Trump 47 Staff
Personnel are Policy. Watching mediocrity being rewarded for loyalty was a hallmark of the Trump Administration. Quaint concepts like "confirmation" went out with the demise of the Second Republic. Now with the new Third Republic, POTUS simply names people for recess appointments, no longer 1500, but with Schedule F, upwards of 20,000 politically reliable folks, if they can be found.
As the authoritative American political scientist Stephen Walt commented on X, Trump’s picks in the crucial domain of national security look as if he is not merely assembling the loyal, but is “going for people who lack the standing, authority, backbone, or wisdom to stand up to him, no matter what he decides to do,” producing, according to Walt, a “team of lackeys.” That, in turn, makes Trump’s personal policy ideas and preferences, whether vague or concrete, all the more important.
As early as December 2023, Trump vowed to give himself the power to gut the federal workforce if he were elected to the White House. Trump pledged to reintroduce an executive order known as Schedule F. That would give him the power to strip employment protections from tens of thousands of government civil servants, potentially fire them and bring in loyalists willing to implement far-right policies and his self-described "retribution" agenda against those he feels have wronged him. Schedule F would give Trump the power to fire up to 50,000 of the the career civil service and replace them with like-minded conservatives. Normally, presidents get to choose several thousand of their own political appointees to Schedule C in the federal bureaucracy. Trump promised at campaign rallies to "obliterate the deep state," the network of non-elected people in government who are said to be working clandestinely to bypass elected officials to advance their own agenda. Trump pledged to pass reforms to "make every executive branch employee fireable by the president of the United States."
During the campaign, Trump vowed to purge the military of so-called "woke" generals. Trump has suggested that his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, could be executed for treason. The current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, , who is Black, issued a video message about discrimination in the ranks in the days after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, and has been a voice in favor of diversity in the U.S. military.
Trump on 11 November 2024 picked Republican Representative Mike Waltz to be his National Security Advisor. The national security adviser is a powerful role. Waltz will be responsible for briefing Trump on key national security issues and coordinating with different agencies. Slamming Biden admin for disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Waltz publicly praised Trump's foreign policy views. Mike Waltz, a Trump loyalist has also served in the National Guard as a colonel previously. He was a defense policy director for defense secretaries Donald Rumsfeld & Robert Gates and was elected to Congress in 2018. He is the chairman of House Armed Services subcommittee overseeing military logistics and also on select committee on intelligence. Waltz is also on Republican's China Task Force & has argued US military is not as prepared as it needs to be if there’s conflict in Indo-Pacific region. Mike has criticized Chinese activity in Asia-Pacific & has voiced need for the US to be ready for potential conflict in region. Waltz is especially critical of the Biden administration’s handling of the Ukraine war, which he says lacks an endgame.
Waltz said it was time for Russia and Ukraine to negotiate a settlement to the war, telling NewsNation: “[T]he point is, uh, get them both to the table. And we have to ask ourselves — this is the other thing that Biden couldn't or wouldn't define — is it in America's critical national interest for no matter how long it takes, how much it costs, or how many people die, to have every Russian off of every inch of Ukraine, including Crimea?"
Trump picked Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, the president-elect said in a statement carried by several US media. He described her as “an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter”. Stefanik is known as a very strong opponent of the United Nations. Sefanik, who represents a New York district in the US Congress, confirmed her acceptance of the role in a statement to the New York Post, saying she was “truly honored” and ready to advance Trump’s “peace through strength leadership”. Stefanik is a staunch supporter of Israel who gained national attention during congressional hearings earlier this year about the handling of alleged instances of anti-Semitism at elite US universities.
Trump picked Florida Senator Marco Rubio as his secretary of state. Rubio, who serves on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Foreign Relations and is known for his hawkish approach to US foreign policy. It marked a remarkable turnaround from the Republican Party presidential primaries in 2016 when the two men infamously traded churlish nicknames. Since the public spat, Rubio adapted his views over the years on issues such as the war in Ukraine and immigration policies to fall in line with Trump’s stance. Rubio was more of a traditional interventionist who advocates for a muscular approach to foreign conflicts while Trump’s foreign policy has focused on avoiding military interventions abroad. In recent interviews, Rubio has suggested Ukraine needs to seek “a negotiated settlement” with Russia, and he was one of 15 Republican senators to vote against a military aid package for Ukraine that passed in April.
