All the people appointed so far at the head of the various American ministries have pledged allegiance to the Republican and are part of the ultraconservative line of the Trumpist “Make America Great Again” movement.
The casting is worthy of “Dancing with the Stars”, jokes New York Magazine. Since his election on November 5, the next President of the United States, Donald Trump, has revealed the names of the members of his future government. There we find, pell-mell, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who will co-pilot the new Department of Government Efficiency with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, or even the former boss of American wrestling, Linda McMahon, appointed to Education. Over the course of these explosive appointments, a similar profile emerges.
“The number one criterion is loyalty”immediately poses Ludivine Gilli, director of the North American Observatory at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. This was also the condition hammered out by the entourage of the president-elect to the attention of the contenders. “Dear Trump Job Seekers, Before asking for my help, I will ask you to provide me with concrete proof of your loyalty to Trump,” wrote Mike Davis, a lawyer close to the Republican, on X on November 7.
Among the lucky ones, there are those who have been in the Trumpist landscape for years, like Pete Hegseth, to whom the Ministry of Defense should go. This former soldier was already whispering in Donald Trump's ear during his first term. As for Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, she was in charge of his campaign in Florida from 2016, reports CBS. The future Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, has been one of the president-elect's loyal supporters since 2018, the year she became governor of South Dakota. Billionaire Scott Bessent, hedge fund manager, but also donor and advisor to Donald Trump, is entrusted with the prestigious and influential role of Treasury Secretary.
Donald Trump also chose those who never gave up on him when, in 2020, after his failed re-election against Joe Biden, he cried about electoral fraud, without ever having proven it. Among its fervent defenders, we find the future National Security Advisor, Michael Waltz, and the next ambassador to the United Nations, Elise Stefanik. Pam Bondi, designated Minister of Justice, was part of Donald Trump's defense team during his impeachment trial in the Senate. She will be assisted by three of the billionaire's personal lawyers: Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and John Sauer.
The billionaire is also banking on his former Republican rivals who have become his supporters. Marco Rubio, candidate in the 2016 Republican primaries, inherits the prestigious position of head of diplomacy. The Florida senator at the time called Donald Trump a“crook”, before asserting in March 2016 that “not be proud” of these insults, then to take on the role of informal advisor on South America. Mike Huckabee, appointed ambassador to Israel, also threw in the towel in the presidential campaign in 2016 after obtaining a poor score in the first Iowa caucus. History repeated itself in 2024 for Vivek Ramaswamy, a primary candidate who lined up behind Donald Trump in January.
This need for loyalty is not new. When he arrived at the White House in 2016, “Donald Trump wanted to surround himself with loyal people. But he didn’t have a big enough address book to pull all the names out of his hat”explains Ludivine Gilli, recalling that the president must provide 4,000 positions in the administration. In the absence of associates, he then drew from his family circle: his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had thus become his close advisors.
“Result: there was a phenomenal turnover, because the personalities had not been sufficiently tested.”
Ludivine Gilli, specialist in American politicsat franceinfo
No fewer than four chiefs of staff succeeded one another during Trump's first term, including John Kelly, who called him a “fascist” during the last presidential campaign. His predecessor in the White House, Barack Obama, had only five different chiefs of staff in eight years. For this second term, “we will assign people a role based on their abilities, their fidelity and their loyalty to politics [trumpiste]as well as towards man”insisted Howard Lutnick, co-chair of Donald Trump's transition team, to the Financial Times.
The observers contacted by franceinfo agree on the loyalty of the conscripts, less on their abilities. “What strikes me most is the total incompetence of certain people named”says Denis Lacorne, specialist in the United States at the Center for International Research (Ceri) at Sciences Po Paris. Despite his time in the army, Pete Hegseth does not have the command experience typically required to manage the Defense portfolio. Former Republican executive Justin Higgins had already ruled in 2016 that he was “insufficiently qualified” for the position, for which he was considered in the first Trump administration.
