The announcements have been coming at us fast on Truth Social and in emails. There were six of them on Tuesday evening alone, issued in rapid fire order in just 26 minutes.
President-elect Donald Trump has been quickly naming his cabinet and top White House aides, aiming to fill his roster by Thanksgiving. He’s clearly learned from his first effort to pull together a government following his 2016 election. He’s dispensing with as much of the public spectacle surrounding the process as he can.
No more dinners like he had eight years ago at Jean-Georges in New York with Mitt Romney, discussing the secretary of state post as reporters and photographers chronicled the evening from feet away.
That isn’t to say there hasn’t been drama. If anything, competing factions have advanced candidates for important posts with selective leaks and sophisticated maneuvering that have turned Mar-a-Lago into the setting for a Palm Beach version of “Game of Thrones.”
Nor is this the end of the process. For some nominees who require Senate confirmation, their agony is only beginning. They will now be subjected to scrutiny akin to a political proctology exam. Most will survive the ordeal. A few are likely to fall, exiting like Mr. Trump’s first attorney-general pick, the scandal-plagued and deeply disliked (by Republicans) Matt Gaetz. Others may face a rough ride as senators in public hearings examine their qualifications, views, fitness and actions.
Still, Mr. Trump’s first step toward assembling a government is largely complete. While his nominees prepare for their hearings, the president-elect must turn to what is in many respects an equally important task: picking the No. 2s for his cabinet secretaries and administrators.
No head of a department or agency runs the outfit alone. He depends on other political appointees and thousands of senior civil-service officials to execute policy. That requires leadership and able lieutenants.
It will be especially important for Mr. Trump’s picks to have capable No. 2s as undersecretary, deputy secretary and chief deputy administrator—titles vary from place to place—especially if the No. 1 is new to government or that department’s function.
Former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, for example, is a smart, capable leader. But the Environmental Protection Agency is a complex organization that can eat novice administrators for breakfast. Mr. Zeldin will need a deputy who has served in the agency, knows how it functions and how it will try confounding even the most purpose-driven leader. The same can be said for every other spot Mr. Trump is filling.
The federal bureaucracy has ways of dealing with cabinet secretaries and administrators. Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates warned in his memoir against becoming “a kept man,” the person at the top “enjoying all the accouterments of position and authority—the big plane, massive entourages, lots of ceremonies and speeches”— but who is “held hostage” by his staff and the bureaucracy “without the knowledge or influence to effectively lead the department in new directions.”
In some cases it appears Mr. Trump learned this lesson in his first term and is turning his attention to making certain his cabinet secretaries are surrounded by people with battlefield experience. One example is Jim O’Neill, tapped by Mr. Trump to serve as deputy secretary of Health and Human Services. He’d be right-hand man to Robert Kennedy Jr., if Mr. Kennedy is ultimately confirmed, which is far from a sure thing.
Mr. O’Neill comes from the private sector, having been managing director of two investment firms. But he previously worked on Capitol Hill and in the White House. He spent nearly two years at the Education Department and almost six at Health and Human Services, where he was principal associate deputy secretary and senior adviser to the “dep sec,” the post he’s been now nominated to fill. The first day he walks into department headquarters at the Hubert H. Humphreybuilding, Mr. O’Neill will know more than the location of the men’s room.
We’ll see if the same thing happens in other key agencies, like the defense, state and justice departments. Having the department actively pushing the Trump agenda as quickly as possible will help determine the president’s ultimate success.