Kristi L. Noem was named by Trump as Secretary of Homeland Security. Noem would oversee a sprawling federal bureaucracy with a $60 billion budget and more than 230,000 employees. This role is key to Trump’s domestic policy agenda. Noem has served as the governor of South Dakota since 2019 and was an active supporter of Trump on the 2024 campaign trail. Noem, once a strong contender to be named running mate to Donald Trump, admitted killing a dog of her own. “Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,” the South Dakota governor writes in a new book, adding that the dog, a female, had an “aggressive personality” and needed to be trained to be used for hunting pheasant. Cricket ruined the hunt, going “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life”. Noem got her gun, then led Cricket to a gravel pit. “It was not a pleasant job,” she writes, “but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done.” Her family, she writes, also owned a male goat that was “nasty and mean”, because it had not been castrated. Furthermore, the goat smelled “disgusting, musky, rancid” and “loved to chase” Noem’s children, knocking them down and ruining their clothes. Noem decided to kill the unnamed goat the same way she had just killed Cricket the dog.
The secretary of Defense under Trump will need to spend time defending his mostly isolationist worldview against the national security establishment. Politico's Great Mentioner suggested Mike Pompeo, who had already been nixed for any job, as well as Mike Waltz, who got the National Security Advisor post. Politico's list ended with Tom Cotton. The Arkansas senator was under consideration to be Trump’s first Defense secretary before Mattis was ultimately picked. A former Army infantry officer and veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, Cotton was an early Trump supporter and advised him during his first presidency. He recently stated "In the end, you win wars by killing the other side’s soldiers or destroying their stuff". He's a polarizing figure in politics, and it's common for political figures to evoke diverse reactions from people based on their positions, statements, or actions.
The Great Mentioner suggested to the Washington Post that candidates for SECDEF might include Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a defense hawk. He is not seen to be as close to Trump as some of his other nominations. He has touted a need to spend more on defense to counter China and touted U.S. assistance for Ukraine [contrary to Trump]. The Great Mentioner also suggested Joni Ernst, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. She has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine [not helpful to her candidacy.]
Surprisingly Trump selected Fox & Friends Weekend host Pete Hegseth to be his secretary of defense. Hegseth is a combat veteran with 20+ years of service. He did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, receiving two bronze stars. Hegseth has a BA from Princeton and a master's degree from Harvard. Pete is author of "Battle for the American Mind" (June 2022), and the New York Times best-selling author of "American Crusade," "Modern Warriors" and "In the Arena."
In a widely publicized email his mother described him as an abuser of women who belittles lies cheats sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego, urging him to take an honest look at himself. Hegseth allegedly fostered a toxic workplace, dividing women into “party girls” and “not party girls.” Claims of sexism and misconduct raise serious concerns. During his tenure at Concerned Veterans for America a whistleblower reported details of rampant alcohol fueled behavior, including an infamous incident at a Louisiana strip club. Witnesses alleged that Hegseth was intoxicated to the point of being physically restrained when he tried to climb on stage with the dancers. Pete Hegseth said: "I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles." Hegseth complained on Fox that veterans who use the benefits they've earned are dependent on the government and lack "personal integrity". Hegseth was hyping up Trump’s infamous rally the morning of January 6, 2021. In 2019, Hegseth said that he never washes his hands and can’t remember washing them once in the past 10 years: “Germs are not a real thing. I can’t see them.”
“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth told podcast host Shawn Ryan about reforming the military. “Any general that was involved, any general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI/woke shit has got to go.” Hegspeth's book "The War on Warriors" uncovers "the deep roots of our dysfunction—a society that has forgotten the men who take risks, cut through red tape, and get their hands dirty. The only kind of men prepared to face the dangers that the Left pretends don’t exist. ... Today our brass are following the rest of our country off the cliff of cultural chaos and weakness."
Hegspeth played an influential role in advocating for Trump's intervention in three cases involving war crime accusations in 2019. These cases divided the military and ignited fierce debates over the limits of executive power and military accountability. In November 2019, Trump granted pardons to Army Lieutenant Clint Lorance and Army Major Mathew Golsteyn, and reversed a demotion of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, citing Hegseth and Fox News when he tweeted about his decision."
Richard Haass reacted to the selection Hegseth: "The Pentagon is an enormous management challenge. The building, interagency process & American troops scattered around the world. I worry about the lack of that background.. and about the politicization of the military". Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman said that he was "very disturbed" by Donald Trump's selection of deeply unqualified Fox News host Pete Hegseth. "I’m shocked, truly, and this is exactly what we worried about when we warned about Donald Trump, which is that he is going to appoint unqualified loyalists to shape this government into his own personal fiefdom,” Goldman said on CNN."
Trump named Sebastian Gorka, Controversial Far-right Pundit, as Deputy National Security Advisor on 23 November 2024. Gorka, who served in Trump's first term, has been dogged by incendiary remarks about Muslims. Gorka, who served in a similar position in the first Trump administration, was linked to far-right Hungarian nationalist groups. Critics have questioned his academic credentials and raised concerns about his ties to organizations with nationalist and anti-Semitic histories.
