Fox News weekend co-host tapped to serve as secretary of defense, has no Pentagon experience.
Aides say Trump is choosing people he believes are committed to his America First agenda and those he thinks can best execute on it, and he delights that even his controversial picks are already shaking up Washington.
“The American people reelected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail — and his Cabinet picks reflect his priority to put America First," said Trump-Vance Transition Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
Some of his earliest announcements had suggested a fairly conventional approach, including his choice of U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, as his national security adviser.
But some of Trump's latest selections have landed like lead balloons.
His decision to nominate Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general drew open shock and alarm from Democrats who worry he will unleash retribution on Trump's opponents and protect his allies from prosecution. Even Gaetz’s fellow Republican House members, who were meeting in the Capitol when the announcement landed, initially thought the news was a joke.
Another pick that has raised eyebrows was his choice to lead the Defense Department. Hegseth is a veteran who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and received two bronze stars. He served as executive director of Concerned Veterans for America and has written several books on the topic. But he has no experience at the Pentagon or in running an organization that comes close to the size and complexity of the Defense Department.
Running the Pentagon is a monumental task and Hegseth seems “totally unqualified,” said Matthew Waxman, a Republican former senior official at the departments of state and defense and the National Security Council who chairs Columbia Law School’s National Security Law Program.
“I respect anyone who served in uniform. But Hegseth is not a serious person to run the Pentagon," Waxman said. "I look at Hegseth and I say: He’s going to be 100 times better at waging culture wars than real wars if, unfortunately, we have to fight one.”
Overall, Waxman said of Trump's personnel picks so far: “I think he’s placing a premium on loyalty over governance. And that’s dangerous for the country. That’s dangerous for American leadership in the world.”
Trump’s choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic who has pledged to gut federal health research and oversight, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services was the latest example of Trump prioritizing fealty over expertise.
Kennedy was a staunch opponent of the very COVID-19 vaccines whose production Trump jumpstarted in 2020. But he delivered a key endorsement for Trump and helped the Republican broaden his electoral appeal. While even Trump aides had dismissed Kennedy’s chances for getting a Cabinet post given some of his extreme policy views, the president-elect pushed it through anyway, showing he would not submit to voices of caution. ___ Colvin reported from New York.