The Cabinet pageant
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President-elect Trump plans to weigh in on roughly 40 top cabinet, agency and White House jobs from a makeshift Situation Room at Mar-a-Lago, where he's surrounded by TV monitors displaying profiles of potential picks.
- The interactive array lets aides instantly summon a multimedia menu covering whatever position or person he wants to consider next, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.
🧐 Why it matters: The process is just getting underway, and includes lots of surprise names, including some for big jobs.
- The real lists exclude many names floated publicly by people who claim to have knowledge of the process but actually don't.
📺 Behind the scenes: Each digital dossier includes tightly edited clips of a prospect's TV appearances, so Trump can get a sense of how effective they'd be in delivering his message.
- The video also helps him gauge whether they fit his Central Casting vision of authoritative, impressive underlings.
❌ Between the lines: We routinely get tips and text messages touting the prospects of administration hopefuls who have been definitively crossed off Trump's list.
- Elon Musk, Vice President-elect JD Vance and transition co-chair Howard Lutnick are among the small group intimately involved in choosing the most powerful — and sensitive — jobs.
💡 The big picture: As we told you last week, Trump is looking for two things — experience and loyalty. His early picks fit this bill: Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff ... Tom Homan as "border czar" ... Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as UN ambassador.
- New today: Stephen Miller, Trump's immigration hawk, will be named deputy White House chief of staff for policy. The position doesn't require confirmation.
🔮 What we're watching: The roles with the most juice are yet to come, including the secretaries of State, Defense, Treasury and Homeland Security, and directors of the FBI and CIA.
- The legal team, including attorney general and White House counsel, will be equally important — given Trump's eagerness to stretch the power of the presidency, and his promise to seek retribution against enemies.
Share this column ... Go deeper: Our Trump power players list.