Donald Trump on 27 November 2024 said he would appoint Keith Kellogg as his special envoy for the Ukraine-Russia conflict. General Kellogg served as co-Chair of the Center for American Security at America First Policy Institute [AFPI]. Kellogg is a highly decorated, retired three-star Army General and has extensive experience in the military and international business. Most recently, he was the National Security Advisor to former Vice President Mike Pence. He also served as the Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary of the National Security Council.
His plan to end the war, presented to Trump in July 2024, proposes that Ukraine would receive additional US weapons only if it agreed to peace talks with Russia. The US would also warn Russia that if it refuses to negotiate, Washington will increase its support for Kyiv. The plan also suggests freezing the frontlines at their current positions - an idea rejected by both sides. The Ukraine strategy was published back in May by AFPI as part of their An America First Approach to U.S. National Security, edited by Fred Fleitz, who also served as chief of staff at the National Security Council during Trump's presidency and co-wrote with Kellogg the chapter on the Russia-Ukraine war.
The U.S. would continue to arm Ukraine to deter Russia from attacking during or after a deal is reached, but under the condition that Kyiv agrees to enter into peace talks with Russia. To persuade Russia to participate in the negotiations, the U.S. and other NATO partners would delay Ukraine's membership in the alliance for an extended period in exchange for a "comprehensive and verifiable deal with security guarantees."
They write that Ukraine will not be asked to give up its ambition to regain all land seized by Russia, but Kyiv should agree to use diplomatic means only and realize that it might take a long time to regain all the territories. The strategy proposes to use the partial lifting of sanctions on Russia to encourage the Kremlin to take steps toward peace and establish levies on Russian energy imports to fund Ukraine's reconstruction.
He said 25 July 2024 "a year and a half ago the Russians turn their heels and if the West had provided the equipment that [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy asked for, then you probably could have finished the job. You could have gotten into the Sea of Azov through Kherson, splitting them in half, and that is what you wanted to do. So, I blame this administration and the West to a degree for not supporting Ukraine when they should have....
"Have the United States given Ukraine a support of F-16s? No. Did we provide long-range fires early for the Ukrainians to shoot in Russians? No. Did we provide permission for them to shoot deep into Russia? No. Did the United States provide them the armored capabilities they needed? We gave 31 tanks. Thirty-one tanks is not even a battalion in the United States army....
"If Ukraine doesn't want to negotiate, fine, but then accept the fact that you can have enormous losses in your cities and accept the fact that you will have your children killed, accept the fact that you don't have 130,000 dead, you will have 230,000–250,000. Demographically, what does that do to the country? You have to accept the fact that maybe the threat will remain on Kyiv, you have to accept the fact that Kharkiv will have more damage or do you want to say this is time maybe we take a pause and figure out how to push the Russians out of there so that they don't get territorial gain. And how do you have a long-term peace agreement?"
Trump was said to be considering former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency in his second administration, Punchbowl reported 07 November 2024. Former top officials from Donald Trump’s administration had warned Trump was likely to use his second term to overhaul American intelligence agencies in ways that could lead to an unprecedented level of politicization of intelligence, replacing people perceived as hostile to his political agenda with inexperienced loyalists.
Kash Patel was being considered for several national security posts — including CIA director. Patel promised to weaponize law enforcement to attack the media and embark on a revenge tour against everyone who ever tried to bring Trump to justice. Patel's book "Government Gangsters," called for a "comprehensive housecleaning" of the Justice Department and an eradication of "government tyranny" within the FBI by firing "the top ranks" and prosecuting "to the fullest extent of the law" anyone who "in any way abused their authority for political ends" would serve as a "blueprint" for his next administration. Trump said of the book on his Truth Social media platform.
"This is the roadmap to end the Deep State's reign." Patel claimed in his book "[T]he FBI has become so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic measures are taken," Democrats "should be very afraid," Patel wrote, as Trump and his allies battle "the Deep State" -- what conspiracy theorists claim is a cadre of career employees inside government who are working together to secretly manipulate policy and undermine elected leaders. Patel helped lead the House Republicans' probe of "Russiagate". In the final year of Trump's first term, Patel was appointed acting deputy director of national intelligence.
Trump on 30 November 2024 named Kash Patel to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, saying he “is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice, and protecting the American people.” During his first term, Trump suggested naming Patel as the deputy FBI director, but then-Attorney General William Barr, now a Trump critic, said the appointment would only occur “over my dead body.”
