As President-elect Donald Trump prepares a return to the White House, advisers pondering his administration’s staffing levels are weighing the benefits of stacking Trump’s Cabinet with elected officials versus the mix of businesspeople, political outsiders and loyalists filling his Rolodex. This is what sources involved in discussions about the transition say.
Two sources involved in the transition process said Trump is expected to give a premium to Cabinet picks from outside the administration, as opposed to sitting lawmakers, for two reasons. He considers some of his outside selections for the first term, including investor Steven Mnuchin, whom he named to lead the Treasury Department, and Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon nominated to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as more successful and loyal than him. several lawmakers he plucked from Congress.
Trump has never forgiven Jeff Sessions, the Alabama senator who became his first attorney general, for withdrawing from the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Former Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga. , who was appointed secretary of Health and Human Services, and Representative Ryan Zinke of Montana, who served as secretary of the Interior, were dogged by scandals over the way they ran their departments and used government resources.
Trump is also wary of special elections to replace sitting lawmakers, especially in the Senate. “He doesn’t want a Roy Moore situation,” one of the sources said. Moore was the Republican candidate in the special election to replace Sessions in the Senate, which Democrats won in a rare and dramatic victory in Alabama in 2017.
No decision is final or rules out the possibility that Trump will select certain members of Congress. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is among those being considered for the position of attorney general, according to multiple sources. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is among those who have made clear they are ready to serve in whatever capacity Trump needs.
But a potential candidate has already signed up. A prominent surrogate during Trump’s campaign, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. has said he is not interested in joining the Trump administration, according to three sources familiar with the decision. Along with Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., and Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state and CIA director during Trump’s first term, Cotton was tipped as a top candidate to serve in a Trump administration as discussions in the government started to stir up. final months of the campaign.
Cotton, who has two young children, significantly weighed the potential impact on his family when deciding not to put his name in consideration for a Cabinet post, according to a source familiar with his thinking. Cotton is running for a Senate leadership post.
As Trump’s team weighs his personnel decisions, the top priority is what each choice would mean for his agenda.
A campaign official said bringing too many sitting lawmakers from Congress into the administration would hurt Trump’s ability to get things done in his first 100 days in office.
And two sources also pointed to the role of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., as someone with potential veto power over decision-making. In a recent interview, Trump Jr. said he would work to stop people who could hinder Trump’s agenda.
“My job is to eliminate and stop the people who are moving slowly – who will do the bidding of the swamp and not the bidding of the duly elected President of the United States,” he said in October. .
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Rubio, a prominent surrogate for Trump in the final days of the campaign, has been coy about what might happen next and has said he has not spoken directly to Trump about a possible opening, but he made it clear he would be open for a possible deal. position if asked.
“I am in government service. I’m not trying to play quietly,” Rubio said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday morning. “I am in government service. I would like to serve our country.”
A source close to Rubio said he is in a prime position to be selected because his longtime public service and recent vetting as Trump’s potential running mate would shorten the preparation time for an appointment. Rubio would also have a relatively easy confirmation process because of his time in the Senate and his relationships with fellow members.
But as Trump’s team narrows the field, the calculation also includes reminders of how many people Trump plucked from the ranks of Congress during his first term, with the exception of Pompeo, ended up being disappointments and future political liabilities.
Several also threw their Republican seats at risk.
Sessions, an adviser to Trump in 2016, was one of his early supporters when Trump elevated him from the Senate to lead his Justice Department. Not only did the special election to replace Sessions lead to an embarrassment for the Republican Party, but Sessions’ handling of his department also frustrated Trump, and Session ultimately resigned. Trump endorsed him when Sessions later tried to run for his old seat.
After spending lavishly on charter flights, Price clashed with Trump and his promise to “drain the swamp,” ultimately forcing his resignation. The special election to replace him also became a focal point of Democratic organizing against Trump. Although the Republican Party narrowly won the special election, Republicans lost Price’s seat in Congress in the midterm elections and watched Georgia turn blue in 2020.
Zinke’s tenure at the Interior Department was short-lived. Amid allegations of misconduct, Zinke said he would step aside after two years. He narrowly won re-election to Congress in 2022, when he posted a three-point victory against an environmental lawyer. He won a wider re-election victory this week.
As for Rubio and his seat, a source close to him dismissed concerns about him in the Senate, especially given Sen. Rick Scott’s 13-point victory in the race for Florida’s other Senate seat.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
