By The New York Times
In a rare admission of fault, Donald Trump told the podcaster Joe Rogan during the election campaign that the “biggest mistake” of his first term was hiring “bad people, or disloyal people” to his White House team.
This time around, Trump appears to be prioritising one quality above all: loyalty.
Appointments to cabinet positions, such as secretary of state, require approval by the Senate — which will be split 53-47 in the Republicans’ favour from January — while advisory roles like White House chief of staff do not. A sign of potential difficulties getting Trump’s picks confirmed came when Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration for US attorney-general amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
Who has Trump picked for his administration so far?
Scott Bessent: Treasury secretary
Trump nominated Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager, to lead the Treasury department and implement his promise of sweeping tariffs.
Bessent, 62, is the founder of Key Square Group, an investment firm, and has been one of Wall Street’s most vocal supporters of Trump. He has long been a proponent of tariffs, arguing recently for “carefully calibrated” interventions to “re-orient the international economic system to better serve the needs” of the country. “Tariffs are a means to finally stand up for Americans,” he wrote in a column for Fox News.
During this year’s campaign he hosted a fundraiser in South Carolina that raised nearly $7 million and another in Palm Beach that raised $50 million.
He was formerly George Soros’s top investor, having worked for his fund in the 1990s, and caught Trump’s eye last year after endorsing his candidacy when most in the finance industry backed his Republican rival Nikki Haley.
He donated more than $3 million to Trump and other Republican committees this election cycle, calling the president-elect “very sophisticated on economic policy” compared with the “economic illiterate” Kamala Harris in an interview with Forbes. He sits on the university council at Yale, his alma mater, and lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his husband, John Freeman, a former New York prosecutor, and their two children.
Pam Bondi: attorney-general
Trump nominated Pam Bondi, 59, for attorney-general hours after Matt Gaetz withdrew his candidacy. Bondi is the former attorney-general of Florida and was one of Trump’s defence lawyers during his first impeachment trial in 2019.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponised against me and other Republicans — not any more,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Pam will refocus the DoJ to its intended purpose of fighting crime and making America safe again. I have known Pam for many years — she is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST fighter, who will do a terrific job as attorney-general!”
