As Donald Trump is picking his staff one Truth Social post a day, a lot is going on behind the scenes with his transition team adopting a very different approach this time. Everything is taking place mostly out of the public view at Mar-a-Lago where Trump and his team huddle with a coterie of players. Elon Musk was there almost every day last week but Elon is not the only one — there are key players like Donald Trump Jr, RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek Ramaswamy, Charlie Kirk and then a random assortment of advisers.
Who are advising Trump on his selection of staff?
“There’s a lot of different factions. There’s a lot of people calling Trump. There’s a lot of people who thought one thing was set in stone and are finding out that’s not the case, and the chessboard is going to be shuffled a lot in the coming weeks,” said one person with knowledge of the transition.
According to Politico, Trump and his transition advisers are reviewing candidates from a room at Mar-a-Lago. The room has long tables and a few televisions where Trump is being shown media clips and bios of the candidates.
“Trump’s transition co-chairs are Lutnick and Linda McMahon, but there are Elon Musk, Vice President-elect JD Vance, Donald Trump Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Kennedy. There’s also a rotating cast of conservative influencers like Charlie Kirk and Vivek Ramaswamy, according to four people with knowledge of the meetings,” Politico reported.
Trump’s personal friend Steve Witkoff is there and then Trump is dialing up friend and allies seeking their opinions.
It was Trump Jr who shot down any discussion of Mike Pompeo or Nikki Haley for any official roles as he made it clear that his father would only take loyalists as his staff.
Why Charlie Kirk?
Kirk has long been friends with Trump Jr working with him during the 2016 campaign. “Trump called Kirk on Wednesday after his victory. And in the last week Kirk weighed in publicly in favor of two of Trump’s staffing picks before they were announced: Wiles for chief of staff and Stephen Miller for deputy chief of staff,” the Politico report said.
Appointments made so far
White House Chief of Staff: Susie Wiles
Deputy chief of staff for policy: Stephen Miller
Border Czar: Tom Homan
National security adviser: Mike Waltz
Homeland Security secretary pick: Kristi Noem
United National Ambassador: Elise Stefanik
Environmental Protection Agency director: Lee Zeldin
Secretary of State: Marco Rubio
Ambassador to Israel: Mike Huckabee.