Trump’s first hurdle in installing Patel as the FBI director is that there already is an FBI director, Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Trump and whose 10-year term extends to 2027. Trump would have to fire Wray or Wray would have to resign before Patel could take over. FBI directors are appointed to decade-long terms by design, so that their tenures and investigative directives are not subject to the political whims of the moment. But Trump already fired one FBI director, James Comey, in 2017, before naming Wray.
Trump's nominee for FBI Director Kash Patel said he will shutdown the FBI Hoover building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the Deep State. "And I'd take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals,” he adds. “Whether through Congress or the president,” he says in his book “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy.”, the reason why the FBI headquarters should be removed from Washington is “to prevent institutional capture and curb FBI leadership from engaging in political gamesmanship.” Patel’s proposals revolve around his view that Washington is the problem, particularly what he calls the “deep state.”
Patel wants to release the Epstein and Diddy list saying people like Bill Gates are lobbying to hide it. “We will go out and find the conspirators... Yes, we are going to come after the people in the media”. Kash Patel spent four years trying to cover up for January 6th, including his own role as Chief of Staff to patsy Chris Miller in ensuring there would be no military assistance at the Capitol. Bill Kristol commented "The announcement of Patel as FBI Director nominee brings home even more dramatically how much Trump-- and JD Vance, Russ Vought, and Stephen Miller--are focused on total control of the real power ministries with either true believers or totally compliant figures at their heads." His entire memoir is based upon the premise that the FBI is all about FISA surveillance of Trump advisors and the Steele Dossier and the quest to prove collusion between Donald Trump and Russia.
“The number of staff at ODNI [office of the director of national intelligence] and throughout the intelligence community, including the CIA and the NSA, must be drastically reduced to eliminate duplicative offices and cut down on information and the practice of stovepiping — where intelligence officials funnel important information directly up to the agency heads without sharing it with others. Intelligence agencies must be refocused on ground-level intelligence gathering.”
Senator Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Patel "represents the type of change that we need to see in the FBI. ... The entire agency needs to be cleaned out." Another Republican senator, Ted Cruz of Texas, said Patel was a "very strong nominee" and he thought Patel would be confirmed. "All of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, all the people pulling their hair out, are exactly the people who are dismayed about having a real reformer come into the FBI," Cruz told CBS' "Face the Nation."
Democrat Senator Chris Murphy told NBC, "Patel's only qualification is that he agrees with Donald Trump that the Department of Justice should punish, lock up and intimidate Donald Trump's political opponents."
President-elect Donald Trump said 30 November 2024 he intended to nominate real estate developer Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France. Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post, calling Charles Kushner “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker." The elder Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations. Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation.
Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said. Kushner eventually pleaded guilty to 18 counts including tax evasion and witness tampering. He was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison — the most he could receive under a plea deal, but less than what Chris Christie, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey at the time and later governor and Republican presidential candidate, had sought.
Christie blamed Jared Kushner for his firing from Trump’s transition team in 2016, and called Charles Kushner’s offenses "one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. attorney."
President-elect Donald Trump announced 01 December 2024 his nomination of Lebanese American businessman Massad Boulos to serve as a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. Boulos is the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany. He was a member of Trump’s election campaign, working on the outreach to Arab American communities in the key state of Michigan amid dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s response to Israel’s offensives against militants in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Trump won the state in the 2024 election after losing there to President Joe Biden in 2020. “Massad is a dealmaker, and an unwavering supporter of PEACE in the Middle East,” Trump said on his Truth Social site. “He will be a strong advocate for the United States, and its interests, and I am pleased to have him on our team!”
President-elect Donald Trump named billionaire investment banker Warren Stephens as his envoy to Britain, a prestigious posting for the Republican donor whose contributions this year included $2 million to a Trump-backing super PAC. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social site01 December 2024, announced he was selecting Stephens to be the U.S. ambassador to the Court of Saint James. "Warren has always dreamed of serving the United States full time. I am thrilled that he will now have that opportunity as the top Diplomat, representing the U.S.A. to one of America's most cherished and beloved Allies," Trump said in in his post.
Trump nominated Jared Isaacman, the billionaire CEO of payments company Shift4, who has led two private spaceflights and has conducted a spacewalk, to be the next head of NASA. Isaacman, 41, is a close associate of billionaire Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX. He is now in line to replace the current administrator, Bill Nelson, who was nominated by outgoing president Joe Biden in 2021 and who has also traveled into orbit, as part of a Space Shuttle mission in 1986. In 2021, Isaacman led the first all-civilian mission to space on a chartered flight with SpaceX. Earlier this year, he led the Polaris Dawn mission as SpaceX’s crew of civilian astronauts conducted the first commercial spacewalk.
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