WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – In the two weeks since Election Day, President-elect Donald Trump has been setting records with the pace of appointments for his incoming administration. But speed shouldn’t be confused with organization.
Trump has pumped out more than two dozen appointments and nominations, including 16 Cabinet-level positions. The selection process, playing out in a converted conference room at his Mar-a-Lago club and on his gilded private jet, risks repeating some of the errors of his first term, and making some new ones.
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The picks are at once a manifestation of Trump’s pledge to voters to be a disruptive force in the country and a return to the chaotic era of governance that defined his first four years in the Oval Office.
“Last time they were slow and disorganized, this time they’re fast and disorganized,” said David Marchick, dean of the Kogod School of Business at American University and co-author of “The Peaceful Transition of Power,” a book on presidential transitions.
He said Trump was moving at least four times as quickly at rolling out his Cabinet as his modern predecessors, but added: “They’re moving with speed, but they’re making new mistakes.”
“He’s going at breakneck, reckless speed because there’s no vetting."
Trump himself has displayed no signs of regret about his personnel choices despite the questions that have arisen about some of his nominees' qualifications and backgrounds.
Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, an ally to Trump, said, “The president deserves to be able to put people in place who will do what he campaigned on, which is to disrupt, and the establishment is concerned, and they probably should be.”
But while allies say they are using their own processes to prepare for governing as the president-elect works to execute on his pledge to dramatically reshape Washington, Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, said Trump's team was missing a critical element of the process.
“The transition is not about change,” he said, “it is about finding the right change agent.”
Trump’s transition team has not signed the requisite agreements with the White House and the Department of Justice to allow for government background checks of his potential appointments and nominees. The process is playing out from Trump's private club and his old campaign offices, not government facilities in Washington, as the president-elect has thus far chosen not to cooperate with the Biden administration while preparing for his own.
“President Trump was re-elected by a resounding mandate from the American people to change the status quo in Washington," said transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, the incoming White House press secretary. "That’s why he has chosen brilliant and highly respected outsiders to serve in his administration, and he will continue to stand behind them as they fight against all those who seek to derail the MAGA agenda.”
Many Trump aides said they were surprised to learn of sexual assault allegations against Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host selected to lead the Pentagon. Hegseth has denied the allegations, but his attorney has acknowledged that Hegseth paid a hush-money settlement to the accuser. Vetting and background check questionnaires are designed in part to elicit that sort of history in advance of a selection.
The scattershot way some of the announcements have been revealed points to lack of an orderly process for the picks. Some selections have been unveiled by Trump’s official transition team by email, others by posts on his Truth Social platform. Trump’s selection of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence came from a posting by outside loyalist Roger Stone.
The selection of Matt Gaetz as nominee for attorney general was shocking not for his personal baggage — which is well known among Republicans, including the many in his own party in Congress who revile him — but for Trump’s decision to select him anyway, as he prioritizes loyalty for those in his new administration. The House Ethics Committee is set to meet Wednesday to decide whether to release a report on allegations including that Gaetz had sex with an underage woman, while Senate Democrats are aiming to get records from a now-closed Department of Justice criminal probe into the lawmaker.
Asked Tuesday if he was considering withdrawing Gaetz's nomination, Trump told reporters, “No.”
Gabbard’s history of praising dictators like Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is also well documented, while former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin’s limited experience with environmental issues didn’t preclude his nomination to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
The selections point to Trump rewarding those who were vocal supporters and seeking picks that enthuse his base, especially when their views are seen as disruptive and alarming to Washington, academia or other experts — like choosing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Trump has also seemed to entertain some of Kennedy’s views, including his skepticism of vaccines.
None of this may matter with Republicans set to take a 53-47 majority in the Senate, which would typically need to confirm his selections. Trump also has promised to try to use recess appointments to push through his nominees outside the normal process.
Trump has yet to build out a substantive operation to support his would-be nominees, from the public relations experts meant to help defend them from attacks or the guides meant to steer them through the Senate confirmation process. Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the vice president-elect, has taken a primary role in lobbying his colleagues on behalf of Trump’s picks, and Trump himself has advocated on their behalf. But Trump allies have publicly acknowledged that the blowback may sink some of his picks.
“We do have backup plans,” Donald Trump Jr. told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. “But I think we’re obviously going with the strongest candidates first.” The president's son has been lobbying in private and in public for figures in Trump’s orbit to get administration postings and is particularly close with Vance.
Meanwhile, deliberations over who should fill the highest-ranking position still awaiting a nominee, that of treasury secretary, has devolved into a public debate, with billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk polling his followers on how Trump should decide between top contenders, including Howard Lutnick, the transition co-chair who ended up being tapped Tuesday to lead the Commerce Department.
“Moving fast isn’t a very good strategy if you don’t move well — And they’re not moving well,” said Stier. “It’s being done quickly, but it’s being done without the kind of due diligence that ordinarily takes place and ensures that mistakes are not made.”
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AP writers Michele L. Price in New York and Steven Groves in Washington contributed.