Donald Trump’s cabinet is shaping up to be a who’s-who of MAGA world alpha types, one of the most aggressive and boisterous on the campaign trail. Now that they find themselves in government, these qualities could spell their downfall.
The president-elect has packed his Cabinet with outsized personalities — in some cases with conflicting ideological approaches and policy preferences — who threaten to outshine Trump. And while the couple is widely seen as far more loyal to Trump than his first cabinet — whose interests often clashed with the president’s — it raises questions about whether this group will be able to avoid the drama of the first term.
The president-elect has already brought down Cabinet picks that came before him through his actions. After Howard Lutnick, his transition adviser and chosen Secretary of Commerce, said on CNN that Trump “of course” would be Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would not nominate to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, the newly elected President did just that. When Elon Musk, who had been appointed co-head of the unofficial Department of Governmental Efficiency, publicly endorsed Lutnick for Treasury secretary, Trump chose Scott Bessent instead. Trump never publicly discussed either comment.
The president-elect rebuked his running mate JD Vance during the debate stage earlier this year after saying Trump would veto a national abortion ban if elected. Vance later said that he “learned my lesson about speaking for the president before he and I had actually talked about an issue.”
“My advice to all of them: There is only one boss, and don’t forget it,” said Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist who has been an outspoken Trump defender on CNN and who was at one point considered for the job. press secretary.
In other words, remember that in a world full of alphas, one alpha is in charge of everything.
“This has the potential to become another soap opera in New York City,” said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former Trump administration appointee. “With all these personalities, there’s an opportunity to reshape some of how government works and make it work better for the people – but that’s not necessarily a given with everyone’s different perspectives and how they come about.” have come.”
For the Trump transition team, the alpha-rich cabinet is a feature and not a bug.
“We saw what four years of beta looked like under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” said Jason Miller, senior adviser for the Trump transition, “and the American people voted for strong leadership under President Trump to restore our economy.” and secure our borders.”
The memories of Trump’s first term — and what happened when Cabinet officials tried to go against the president — should be fresh enough that new Cabinet officials can see clearly what they are getting into. Or you have too much hope that the second round will be different from the first.
But at least one of them may have already worn out its welcome. As co-leader of the unofficial DOGE, Musk will not technically be in the Cabinet, but promises to be ubiquitous in the government. Trump has jovially chafed at Musk’s seemingly endless presence at Mar-a-Lago since Election Day, joking last month at an America First Policy Institute gala in Palm Beach that he “can’t get him out of here.” .
Trump’s jokes are usually not jokes at all, said a person close to the transition who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the newly elected president. “Most people find out over time that the more time you spend with the president usually works against you.”
Of all the characters set to take their place in the White House Cabinet room, Kennedy may have a harder time establishing himself than the president-elect’s other picks, according to three Republican strategists aligned with Trump.
Kennedy arrived at this position not as a staunch Trump loyalist, but because of the loyalty he showed by withdrawing from the race to support Trump. That, combined with his strong and independent vision to turn the U.S. health care system on its head and a fiery personality of his own, could ultimately put Trump on the spot if he isn’t respectful enough, the strategists said.
Yet Trump has so far apparently supported Kennedy’s view, saying he would “let go” of health care in his administration.
‘I don’t think so [Kennedy] is worried about colliding with anyone. This is his domain,” says Jeffrey Rose, a clinical hypnotherapist and nutritionist and a longtime friend of Kennedy. “As our country gets healthier, obesity rates will go down… that’s Trump’s legacy, bringing in Bobby.”
And Lutnick, who has a reputation for having a big ego, could face similar challenges, two people familiar with the transition said.
But some in Trump’s inner circle believe that because of their loyalty to the president-elect, this group of Cabinet picks is unlikely to be marked by the kind of infighting and drama of the first Trump administration. The lame-duck Cabinet assembled after Trump’s surprise victory in 2016 was filled with a variety of people who they saw as using the positions to advance their own agendas rather than those of the president, viewing his victory as a novelty and a fluke then regarded as a mandate to carry out a mandate. specific kind of vision.
“Last time, everyone had their own agendas that were much more important than the president’s,” the person close to the transition added, saying several people in the Cabinet “weren’t Trumpers.”
That is no longer the case, they say, now that Trump has definitively won the votes.
“The quality of the Cabinet is light years ahead of 2017,” said Scott Reed, a veteran Republican strategist. “There will be no ‘Game of Thrones’ in the White House. [Incoming chief of staff] Susie [Wiles] runs a tight ship, and Trump knows what’s important and personnel is policy. That is the big difference.”
It’s a sentiment that some people in the circles of Cabinet nominees themselves echo: that despite the nominees’ strong personalities and personal policy agendas, they know who is ultimately in charge.
“They’re all individuals, and they all want to do the best they can, and they probably all have different ideas about the playbook. But at the end of the day, you can’t have 20 people writing the playbook,” said a Republican familiar with the transition who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “That’s not how this works. Anyone who starts it has to have that mentality, otherwise it won’t work.”
Still, reflecting the big tent position the Republican Party currently finds itself in, the administration will have to grapple with a host of ideological differences. Trump’s choices include traditional conservatives and populists, isolationists and globalists, pragmatists and ideologues, career politicians and political outsiders and two former Democrats.
Bessent, for example, is seen as a business-friendly treasury secretary who will take a strategic, negotiable approach to tariffs, in contrast to Lutnick’s outspoken protectionist stance. And while Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio, has softened his hawkish views in recent years and moved closer to the president-elect’s “America First” stance, he is still more supportive overall global intervention than, say, Vance. , which takes a strongly isolationist approach.
That creates the potential for clashes, especially as those within the Cabinet try to define themselves within the contours of Trump’s vision while keeping an eye on their own future political ambitions. Vance, Rubio, Doug Burgum, Kristi Noem, Elise Stefanik and Vivek Ramaswamy are all among the list of possible 2028 candidates.
But the election results have shown the challenge of running a “Make America Great Again” platform without Trump’s name. In 2022, MAGA-focused gubernatorial candidates Doug Mastriano and Tudor Dixon lost their respective gubernatorial bids in Pennsylvania and Michigan. And Kari Lake decisively lost consecutive bids for Arizona governor and Senate in 2022 and 2024.
Voters have shown they are more tolerant of Trump’s actions or words than of his subordinates who are tasked with defending him, said Terry Sullivan, a Republican strategist and Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign manager.
“They see a level of authenticity when he says it, but when they try to defend it, and we’ve seen that time and time again, they look like cowardly politicians,” Sullivan said. “Politically speaking, if your goal as a Republican is to become president in four years, then a Cabinet position is probably not the best political option.”
For those who don’t follow that advice, he added: “Stay for a short period and move on. Don’t stick around long enough to wear out your welcome. Leave on your terms, not via a tweet.”
