What a difference eight years makes.
President-elect Donald Trump and his team are working behind closed doors at Mar-a-Lago to staff the 47th president’s administration, with loyalty the primary job requirement.
The low-key nature of the transition is a deliberate choice to avoid the chaotic scenes of eight years ago, when Trump Tower hosted infighting and public jockeying for powerful posts following the Republican’s victory over Hillary Clinton.
“There’s a lot more alignment, policy-wise, this time with the transition team than there was in 2016,” a longtime Trump aide told The Post Thursday.
A second source noted that this time the president-elect’s campaign and transition teams are led by longtime Republican figures rather than political novices and clashing personalities.
“It’ll be more establishment [than in 2016], so in that sense more orderly,” this person said.
“I think they’re smart enough to not be too public.”
As a private club, Mar-a-Lago is closed to the media and Trump, 78, is working under heavy security after a pair of failed assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign.
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However, a source close to Trump also said that the real estate mogul seemed to enjoy the public parade of supplicants who had to come in from the winter cold and walk past throngs of cameras in the Trump Tower lobby ahead of his first term.
“Maybe he does that just on a few big [appointments],” the source said.
The transition team is led by Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and former Small Business Administration chief Linda McMahon, who said in a statement Wednesday that Trump “will be selecting personnel to serve our nation under his leadership and enact policies that make the life of Americans affordable, safe, and secure.
Here’s how The Post thinks President-elect Trump should pick for his cabinet
With his historic victory under his belt, Donald Trump must now begin defining the contours of his second presidency — starting with the team that’ll help him run it.
This time, the once-and-future prez has the advantage of experience: He knows the ropes, he’s built a network of competent folks he can trust to build out his top administrators.
As for finding the team, we imagine it’ll go something like this:
Department of Treasury
Department of Homeland Security
State Department
Department of Defense
Department of Justice
Department of Education
“We are proud to volunteer our time to present President Trump with a wide array of experts from which he can select for his team.”
“There is no question they are better prepared, not least because Trump at least knows the traps to avoid and the important of personnel,” one GOP insider told The Post.
“It’s just a question of what direction does Trump choose,” this person added, “the continuation of the stable and disciplined campaign under Susie Wiles or the passing of the torch to [JD] Vance, who would as vice president exercise tremendous pull in the day-to-day affairs of a Trump administration as the presumed nominee in 2028?”
After a chaos-filled first term, during which dozens of ex-staffers made disparaging remarks about the 45th president, avoiding drama is a top priority for the transition team.
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Donald Trump Jr., an honorary chair of the group, has previously spoken about the need for loyalty, saying in an interview with Axios during this summer’s Republican National Convention that he wants to “block the guys that would be a disaster” and “block the liars.”
“Dear Trump Job Seekers: Long time, no chat,” Republican operative Mike Davis, who reportedly harbors ambitions to be attorney general, wrote on X Thursday morning. “Before asking me for help, I am going to ask you to provide me specific and concrete evidence of your loyalty to Trump. If you cannot provide a lot of that, stop asking me. Political appointments require both competency and loyalty.”
Despite the public proclamations, the possibility for infighting is always present, along with some of Trump’s most prominent allies — such as Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — potentially swaying the president-elect’s decision-making with a simple phone call.
Those allies include a pair of former Democrats — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is expected to be given an advisory role on public health despite his strong anti-vaccination views; and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is likely to oppose the many foreign policy hawks seeking employment in a second Trump administration.
