How to get hired by Donald Trump

AFTER DONALD TRUMPMAGAMAGACIA: won the presidential election in 2016—when he was a former television star rather than a former president—he managed the White House transition as if it were a high-stakes episode of “The Apprentice”. Aspiring cabinet members arrived at his eponymous tower in New York and walked past television cameras for interviews with the president-elect. Kanye West even made an appearance. This time , Mr Trump’s campaign manager and his future chief of staff, has led an orderly, low-key process. Mr Trump’s deliberations at Mar-a-Lago in Florida are occasionally punctuated by announcements on social media. Applicants are skittish about discussing their job search publicly, but some patterns have emerged. As of November 12th several publications were reporting that Marco Rubio (pictured, with Mr Trump) would become secretary of state. How does one go about getting hired by Mr Trump?The transition’s personnel efforts are led by Howard Lutnick, an investment banker whose potential conflicts of interest have rankled some in Trump world. Brian Hook, who oversaw Iran policy in the first term, will be an important figure in staffing the State Department. , whom Mr Trump has already named as trade representative, is influential on trade and broader economic policy. Tom Homan, a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been tapped to be “border tsar”. Stephen Miller, a notorious border hawk, will be deputy chief of staff for policy. Lee Zeldin, a former congressman, has been nominated to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, tasked with making “swift deregulatory decisions”. Michael Waltz, a congressman who co-authored about foreign policy for , is reported to have been chosen as the national security adviser.Mr Trump’s hiring preferences are hard to predict. The first qualification is loyalty. All presidents expect this, but Mr Trump’s circle has placed a particular premium on personal fidelity to the commander-in-chief. He clearly has been stung by criticism from first-term officials. Although most of Mr Trump’s original cabinet endorsed his third White House bid, several prominent figures argued that the president-elect poses a danger to democracy and national security. Mr Trump is keen to avoid hiring anyone who might publicly turn on him, as his former national security adviser, chief of staff and defence secretary did.Qualified candidates who have slighted Mr Trump may be out of the running for jobs. On November 9th Mr Trump declared that he would not offer positions to Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations, or Mike Pompeo, his former secretary of state. Ms Haley’s exclusion seemed preordained. As the runner-up in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, she had criticised Mr Trump in harsh terms before dropping out and offering a delayed endorsement—and more criticism ahead of election day. He was openly contemptuous of his former ambassador throughout the campaign.Mr Trump probably couldn’t staff a credible cabinet if he only hired officials who had never disparaged him. In the past he has been willing to forgive tough criticism—after sufficient grovelling. J.D. Vance, the vice-president-elect, once privately called Mr Trump possibly “America’s Hitler”. Years later at a rally Mr Trump delighted in humiliating Mr Vance as he ran for the United States Senate: “JD is kissing my ass, he wants my support so bad.” Elise Stefanik, now one of Mr Trump’s most loyal defenders on Capitol Hill, has been tapped to be the United Nations ambassador despite criticising Mr Trump during his first presidential run. Other former primary challengers, like , the governor of North Dakota, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotechnology entrepreneur, speedily endorsed Mr Trump, became prominent surrogates and may well serve in the administration.Candidates also face other distinctly Trumpian tests. The former president likes officials who look the part and can ably defend him on cable television. Mr Vance had notably low approval ratings as a vice-presidential candidate but remains in Mr Trump’s good graces because of his combative style during interviews. “He is a feisty guy, isn’t he?” Mr Trump said on election night. “He just goes and absolutely obliterates them.” Successful appearances on friendlier terrain like Fox News and Tucker Carlson can also help build a candidate’s profile. Elbridge Colby, a former Trump-administration defence official, recently denounced national-security hawks on Mr Carlson’s programme.Although Mr Trump’s preferences are paramount, more than 1,000 positions require approval from the Republican-controlled Senate. The party is on track to win 53 seats, so just four defectors can derail nominations if they are joined by all the Democrats. And with two-thirds of senators not up for re-election until 2028 or 2030, they are more insulated from pressure than members of the House of Representatives. A highly controversial nominee like Robert F. Kennedy junior, for example, could have trouble winning majority support for a meaningful cabinet position.That may not be necessary. “Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments,” Mr Trump posted on Sunday, referring to a process occasionally used by Democratic and Republican presidents to bypass the Senate and approve nominees for limited terms. All three candidates to be Senate majority leader voiced support for the idea. Along with Mr Rubio, another Republican senator, Bill Hagerty, had been rumoured as a secretary-of-state candidate.The most difficult dynamic to decipher is how ideology plays into Mr Trump’s hiring process. Mike Pence, his former vice-president, helped to fill the first cabinet with Reaganite Republicans. In Mr Trump’s first term traditional Republicans vied for influence with acolytes, who scoffed at conservative pieties about small government, robust internationalism and free trade. The lines of this fight often blurred, and each side claimed some victories. One former Trump adviser has described the president-elect as a moderate in the movement. This time, though, the true believers begin with the upper hand.They doomed the prospects of Mr Pompeo. He was a rare survivor in Mr Trump’s first term, spending four years in the president’s good books as director and then the country’s top diplomat. He opted not to challenge his former boss in the presidential primary but still took some veiled shots, once warning of “celebrity leaders with their own brand of identity politics”. But his attempts to return as defence secretary fell flat, apparently over ideology. “The ‘stop Pompeo’ movement is great but it’s not enough,” an isolationist influencer tweeted in response to the news that Mr Trump had rejected Ms Haley and Mr Pompeo for jobs in his new administration. “Right now we need maximum pressure to keep all neocons and war hawks out of the Trump administration.” Mr Trump’s son, Donald junior, responded that he “agreed…I’m on it.”The younger Trump may also be aiming to prevent the emergence of credible challengers to Mr Vance for the 2028 presidential nomination. This could explain how some relatively hawkish figures who lack presidential ambitions make it into the administration.Sometimes it just helps to know a guy. Conservatives are calling in favours from old friends throughout the administration in waiting. Some with perceived closeness to the president show it off. “Dear Trump Job Seekers: Long time, no chat,” a rumoured contender for attorney-general recently wrote. “I am going to ask you to provide me specific and concrete evidence of your loyalty to Trump. If you cannot provide a lot of that, stop asking me.”