Three Billionaires, an Iraq Veteran, or an Anti-Vaxxer: Meet Trump's Government Candidates

The team of Donald Trump is handling dozens of names for the main positions in a suspiciously colonizing Republican cabinet. From the words of the now officially president-elect and his main advisors, it is clear that the transition agency responsible for facilitating the transfer of power from the Democratic administration to the new conservative one will be a breakaway agency. The promises and threats of the magnate are volatile. It is not the same to take the reins of a rally as it is to take those of the Oval Office. But if even a small part of his intimidations is fulfilled, thousands of officials and bureaucrats who "have undermined" his proposals or the policies he himself implemented between 2016 and 2020 can consider themselves dismissed.

For months, since the electoral campaign entered its decisive phase, the Republican leader has set up two offices in Manhattan (New York) and in the Willard Hotel in Washington where his team has examined thousands of potential candidates to join his vast team. The party estimates that it will have to fill 4,000 positions as soon as it settles in the White House.

This is only in the first phase because Trump plans an ambitious reform of the institutional and administrative architecture. Among these plans is to subordinate the Department of Justice to his own Presidency, remodel the Health Department's leadership, and possibly dismantle the Department of Education as it currently exists. He also wants to personally interfere in the future functioning of Defense. The Republican leader rarely forgets. In his previous term, he showed a notable obsession with "bringing home" all U.S. troops abroad and ending their participation in the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Somalia, which led to significant disagreements with the Pentagon's top brass. His disdain for this 'establishment' during the electoral campaign is significant.

An army, but of lawyers, is now working to resolve the multiple transition procedures and pave the way for the first presidential decisions. Trump wants to sign no less than 300 decrees as soon as he arrives at the Oval Office. The first, as he himself has announced, concern greater border control, deportations of migrants, and an increase in oil extractions to reduce fuel prices, whose high cost possibly helped him gain thousands of votes. The rumor that he might "close" the border on January 21 has prompted Joe Biden's administration to consider contingency measures to prevent a migrant surge in the next two months.

The billionaire John Paulson, a popular hedge fund investor, is at the center of the debate for new executive positions. Trump considers him for Treasury Secretary, the pivotal role in the entire government mechanism, although Scott Bessent, the founder of Key Square who has managed the president-elect's investment funds for years, is also being considered.

Key Square is a macro-investment group linked to geopolitics. Interestingly, Bessent organized a fundraising event for Democrat Al Gore in 2000 and six years later became an electoral donor for Trump. If, on the other hand, the Treasury Secretary position falls to John Paulson, it is almost certain that Elon Musk could create his desired "government efficiency" department, which among other things proposes to cut two trillion dollars from U.S. social spending.

Alongside this position, the other cornerstone of the government is the Secretary of State, currently held by Antony Blinken. Trump is considering Florida Senator Marco Rubio and former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell as candidates. The first is a prominent figure within the conservative formation, as in the first term from 2016 to 2020, he was one of the most influential legislators in foreign policy with Latin America.

Of Hispanic origin, Rubio has a great influence over a community that has surprisingly supported the Republican candidate in these elections. His speech is pleasing to these voters: free of tensions, moderate with migrants who have settled in the country and many of whom are already in the second or third generation, inflexible with the undocumented ("they must be detained and deported") and strict with those who are "violent illegal criminals," who will be "immediately expelled."

Regarding Grenell, the magnate appointed him U.S. ambassador to Germany in 2018 and previously was his special envoy in the Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations. He is a diffuse figure. Loyal to his boss. When the 2020 defeat occurred, Trump sent Grenell to set up a 'war room' with a team of lawyers and volunteers in a Las Vegas hotel to try to create the farce that there had been electoral fraud in Nevada. The former ambassador, considered by Democrats as a "soulless sellout" and an "extremely dishonest" person, privately told his employees that it was all a hoax intended to create chaos. However, Trump does not seem bothered by these comments. On the contrary, it is rumored that if he is not chosen as Secretary of State, he will be appointed head of Homeland Security. It is also said that he has good contacts in the Balkans that have facilitated major commercial agreements with the Republican leader's close circle.

In reality, the new president seems determined to surround himself with loyal people who have amply demonstrated their fidelity, and billionaires. Vivek Ramaswamy, founder of biotechnology and drug development companies with an estimated fortune of 980 million dollars, has great chances of joining the cabinet, despite having competed in the Republican Party primaries against Trump. He withdrew his candidacy in January and announced his support for the magnate. It is the time for acknowledgments. Although not everything is clear.

The president-elect himself accused Ramaswamy during the campaign of performing "deceptive tricks," and members of his team assured that it had only momentarily crossed his mind to assign him a position in the new government. However, Ramaswamy has a substantial fortune and in recent weeks has praised Trump as the best "commander in chief" at every public event he has attended. Trump's response: "He's a fantastic guy. He's going to work with us." Ah, politics. It forgives everything.

The transition team is also digging among current officials such as North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton. Pay attention to this name because several campaign advisors have recommended him to the magnate to appoint him Secretary of Defense. "The Justice Department cases against President Trump were a scandalous abuse of power. I'm glad they're over," he wrote this Thursday on his X account, regarding the possible decline of tax investigations against the Republican leader.

Tom has a story. He was a lawyer in a private firm when the September 11, 2001 attacks occurred, leaving more than 3,000 dead in the country. Cotton left his job, joined the army, rose to Infantry officer, and participated in the wars in Iraq, with the famous 101st Airborne Division, and in Afghanistan. As a senator, he is linked to Intelligence, Defense, and counterterrorism committees.

Susie Wiles has accompanied the Republican candidate throughout the campaign. She is his team leader and will likely become chief of staff. The top vertex of the organizational chart. At 67 years old, she has dedicated 40 years to politics as an advisor to senators, governors, and presidents, including Ronald Reagan. She was responsible for bringing Trump to the leadership of the United States in 2016 and later for making Ron DeSantis governor of Florida.

Is she a ruthless political hawk? "My specialty is creating order out of chaos," says this woman who represents the opposite of what she is: kind, moderate, smiling, and elusive. In fact, she tried to escape from photographers when Trump asked her to come on stage on Wednesday during his victory speech. Wiles has turned him into the phoenix. Three years ago, she brought him back to his current destination: she convinced the Republican Party that he was their best bet, designed the legal strategy to weather his four legal battles, and planned the electoral campaign.

Quite the opposite of Susie Wiles seems to be found in another of the 'called' to the government team: Robert F. Kennedy, a 'rare bird' in the midst of all this group of millionaires and long-standing loyalists, but whom the Republicans cannot forget: he renounced his own (and poor) candidacy to support Trump in exchange for a (good) position in the Administration, and it seems he will find it in the Health Department as an advisor; he, who is a popular alternative activist and anti-vaxxer. Like putting the fox in the henhouse.