I am unaccustomed to this level of optimism. The bottom line is: I’m optimistic because President Trump keeps making good decisions.
We were told Donald Trump was going to come into office and immediately staff up complete idiots around him. It’s almost as though those were myths, all untrue — though we were told that by the most intelligent people. As they said, Trump had fired people like General James Mattis. After all, Trump had been at odds with so many members of his prior administration, there would be no one left. He would be forced to dip into the bottom of the barrel, they said.
But thus far, I see precisely zero evidence that is the case. The people who are apparently doing the staffing on a wide variety of issues include people like the vice president of the United States elect, JD Vance. Trump-world insiders like Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Susie Wiles are on that team. Brian Hook, who is involved in foreign policy, is as well. In other words, the people who are going to go into the Trump administration are not going to be jokers. They are going to be very serious people with very serious portfolios.
Late yesterday, Donald Trump announced he would be tapping his campaign manager, Susie Wiles, as the White House chief of staff. Wiles, a very serious person, is well-respected on all sides of the political spectrum inside the Republican Party. Everyone from Jeb Bush all the way to Donald Trump has endorsed Wiles as chief of staff.
She’s a very serious politico. She has worked not only with Trump, but with Rick Scott when he was governor of Florida and with Governor Ron DeSantis when he was running for governor of Florida. Then she went back into the Trump campaign. She is wily, savvy, and knife-sharp. She is an exceptionally solid political fighter.
The Wall Street Journal article covering Trump’s announcement of White House chief of staff, reads, “Susie Wiles, who led Donald Trump’s presidential run, will become his White House chief of staff when he retakes the presidency next year, the campaign said Thursday, making her the first woman to hold that role in U.S. history.” Remember when, according to Mark Cuban, Trump wouldn’t surround himself with strong women? Yet Wiles is, indeed, a strong woman.
Trump said in a statement, “Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns. Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”
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Wiles keeps her cards real close to the vest. She is incredibly savvy, and she is not the type of person who is going to take kindly to people who do not have Team Trump’s best interests at heart. So she is an excellent pick by President Trump. And again, she’s well respected on pretty much every side of the Republican political spectrum.
Now, the question as to how she negotiates in Congress is still open. Usually the chief of staff has a lot of congressional negotiations. The good news for her is that while she doesn’t have tons of experience at doing that — because again, she was campaign manager in 2016 and 2020 in part, and she didn’t really involve herself in legislative affairs — she will be negotiating with Mike Johnson in the House.
In the Senate, the Senate leadership battle is still wide open at this point. There’s a lot of speculation about who is going to take over as the Senate majority leader because Mitch McConnell has announced he’s going to step down. There are some rumors that Rick Scott, for example, is trying to run for it. There are more than rumors, he does want the Senate majority leadership position.
There are some members of the base who are very hot on Scott, so he’s a possibility. John Thune is also a very solid possibility. Most of the more established members of the U.S. Senate are probably going to back Thune or John Cornyn. Honestly, any of those people will be perfectly capable of negotiating with President Trump and will do a fine job in that role.
Meanwhile, President-elect Trump and his senior advisers are privately assembling short lists of candidates for top jobs in the incoming administration. Apparently, Trump’s transition team, according to the Wall Street Journal, is being “led by co-chair Howard Lutnick, who is overseeing personnel” and “has put together spreadsheets with names for the former president to consider.”
Among the people who are being considered for national security adviser is Richard Grenell. We all know him as Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence. Grenell would do an amazing job in that role. The Wall Street Journal goes on: “Other potential candidates include Keith Kellogg, an octogenarian, retired three star Army general and former national security advisor to vice President Mike Pence; former Defense Department official Elbridge Colby; and Robert O’Brien, who served as the last of four national security advisers during Trump’s first term.”
Some of the people mentioned for secretary of the treasury include “Key Square Group founder Scott Bessent, and billionaire investor John Paulson.” A few of the possibilities mentioned for secretary of state are Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, as well as Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Both of those would be excellent picks.
Other potential candidates include O’Brien, Grenell, and former senior State Department official Brian Hook, who is largely seen as the person compiling lists on who precisely should go into the foreign policy establishment. Hook has been speaking publicly about what the administration’s Iran policy is, and it is already bearing fruit. They haven’t even taken office yet and action is already happening to bring down conflicts in the Middle East.
As far as secretary of defense, some of the names that have been thrown out are Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who Trump acknowledged in his victory speech in Florida Wednesday morning.
Republican Representative John Ratcliffe, who has served as Trump’s director of national intelligence, is being put forward as a candidate as head of the Department of Defense or CIA. Mike Waltz, a congressman from Florida, is being considered as a possible DOD leader. For Homeland Security, Chad Wolf’s and Tom Homan’s names are being mentioned, both of whom would be great. The bottom line is: All of these names would be not just acceptable, but also excellent.
Furthermore, the markets are picking up on this, and “Washington’s open for business,” as Axios puts it. Marc Andreessen, an investor who backed President Trump in this race, tweeted out this morning that he believes that we are going to be seeing unprecedented economic growth. He says, “America is an economic coiled spring. We should be growing at least 4% annually and ideally 6-8%+. Growth has been brutally suppressed since before I was born. But there is so much to build. And the payoff for all Americans will be incredible.”
That is the mood in the business community. As Axios reports, “Buckle up. President-elect Trump plans fast action on a business-friendly agenda of tax cuts, deregulation and expanded energy production, his advisers tell us.”
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This all has a downward effect on inflation, because with more productivity comes more supply which then keeps up with demand; then, prices drop. Deregulation means more investment, it means economic growth, it means more innovation. “Trump plans to load his White House and Cabinet with business- and tech-friendly executives, and stretch the powers of the presidency to force quick changes,” Axios writes. “Trump advisers believe in retrospect that they wasted early opportunities in his first term” because they did not know how to staff.
This is the nice thing for Trump’s second term. They know exactly who they have to fire. Trump is going to take office with a triumvirate. He’ll have the House and the Senate. He’s going to fill his top ranks with actual business leaders. The courts and leaders are going to support him.
The people picking staff include Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, David Sacks, and Joe Lonsdale. What a team that’s going to be. You want to talk about growing the economy? You want to talk about a productivity explosion? You want to talk about people who know how to build businesses and know how markets work?
You’re not going to do better than that group of people.
