What happened
President-elect Donald Trump over the weekend finished identifying the people he wants on his Cabinet, selecting America First Policy Institute chief Brooke Rollins for agriculture secretary on Saturday and Wall Street billionaire Scott Bessent for treasury secretary on Friday. Trump also tapped Scott Turner, a former NFL player and Texas lawmaker, to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Ore.), a labor-friendly Republican unseated this month, for labor secretary. Russell Vought, a key figure in the controversial Project 2025 blueprint for Trump’s second term, was picked to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget again.
Who said what
Trump’s “final flurry of Cabinet picks” rounded out what his aides described as a “unified, loyal, MAGA-driven administration,” but “scratch the surface and there are at least three distinct factions,” The New York Times said: A “revenge team” for the Justice Department, Pentagon and intelligence agencies; a “government shrinkage team” led by Elon Musk; and a “calm-the-markets team” featuring Bessent.
The selections illustrated Trump “trying to balance competing perspectives as he pursues an aggressive and sometimes contradictory economic agenda” including tariffs, tax cuts, slashing government spending and lowering prices, The Associated Press said. They also “showed the internal tensions” between Trump’s campaign focus on blue-collar voters and dependence on an “administration staffed by those, who like Trump, enjoy a life of extreme wealth.”
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What next?
Despite Trump’s rapid Cabinet selections, his “continued foot-dragging on signing the standard trio of ethics and transparency agreements with the federal government” means that none of those picks can have any access to the department he wants them to lead, Politico said. And the FBI can’t start background checks. The unprecedented delay in signing the transition paperwork also allows Trump to “raise unlimited amounts of money” from “interest groups, businesses or wealthy people” whose names will never be made public, the Times said.
