Trump, defying media predictions, mainly picks seasoned Capitol Hill veterans such as Marco Rubio

The media warned for months that Donald Trump would have “no guardrails” in a second term, and would probably hand out top positions to a bunch of right-wing crazies.

Instead, he picked Marco Rubio yesterday as secretary of State, a 14-year Senate veteran and son of Cuban immigrants who has been informally advising him on foreign policy.

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The president-elect has also tapped a number of Hill veterans who are conventional conservatives, agree with him on key issues and could just as easily have been named by Mitt Romney.

Also yesterday, Trump selected Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor, as Homeland Security secretary, after she overcame the dog-shooting incident that knocked her out of the veepstakes.

Trump has been rolling out these appointments at hyper-speed, just a week after the election. He has stayed off TV and hasn’t made any inflammatory posts. He’s trying to demonstrate a seriousness about governing, by hitting the ground running.

In the past, presidents and presidents-elect have appeared on air, praising their nominee or maybe two, and yielding to a short, grateful speech by the chosen ones. But Trump appears to be skipping all that. 

All the top jobs haven’t been filled, obviously, but even some top Democrats are praising the choice of Rubio (while some in the MAGA movement are disappointed). He’s unquestionably a hawk, and will be the face of American foreign policy as he travels around the world. 

Sure, he said some terrible things about Trump, who derided him as Little Marco, when both ran in 2016. I watched Rubio on the trail that year and he’s a very charismatic speaker.

But the two have long since mended fences. Rubio tried to push immigration reform a decade ago as part of various Senate gangs, but has since distanced himself from the effort.

I keep seeing television chyrons that, almost in accusatory fashion, say Trump is hiring “loyalists.” Excuse me–do you think that Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton didn’t hire loyalists? Presidents want aides who generally agree with them and won’t turn into troublemakers. Biden hired such longtime advisers as Ron Klain, Mike Donilon and Steve Richetti.

From a conservative point of view, when Biden hired top officials who wanted to strengthen environmental rules, boost labor unions and spend hundreds of billions of dollars to dig out of the pandemic, that was a hard-line departure from Trump 1.0. Now Trump will reverse many Biden policies with the stroke of a pen.

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The other picks so far: Upstate New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a member of the House leadership and impeachment defender, has been tapped for U.N. ambassador. 

Trump also chose former Long Island congressman Lee Zeldin to run the EPA. He’s a mainstream conservative who has crusaded against excessive environmental regulations and gotten a lifetime score of 14 percent from the League of Conservation Voters. He told Fox News that the administration will “roll back regulations” that are causing businesses to “struggle” and are “forcing” them to move overseas.

After that, Trump tapped Florida GOP congressman Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret, as White House national security adviser, which doesn’t require Senate confirmation. He’s a China hawk and Ukraine skeptic. “Stopping Russia before it draws NATO and therefore the U.S. into war is the right thing to do,” Waltz wrote. “But the burden cannot continue to be solely on the shoulders of the American people, especially while Western Europe gets a pass.” 

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., attends a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump at the Trump National Doral Golf Club on July 9, 2024 in Doral, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

These are serious people who know how Washington works.

By the way, Trump has shrunk what’s expected to be a very small GOP edge in the House by picking two members. But in Rubio’s case, Gov. Ron DeSantis can appoint a replacement who would serve until the midterm elections.

As I’m typing this, Trump just named Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate, as ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has led many delegations to the country and is staunchly pro-Israel. 

And after I filed this, Trump named Bill McGinley, who worked on election integrity for the RNC and was general counsel for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as his White House counsel.

And after I filed the insert, another announcement: John Ratcliffe being tapped for CIA director. The former Texas congressman, known for criticizing the FBI as biased against Trump, became his director of national intelligence in 2020. 

Last night, Trump made his first hire from Fox News. Pete Hegseth, an Army combat veteran and co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” has been named Defense secretary. Trump noted that Hegseth did tours in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan, was awarded two Bronze Stars, and just published the best-selling “The War on Warriors.”

Trump tried to get him confirmed the previous year, but Ratcliffe withdrew after GOP senators and ex-intel officials raised concerns about him, amid media disclosures that he’d embellished his prosecutorial efforts in immigration and terrorism cases. So he certainly qualifies as a highly partisan pick.

The two appointees who can fairly be described as aggressive hard-liners–critics would say extremists–are Stephen Miller and Tom Homan–both hired to deal with Trump’s top priority, the border.

Miller, who spearheaded immigration policy in the first Trump term, has been promoted to deputy chief of staff, and even that title doesn’t capture the clout he’ll have as a trusted member of the inner circle. He pushed the family separation policy that was extremely controversial.

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Homan, who ran ICE in the first term, is being called the border czar. When asked if there was a way to avoid separating families, as happened last time, he said sure–deport them all together.

He said at a conference over the summer: “Washington Post can do all the stories they want on me about ‘Tom Homan’s deportin’ people, he’s really good at it!’ They ain’t seen s*** yet! Wait till 2025!”

Miller and Homan will be responsible for carrying out mass deportations of the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants living in America, or at least starting the process so the president-elect can say he kept his promise. Critics call the goal utterly unrealistic.

Now there are others who will also enjoy huge influence. Elon Musk, who donated $119 million to help Trump, is now the most powerful private citizen ever–heading a waste commission, posting hundreds of messages on X, sitting in on Trump call to Volodymyr Zelenskyy – all while seeking billions in federal contracts.

Trump said last night that Musk will head a Department of Government Efficiency – he promised to “send shockwaves through the system” – with help from former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. 

Tom Homan, former acting director of US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, US, on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. ( Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

RFK Jr. will get some title, but Trump has to decide whether to go along with his hotly disputed ideas on vaccines and removing fluoride from water systems. He’s also threatened to fire FDA officials who have waged a “war on public health,” saying the agency has suppressed such products as raw milk, ivermectin and vitamins.

And of course J.D. Vance will be an unusually active vice president and heir apparent.  

Still to come: the top jobs of Treasury secretary and the extraordinarily sensitive post of attorney general. I also want to know who’ll be press secretary!

One reason we’re in for weeks and weeks of skeptical to negative coverage is that every beat reporter on the planet must now do obligatory pieces on Donald Trump.

Whether they cover sports, religion, labor, housing, entertainment, courts, energy, television, schools or crime, they need to write about the impact of the 47th president–keeping in mind that he weighs in on everything.  

From yesterday alone: 

Washington Post: “Trump Pledged to Close the Education Department. What would that mean?”

New York Times: “Trump’s ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Cuts Two Ways for Oil Companies.”

And: “Colleges Wonder if They Will Be ‘the Enemy’ Under Trump”

But my personal favorite: “What a Trump Presidency Means for the Liquor Industry.”

(Trump doesn’t drink, but every industry wants less regulation.)

There’s also this Drudge headline: “Wife Divorces Husband Over Vote.”

As the Mirror reports, “A man has said he can’t believe his wife was ready to ‘throw away our entire life’ after filing for divorce over his vote for Donald Trump.  

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The distraught husband wrote on social media that he has been left without words that the marriage could fall apart over politics.” 

I guess a family separation policy comes in many forms.