Speculation whirls as Trump begins vetting for top White House jobs

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Donald Trump’s campaign team launched into transition mode barely 12 hours after polls closed — a jarring turn that left exhausted staffers and members of the media scrambling on Wednesday.

Huddled in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump’s advisers by midday were hurriedly ironing out transition plans, particularly how to handle a deluge of questions about the people and policies that will shape the second Trump White House.

After his election night rout, Trump’s advisers have made clear his top Day One priorities include executive orders on border security and oil drilling, and other measures to promote energy independence. With Congress potentially under full Republican control, Trump’s team is emboldened to push aspects of his America First agenda as soon as he re-enters office.

“There’s a chance to show there are some ideas, a lot of policy areas where we should be able to agree,” Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told POLITICO, citing “executive action on day one” pertaining to closing the southern border and energy exploration to drive down prices.

But before any Day One action will be taken, Trump and his transition advisers are beginning the process of vetting candidates to populate both his Cabinet and broader administration. Jockeying for top posts that had begun long before the election was called ramped up in earnest on Wednesday.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a finalist to be Trump’s running mate, did not rule out the possibility of serving in his second administration, though he said he had not had conversations with the former president’s team about it. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine skeptic and former presidential candidate who is part of Trump’s transition team, hit the media circuit to vow not to “take vaccines away from anybody” — even as he said Trump would go ahead with recommending getting rid of fluoride in public drinking water. Kennedy is likely to end up playing a significant role in health care under Trump’s next administration.

Meanwhile Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis started publicly lobbying for his state’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, to serve as Health and Human Services Secretary. And John Fleming, a former Trump administration official and deputy chief of staff in 2020, is in talks with Trump advisers about a senior position, he told POLITICO. Currently Louisiana’s treasurer, he has expressed interest in Commerce or Health and Human Services secretary.

Transition co-chair Howard Lutnick has been pulling names and resumes from Wall Street titans like Steve Schwarzman, Chuck Schwab and Ross Perot Jr. to help scout for top positions.

Most surrogates were circumspect about potential roles in Trump’s White House, politely dodging questions about whether or not they were angling for jobs.

“You have to be asked,” former Trump White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley replied when asked if he had committed to serving again.

Trump’s transition team has been requesting policy memos from potential administration officials and already is prepared with a menu of actions and orders Trump can take on the first day of his administration. While Linda McMahon, the former small business administrator and co-chair of Trump’s transition has been leading the policy arm, a mix of former Trump administration officials and allies have been tasked with crafting policies on issues ranging from intelligence to economic policy.immigration to energy policy.

The transition has also been leaning on the work of conservative think tanks, including America First Policy Institute, whose leaders are playing key roles in the transition efforts.

Speculation is building about prospects for high-profile posts. During a luncheon with conservative members of Congress a few weeks ago, Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former national security adviser, mentioned some names for key Cabinet posts, according to a Republican Hill staffer in attendance. He said that Sens. Rubio and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and former acting National Intelligence Director Rick Grenell were candidates for secretary of State, and that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was a possibility for secretary of Defense, per the Hill aide.

Grenell drew buzz when he appeared with Trump at a meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in September.

While Trump’s campaign advisers had said in recent days that there was a real possibility the race could be called by the end of election night, even Trump himself on Tuesday was signaling that the process could be drawn out for days — underscoring the uncertainty about just how soon his team would kick into transition mode if he won.

“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate. We have taken back control of the Senate. Wow,” Trump said early Wednesday morning, seeming surprised at the margins by which he won and Republicans overperformed. “That’s great.”

But while Trump’s advisers were hurriedly working on building a transition to stand up the next administration — a process akin to a start up business — the former president was mostly preoccupied with taking congratulatory calls from world leaders and celebrating his two-year campaign for the White House. He didn’t speak publicly.

Among those with Trump the day after the election at Mar-a-Lago — out of public sight — were two campaign surrogates whose ideas about policy could play an influential role in the next administration: conservative media host Tucker Carlson and Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk.

A host of questions remain about how Trump’s team will handle the second time he’s taken control of the executive branch, including if and when he will sign an agreement with the General Services Administration for federal resources to aid in transition efforts. On Wednesday, the department reiterated that it was “prepared to work with President-elect Trump’s transition team to complete the required agreement to receive GSA administrative services and support.”

A White House official confirmed that Trump’s transition team had not yet entered the agreement, though transition co-chair Howard Lutnick has told CNN it will “probably” happen.

Declining GSA support – an unprecedented move by a presidential transition – would mean Trump’s transition could privately raise an unlimited amount of money from unreported donors for the transition and sidestep federal ethics pledge requirements. But it could also complicate or even prevent the transition team from getting access to things like government email addresses or information technology for cyber-protection.

The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment about the status of its discussions with GSA or the White House.

Both Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden called Trump on Wednesday, according to Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung. He said Biden “extended an invitation to the White House to ensure a smooth transition.” Trump, Cheung said, “looks forward to the meeting, which will take place shortly, and very much appreciated the call.”

Trump and his team also have to decide whether and when to make good on the host of promises he made on the campaign trail, from carrying out the “largest deportation” of immigration in American history, to enacting sweeping new tariffs on imports, to gutting major parts of the federal government.

Some of his signature pledges could prove difficult to execute, such as following through on the array of taxes he’s pledged to slash — on overtime, tips, Social Security benefits among them.

But Trump and his team are buoyed by the response he received from voters at the ballot box. According to exit polling, he drew historic support from minority voters and even outperformed expectations with suburban women, a demographic he has struggled to capture for years.

“We knew we were putting together something special,” said a Trump adviser, granted anonymity to react candidly, while walking out of the West Palm Beach Convention Center after Trump’s early-morning victory speech. “We didn’t know it would end quite this special.”

Hailey Fuchs and Jordan Wolman contributed to this report.