In a rare admission of fault, Donald Trump told Joe Rogan, the podcast host, last month that the “biggest mistake” of his first term was hiring “bad people, or disloyal people” to his White House team.
Despite appointing distinguished military officers such as the retired general John Kelly, business figures such as the former ExxonMobil boss Rex Tillerson and veterans of previous Republican administrations such as his national security adviser, John Bolton, Trump’s first administration was marked by public spats, chaotic policy battles and heavy turnover of staff.
This time around Trump is expected to prioritise one quality above all in the search for his new team: loyalty.
While his official cabinet will need to be confirmed by Congress, Trump has signalled that he will assemble a kitchen cabinet of informal advisers to help carry out his ambitious second-term agenda. But many who were instrumental in getting him elected also have priorities of their own for a second Trump term.
Elon Musk
Musk is expected to push Trump for greater deregulation in AI and cryptocurrency
SAMUEL HEART/GETTY IMAGES
Perhaps the greatest attention will be focused on Elon Musk. The world’s richest man spent tens of millions of dollars to help Trump get elected and is expected to be given a wide-ranging role over the federal budget in return.
Musk, who holds government contracts worth billions of dollars with SpaceX and Tesla, has promised to make $2 trillion in cuts, mostly in the federal bureaucracy. The tech billionaire has admitted that his austerity drive will probably cause “temporary hardship” for ordinary Americans but said that the country must “start from scratch” to achieve “long-term prosperity”.
Musk, 53, is also expected to push Trump for greater deregulation in areas in which he has heavily invested, such as AI and cryptocurrency. Critics claim that giving him oversight of federal spending creates a conflict of interest, while reports of his covert contacts with the leaders of Russia and China have concerned national security experts.
Robert F Kennedy Jr
Kennedy at an event to endorse Trump in August
EVAN VUCCI/AP
The scion of America’s most famous political dynasty gave the Republican campaign a boost when he ended his independent run for the White House and endorsed Trump in August.
Trump has already said that his reward for Robert F Kennedy Jr, an antivaxer who has promoted debunked claims that childhood vaccines cause autism, will be a “big role in the administration”. Trump has said he plans to let Kennedy “go wild on health”, food supply and reproductive rights.
Kennedy claims that Trump has promised him “control” of America’s public health agencies and has laid out plans to remove fluoride from the nation’s drinking water in the first days of the administration.
The announcement could typify the way that Kennedy and others seek to influence Trump. Asked about Kennedy’s claim before the election, Trump said that they had not discussed fluoride but that the proposed ban “sounds OK to me”.
Asked whether vaccine bans could also follow, Trump said only that Kennedy was “a very talented guy and has strong views”.
Donald Trump Jr
Donald Trump Jr will be shaping the Maga movement for the next generation
JONATHAN DRAKE/REUTERS
Donald Trump Jr, Trump’s eldest son, is the most politically active of his children and is thought to have ambitions that extend well beyond his father’s second term.
Widely mocked during Trump’s first presidency, “Don Jr” has emerged as a shrewd campaigner and trusted adviser with unrivalled influence within the Maga movement. The 46-year-old was instrumental in his father’s decision to pick JD Vance as his running-mate and the overtures to Kennedy that persuaded the former Democrat to drop out and endorse Trump.
With the election done, he will be free to continue shaping the Maga movement for the next generation. His first task, however, is a cull of the federal workforce to ensure loyalty to his father.
“It’s not about placing people,” he told The Wall Street Journal last month. “It’s about blocking the people who would be a disaster in that administration. I will cut out so many people, people’s heads are going to spin.”
Stephen Miller
Stephen Miller is the architect of Trump’s anti-immigration policy
CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
One of Trump’s most influential aides, Stephen Miller has spent four years preparing for Trump’s second term and will be tasked with implementing the hardline immigration strategy that he promised on the campaign trail.
The architect of the so-called Muslim ban and the family separation policy at the southern border during Trump’s first term, Miller will go further in his second, launching mass deportations of undocumented migrants.
In the final weeks of the campaign, Miller promised a “100 per cent perfect deportation rate” at the border and announced plans to deploy the FBI and US military “to carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in US history”.
Kevin Roberts and the Heritage Foundation
Kevin Roberts is president of the Heritage Foundation, which established Project 2025
J SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP
Project 2025, a blueprint for a second Trump term, became one of the controversies of the election campaign. Drawn up by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, the 900-page document proposed expanding the powers of the presidency, abolishing the Department of Education, furthering abortion restrictions, carrying out mass deportations of undocumented migrants and banning pornography.
• Donald Trump wins presidential race
The plan was so incendiary that Trump disavowed it, even though many of its authors had served in his first administration or campaign. But Project 2025 has never gone away and, with Trump’s victory, conservatives expect him to put their manifesto into action.
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, speaks to Trump frequently and has voiced confidence that, as president, he will move quickly to dismantle the “deep state” bureaucracy that supporters blame for undermining his first term. One of the plan’s core proposals is to reclassify 50,000 civil servants into positions where they can easily be dismissed.
Brooke Rollins
Brooke Rollins has been named as a possible presidential chief of staff
ANDREW KELLY/REUTERS
A former head of the Domestic Policy Council during Trump’s first term, Brooke Rollins now serves as president of the conservative America First Policy Institute. The group has prepared scores of executive orders that Trump could issue within days of taking office, including a ban on federal funding for the reproductive healthcare organisation Planned Parenthood and an expansion of oil and gas drilling.
Rollins, 52, is close to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and has been named as a possible presidential chief of staff.
Miriam Adelson
Miriam Adelson was one of the biggest donors to Trump’s campaign
ANDREW HARRER/GETTY IMAGES
Miriam Adelson, the widow of the casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and one of the wealthiest women in the world, was among the biggest donors to Trump’s re-election effort, donating $100 million to the campaign.
Adelson, who holds joint US and Israeli citizenship, may be an influential voice on Trump’s policy on the Middle East. She and her husband were pivotal in Trump’s decision to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during his first term.
Her office has denied a report that she urged Trump to endorse Israel’s annexation of the West Bank in return for her donation. But her influence could be critical as Trump addresses the conflict, still raging more than a year after the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023.
Richard Grenell
Richard Grenell is the former US ambassador to Germany
REBECCA COOK/REUTERS
If personal loyalty is the key consideration for Trump, then the most likely candidate for his next secretary of state could be Richard Grenell, who was his ambassador to Germany and then special envoy for the Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations. This year Don Jr called Grenell a “top contender” for the role. Trump has called him “My Envoy”.
Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, and Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, were on the shortlist to become Trump’s running-mate and are now also said to be in contention.
They face competition from Mike Pompeo, who held the role for much of Trump’s first term; Robert O’Brien, Trump’s fourth national security adviser; Bill Hagerty, a senator from Tennessee (and golf partner of Trump); and Tom Cotton, an Arkansas senator who, as a former army officer, is also believed to be on the shortlist for secretary of defence.
Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles
Chris LaCivita and Wiles kept the focus of the campaign on the weaknesses of President Biden and Harris
ALEX BRANDON/AP
The chief architects of Trump’s apparent election victory are in line for promotion to the West Wing after guiding the Republican nominee through one of the closest races in modern history. Although Trump often veered off his key messages, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles successfully kept their focus — and that of voters — on the weaknesses of President Biden and then Harris.
Wiles, a long-serving Florida political consultant, is touted as a possible White House chief of staff. LaCivita is also thought to be in the frame for a senior post in the new administration.
This article was originally published in September and was updated to reflect the election result.