Robert Kennedy Jr inherits the Ministry of Health, without prior scientific training. Above all, this follower of conspiracy theories, particularly on the Covid-19 pandemic, is a notorious anti-vax. “There is no safe and effective vaccine”we heard him say in 2023. The profile of the person who will manage the public health insurance program has also raised some eyebrows: Mehmet Oz, former star surgeon on TV sets, is accused of having promoted ineffective or even dangerous treatments or dietary supplements.
Linda McMahon will lead the Department of Education, while she is best known for her career at the head of the American wrestling federation WWE or her time at the Ministry of Small Business in 2016. As for the former member of Congress Lee Zeldin, appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency, he “has no particular expertise on this topic”supports Ludivine Gilli: he received a mediocre score of 14% from the League of Conservation Voters, an association which rates elected officials according to their votes on environmental policies.
“Donald Trump is choosing people who have no previous training to show his contempt for the merit-based Washington bureaucracy.”
Denis Lacorne, specialist in the United Statesat franceinfo
The nominees all share another thing in common: “They fit perfectly into the Maga line”the acronym of Donald Trump's campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again”, who ended up designating his political camp, points out Ludivine Gilli. The specialist cites as an example climate skeptic Chris Wright, future Secretary of Energy and CEO of a company specializing in hydraulic fracturing, a polluting method of extracting hydrocarbons. “He has no doubt about the type of policy he will pursue”while Donald Trump hammered out the slogan “drill, baby, drill” (“drill, baby, drill”) during his campaign, underlines the expert.
Beyond skills, “Members of government must be capable of doing what Donald Trump wants them to do. And when we look at their pedigree, they are extremists or radicals”summarizes Ludivine Gilli. Like Chris Wright, all the nominees perfectly embody the Trumpist line. Kristi Noem likes to appear with weapons and even created a stir by revealing that she shot and killed her young dog. She takes a very hard line on immigration, just like Tom Homan, in charge of border control, or even Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff, follower of the racist idea of the great replacement, as reported The World.
Like other ultraconservatives, Pete Hegseth denounces a “complot woke”, that he says he wants to fight by banning women on the battlefield. Elon Musk also talks about “virus woke” and leans heavily towards the American alt-right movement, which advocates white supremacism and fights against the rights of women, immigrants, homosexuals and transgender people. The next Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, appears to be a hawk on the Iranian issue. The future ambassador to the UN, for her part, went on a crusade against the presidents of American universities, accusing them of not having sufficiently denounced anti-Semitism on their campuses. The appointed ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, is an evangelical Christian pastor, who sees biblical reasons to defend Israel.
“Donald Trump is looking for people who have the ability to relay the Maga message in a brutal and direct way.”
Ludivine Gilli, specialist in American politicsat franceinfo
Fox News, the American channel that Republicans love, is the breeding ground from which Donald Trump drew for his trombinoscope. Pete Hegseth hosts a show there on weekends. Tom Homan is a contributor to the channel and Sean Duffy, head of Transport, participates in Fox Business. “This shows that Fox News has a lot of influence. The channel operated during his administration [2017-2021] like a kind of state television which never stopped praising him and attacking his enemies”assures AFP Matthew Gertz, author for Media Matters for America, an American media observatory.
These names are not yet set in stone: they must still pass the Senate stage, which confirms the nominations. Even though the upper house of Congress is dominated by Republicans, “there are doubts about the validation of Pete Hegseth at Defense”judge Ludivine Gilli. The former soldier was accused of sexual assault in 2017 and paid money to the woman who accused him, without admitting the facts, his lawyer told CNN. Matt Gaetz, also accused of sexual offenses, resigned from becoming Minister of Justice on November 21.
These suspicions did not prevent Donald Trump from withholding their names. But wasn't the president-elect himself found responsible for sexual assault and found guilty of accounting falsifications to hide the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, in order to avoid a scandal? sexual in the middle of the presidential campaign? “He chooses people in his image”slips Denis Lacorne.
