West Palm Beach, FL — As “former President Donald Trump” transitions into “President-elect Donald Trump,” he and his team have a simple litmus test for serving in his second administration: loyalty.
“He’ll want people who are loyal, battle-tested and dedicated to the agenda versus taking a ton of chances on disaffected Johnny-come-latelies like, name your person, John Bolton,” one former White House official who’s been hanging around West Palm Beach in recent days told NOTUS. “He’ll bring people in who are loyal.”
Another former senior administration official also emphasized that Trump was indeed looking for loyalty, but this person also said the president-elect would have additional requirements.
“Toughness and good résumés,” this person said, adding that the next White House would need “people who can leverage the House and Senate for the votes he will need.”
Already, the margins in the House and Senate are coming into play with the next administration.
It looks like Republicans will have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, but miraculously, the House could be even tighter. As of Thursday night, Republicans had secured 210 House seats to the Democrats’ 198 seats, with 27 races yet to be called. But Democrats were leading in a majority of those remaining seats — and 12 races in California alone are up in the air. (California races can sometimes take weeks to sort out, but the close contests decided after Election Day there have traditionally broken for Democrats.)
With a slim majority in the Senate and potentially an even slimmer majority in the House — or no majority at all — it will be difficult for Trump to appoint any congressional Republicans to administration posts, even though some GOP lawmakers have clearly been angling for positions.
Two House members whose names have been tossed around in Trumpworld are House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik — arguably one of the staunchest Trump supporters in the House — and Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida.
Stefanik is said to have expressed interest in serving as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, while Waltz — a former Green Beret who has experience in the Pentagon, the White House and as the former CEO of a defense company — is being talked about as a potential secretary of Defense.
Sources said both embody two key components that Trump appreciates: They’re good on television and they vigorously defend him.
But Trump also has a grand policy agenda that will require buy-in from basically the entire House Republican conference. While losing two members to the administration from red districts wouldn’t kill Trump’s interests in the long term, vacancies in the short term could be a problem.
“That’s always a concern,” one senior GOP House aide said when asked about the majority getting slimmer. “But the administration knows they can’t just take a bunch of people and lose the majority and not be able to pass anything.”
Asked for comment on the transition process and names floating around, Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump, said the president-elect would “begin making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration soon.”
“Those decisions will be announced when they are made,” she said.
One person who will be a key part of the next administration is Susie Wiles. The Trump campaign announced Thursday night that Wiles, one of Trump’s co-campaign managers, would serve as the first female chief of staff of the White House.
Wiles, a longtime senior Trump aide who once served as a senior aide for Ron DeSantis, is known in Trumpworld as “the Ice Maiden” — or, in Trump’s words, “the Ice Baby.”
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in the statement. “It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”
Wiles should serve as a template for what Trump wants in the next White House. She has been in Trump’s innermost circle for years and is said to have been crucial for helping Trump knife DeSantis. (There’s no greater show of loyalty to Trump than helping him destroy his enemies, particularly when it means being disloyal to your old bosses.)
Beginning Wednesday afternoon, Trump allies and advisers have been huddling in West Palm Beach to pour over potential candidates who could serve in the second administration. With the Senate comfortably in the GOP’s hands, the transition team is operating as though confirming his picks won’t be much of an issue.
Once again, Trump loyalty will be a factor in putting together the next administration — just as it was in the last administration.
A former administration official who went through the vetting process last time told NOTUS that Trump’s team looked through old tweets and flagged certain ones that could be construed as anti-Trump. This person expected Trump’s transition team to do the same thing this time.
The focus on loyalty and commitment to the MAGA vision is seen in the names floating around Trumpworld.
Former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell — more recently known as Trump’s “shadow secretary of state” — is likely to have a major role in the next administration, though secretary of state could be a stretch for a man whose nomination for an ambassadorship to Germany was held up in the Senate during the last Trump White House.
Trump enemy turned ally Sen. Marco Rubio — “Lil’ Marco,” as Trump called him during the 2016 GOP primary — is also being floated for secretary of state, though again, that would take away a vote in the Senate in the immediate term.
Kash Patel, who served in multiple senior and defense intelligence roles in the first Trump White House, is also being mentioned as a potential director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Patel rose to prominence as a Hill staffer on the House Intelligence Committee before taking a job at the National Security Council.
Once again, loyalty is seen as Patel’s chief qualification, after he ceaselessly advocated for Trump throughout the campaign and defended the former president to the Jan. 6 Committee. (Patel deflected questions about Trump not ordering the National Guard to protect the Capitol and blamed the D.C. mayor for the lack of troops.)
Additionally, according to a source close to Trump, Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri is being floated as a potential attorney general. Schmitt formerly served as the attorney general of Missouri before being elected to the Senate in 2022.
Sources in Trumpworld have previously told NOTUS that, within the former president’s orbit, “everyone loves him and has been really impressed by him as a senator.”
Of course, Schmitt is also one of Vice President-elect JD Vance’s closest friends in the Senate.
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Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.