From the left: Jason Miller, Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, Boris Esphteyn, Natalie Harp and Dan Scavino arrive with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Nov. 13.Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The complexion of Donald Trump’s new administration came into focus Wednesday with perhaps the most unconventional presidential cabinet picks in decades.
That’s after Mr. Trump chose Florida Representative Matt Gaetz as attorney-general and former Democratic representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii as director of national intelligence. Mr. Gaetz is a firebrand who has been the subject of several House ethics investigations, as well as a criminal sex-trafficking probe that ended without charges, and Ms. Gabbard sought the Democratic presidential nomination four years ago and has since switched parties.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio once described Mr. Trump as “a con artist” who should never be allowed “to get access to the nuclear codes of the United States of America.” He likely will be secretary of state. Former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas believes Israel should annex the West Bank. He is set to be American ambassador to Israel. Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth wants to fire the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is Mr. Trump’s nominee to be defence secretary.
Pledging a comprehensive overhaul of the American government and its policies was not one of Mr. Trump’s campaign falsehoods.
Less than two weeks after winning a second presidential term, he is undertaking an unusually swift transition, setting out a flurry of selections for top cabinet and White House positions that foreshadow sweeping changes throughout Washington.
“They’ve had a government-in-waiting prepared for this moment,” Martha Joynt Kumar, a retired Towson University political scientist regarded as the leading expert on presidential transitions, said in an interview shortly after leaving a briefing at the White House, where transfer-of-power consultations were under way Wednesday between Mr. Trump and President Joe Biden. “They had already gathered a large amount of information on policy and personnel.”
Trump’s appointees have criticized Trudeau, warned of border issues with Canada
The incoming administration, however, has not signed the paperwork required by the Presidential Transition Act that would allow it to receive vital information on agency operations and budgets. “They need that,” she said, “because a transition is like hopping on a moving train.”
With a combination of MAGA natives and Trump converts in high positions, the capital will look substantially different only hours after the new president takes the oath of office in fewer than 70 days. And if Mr. Trump gets his way with the new leadership in the Senate, many of his new appointments won’t have to undergo the kind of bruising confirmation hearings that have characterized the early days of some presidencies and have forced previous administrations, including his first one eight years ago, to have halting starts.
That way, his nominees can quickly take the reins. The others announced so far include GOP Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota – whose revelation that she shot the family dog in a gravel pit may have doomed her hopes of being Mr. Trump’s running mate – as secretary of homeland security.
The new national security adviser, Representative Michael Waltz of Florida – who has supported Pierre Poilievre and said the Conservative Leader would “send [Justin] Trudeau packing in 2025 (finally) and start digging Canada out of the progressive mess it’s in” – does not require Senate confirmation.
Transitions, perhaps even more than campaign promises, can be indicators of the intent and prospects for success of an incoming administration.
“The appointments so far show that he is committed to an extreme agenda,” Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California said in an interview. “You have people who would gut clean air and water, for example. And instead of involving business and technology leaders to build America the way FDR did, Trump is choosing people who are working on dismantling the agencies rather than mobilizing investment, technology and business leaders to build the new economy.”
Perhaps the most unusual element of the Trump transition is an appointment outside the formal walls of the government: The charge given to entrepreneurs Elon Musk, who was a prominent part of the Trump campaign, and Vivek Ramaswamy, who as a candidate for the GOP nomination was careful not to criticize or irritate Mr. Trump, to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. It would have the remit of streamlining the government and, presumably, attacking the pinions of what Mr. Trump and his allies call the “deep state.”
Donald Trump and Joe Biden pledge orderly transition of power in January
Dwight Eisenhower’s first cabinet was described as “nine millionaires and a plumber,” the latter being a reference to Martin Durkin, a one-time steamfitter’s apprentice who became president of the plumbers‘ and pipe fitters‘ union before being named secretary of labour. Mr. Trump’s inner circle is shaping up to be two billionaires, a few lawmakers and a television host.
“Right now, we can’t tell whether the Trump people have a strategy or whether they aren’t doing much vetting,” said Philip Klinkner, a political scientist at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. “Whether they thought carefully about these appointments or whether it is Trump impulse at work will tell us a lot about how effective this administration will be.”
The announcements so far suggest the outlines of the policies Mr. Trump plans to implement. Ms. Noem’s South Dakota power base may be closer to Canada (880 kilometres from Winnipeg) than to Mexico (1,580 kilometres from Tijuana) but she will have a major role in stopping immigration and deporting those in the United States illegally.
Both Mr. Rubio and Mr. Waltz were early supporters of American aid to Ukraine, but both opposed the most recent Ukraine aid bill on Capitol Hill. While the ambassadors to Israel in the Obama, first Trump, and Biden administrations were Jewish, Mr. Huckabee is a one-time Southern Baptist pastor. He is also a favourite of evangelical Christians, a group that, according to a Pew Research Center survey, is twice as likely as American Jews to say that Israel was given to the Jewish people by God.
Still to be determined is the role of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent opponent of vaccines who has said that fluoride should be removed from public water. The president-elect has said he would permit the one-time independent candidate for president to “go wild on health.”