Washington Wednesday: Trump administration 2.0

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 13th of November.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Time now for Washington Wednesday.

A week after his victory, President-elect Trump is choosing his cabinet.

But as he fills out his team, Trump is also creating vacancies in Congress.

Here’s WORLD Washington Bureau Reporter Carolina Lumetta.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: While Congress reconvenes for a lame duck session, President-elect Trump is working from Florida to staff the next administration. And the names he’s released so far are pretty different from his first cabinet.

NATHAN BRAND: I think he struck a pretty good balance here. I think these are individuals that are very loyal, first and foremost.

Nathan Brand is a Republican strategist based in Washington. He says that Trump arrived in 2016 as a political outsider with relatively few DC connections. This time around, he’s picking close contacts and allies.

BRAND: These picks reflect that loyalty is first and foremost. And the second is experience. These are not out of the blue picks. None of these people are like, oh shoot, they don't have a resume in an area that reflects the area in which they will be working in the admin.

Trump’s first formal cabinet member selection was New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik…to serve as ambassador to the United Nations. She currently chairs the House Republican conference, the first woman to hold the position. She was also the first member of Congress to endorse Trump’s reelection campaign. In his announcement, Trump cited Stefanik’s viral moment last year when she sharply questioned university presidents about antisemitic protests on campus. Here’s Stefanik talking about it during an address to Israeli lawmakers in May.

STEFANIK: And that question was, “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university's code of conduct on bullying and harassment?” And one after the other, after the other answered quote, “It depends on the context.” Let me tell you, it does not depend on the context.

Another early pick…Trump tapped former Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan as the so-called “border czar.” This position does not require Senate confirmation and involves advising Trump on border management. In his announcement, Trump said Homan will—in his words— “be in charge of all deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin.”

Homan recently answered questions from 60 Minutes about what to expect:

REPORTER: If it's not going to be as you say massive sweeps and concentration camps, what is it?

HOMAN: There will be targeted arrests.

Another Trump ally on the list of appointees is former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin. In 2019 and 2020, Zeldin served on Trump’s House defense team during the former president’s first impeachment hearings. Here’s what he told reporters in the Capitol at the time:

ZELDIN: The president of the United States knows that this is a total sham. Many of my constituents, a lot of the American public knows that this is a total charade.

This week, Trump announced Zeldin as his choice to run the Environmental Protection Agency. He was on FOX News Tuesday.

ZELDIN: The president was talking about unleashing economic prosperity. Through the EPA we have the ability to pursue energy dominance.

Zeldin has also talked about cutting regulations to encourage businesses to stay in the U.S., and increasing energy production to meet the needs of companies producing artificial intelligence.

But not everyone on the short list has supported Trump from the start…

RUBIO: There is no way we are going to allow a con artist to take over the Conservative movement. And Donald Trump is a con artist.

Senator Marco Rubio condemned Trump as a rival presidential candidate in 2016…but later endorsed him as the GOP nominee. He has since become a Trump supporter and was considered an option for Vice President.

At the Republican National Convention this year, Rubio lauded foreign policy under Trump’s first administration.

RUBIO: Our borders were secure and our laws were enforced. Iran was broke. The Taliban stopped killing Americans, and Putin didn't invade anyone.

Now, many media outlets report he is likely to be Trump’s Secretary of State. Rubio could bring significant foreign policy experience to the White House…if Trump confirms the news.

VIKE: Oftentimes future administrations throw out some names to kind of do a little bit of vetting, a reaction vetting, as opposed to kind of announcing someone right off the bat.

Jim Vike is a professor of political science at Widener University. He says this wouldn’t be the first time Trump has floated names for cabinet positions before making a formal announcement.

JIM VIKE: During the 2016 transition into 2017 Mitt Romney kind of came in and kind of talked to him about potentially being secretary of state.

The role went to former Senator Jeff Sessions.

If Trump does name Rubio to lead the State Department, he’ll be one of several members of congress leaving key holes on Capitol Hill. That includes the Vice President-elect.

VANCE: I felt good about my own race a couple of years ago, when i voted in this exact same spot. Hopefully it goes as well for president Trump and me as it went for me a couple of years ago in the state of Ohio.

With Ohio Senator J.D. Vance heading to the White House, Governor Mike DeWine is compiling a list of possible appointees to complete Vance’s term. And if Rubio is confirmed, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis must do the same. Their replacements are unlikely to affect the balance of power. But Rubio will leave a coveted leadership seat on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, as well as positions on the Foreign Relations and Appropriations Committees.

Over in the House, Stefanik’s departure leaves a vacuum in Republican leadership, where internal elections to fill top slots are happening today. Trump also tapped Florida Congressman Mike Waltz as his national security adviser, a role that does not require Senate confirmation…but would require a special election in Florida to fill his seat. With narrow margins, that could make things challenging for House Republicans. Speaker Mike Johnson addressed those concerns at the Capitol on Tuesday.

JOHNSON : President Trump fully understands and appreciates the math here. I don't expect that we will have more members leaving, but, um, I'll leave that up to him. But yes, are we talking about it all the time, and he fully appreciates that.

Confirmation hearings will begin in the new year after Republicans officially claim the majority in the Senate. With that majority, most if not all of Trump’s picks are likely to be installed before he is inaugurated on January 20th.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.