As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, advisers on how his administration will operate are weighing the merits of stacking Trump’s incoming Cabinet with elected officials versus the mix of businessmen, political outsiders and loyalists who fill his Rolodex. , said 3 sources discussing the transition.
Two sources involved in the transition process said Trump would place a premium on cabinet picks outside of government services as opposed to sitting lawmakers for two reasons. He sees some of his first-term outside picks as more successful and loyal, including investor Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s nominee to lead the Treasury Department, and Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon nominated to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. plucked several legislators from Congress to serve in his administration.
Trump never forgave Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s first attorney general, for recusing himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Former Rep. Tom Price, who was appointed Health and Human Services secretary, and Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana, who served as interior secretary, have been embroiled in scandal over how they ran their departments and used government resources.
Trump is especially wary of early elections to replace existing lawmakers in the Senate. “He doesn’t want a Roy Moore situation,” one source said. Moore was the Republican nominee in a special election to replace Sessions in the Senate in 2017, which saw Democrats win a rare and dramatic victory in Alabama.
Neither decision is final or limits the possibility that Trump may select certain members of Congress to join his administration. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is among those being considered for attorney general, according to multiple sources. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is among those who have announced they are willing to serve in any role Trump needs.
However, a potential competitor has already refused. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, a well-known surrogate during Trump’s campaign, said he was not interested in joining the Trump administration, according to three sources familiar with the decision. Cotton, along with US representative Mike Waltz of Florida and Mike Pompeo, who was the secretary of state and director of the Central Intelligence Agency in the first term of Trump pointed As the debate began to heat up in the final months of the campaign, as the best candidate to serve in the Trump administration.
Senator Cotton, of Arkansas, has two young children and considered the potential impact on his family when deciding whether to remove his name from a Cabinet post, according to a source familiar with his thinking. Cotton is running for Senate leadership.
As the Trump team weighs personnel decisions, the focus is on what each choice means for the returning president’s agenda.
A campaign official said bringing so many congressional members into the administration would affect Trump’s ability to get things done in his first 100 days in office.
And two sources also noted the role of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., as a potential veto over decision-making. In a recent interview with NBC News, Trump Jr. said he would try to block people who might get in the way of Trump’s agenda.
“My job is just going to be to take out and stop the people who are slowly rolling over — they’re not going to do the bidding of the duly elected president of the United States, they’re going to do the wishes of the swamp,” Trump Jr. said. in October.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Rubio, a prominent Trump surrogate in the final days of the campaign, was coy about what might happen next, saying he had not directly spoken to Trump about a potential seat but would be open to a position if it came to that. he asked.
“I am in the civil service. I’m not trying to play it cool,” Rubio said in an interview on the Today Show Wednesday morning. “I am in the civil service, I like to serve our country.”
A source close to Rubio told NBC News that the senator is in a prime position to be elected because his long public service and recent vetting as a potential Trump nominee shortens the nomination process. Rubio will also have a relatively easy confirmation process because of his time in the Senate and his relationships with his colleagues.
But as Trump’s team narrows the field, the tally includes memories of how many people Trump has plucked from the ranks of Congress in his first term, excluding Pompeo, resulting in frustrations and future political liabilities for him.
A few also risked their Republican-held seats.
Sessions, a Trump adviser in 2016, was one of Trump’s early supporters when he tapped him from the Senate to run the Justice Department. Not only was the special election to replace Sessions an embarrassment for the GOP, but Sessions’ handling of his department frustrated Trump, and Sessions eventually resigned. When Sessions later tried to run for his old seat, Trump backed him.
After spending too much on charter flights, Price ignored Trump and his promise to “drain the swamp,” eventually forcing him to resign. The special election to replace Price has also become a focus of the anti-Trump Democratic establishment. While the GOP narrowly won the special election, Republicans lost Price’s congressional seat in the midterms and then watched the state turn blue in 2020.
Zinke’s tenure at the Interior Department was short-lived. After two years amid abuse allegations, Zinke said he would step aside. Zinke was narrowly re-elected to Congress in 2022, where he won by a 3-point margin against an environmental lawyer. He won a wider re-election this week.
As for Rubio and his seat, a source close to the Florida senator brushed off concerns about him in the Senate, especially given Sen. Rick Scott’s 13-point lead in Florida’s other Senate seat.