Trump, defying the media’s predictions, is mostly choosing Capitol Hill veterans like Marco Rubio

The media has been warning for months that Donald Trump “will not have the reins” in his second term, and will probably give top positions to a bunch of right-wing lunatics.

Instead, he picked Marco Rubio yesterday as secretary of State, a 14-year Senate veteran and the son of Cuban immigrants who has been informally advising him on foreign policy.

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The president-elect has also tapped a number of Hill veterans who are mainstream conservatives, who agree with him on key issues and could easily be named by Mitt Romney.

Also yesterday, Trump chose Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, as secretary of Homeland Security, after overcoming the dog shooting incident that got her out of jail.

Trump has been issuing these positions at hyper-speed, just a week after the election. He never spoke on TV and never made any provocative posts. He tries to show that he is serious about ruling, by hitting the ground running.

In the past, presidents and president-elects have appeared on air, praised their nominee or maybe two, and allowed a short, thank-you speech for the nominees. But Trump seems to be skipping all that.

All the top jobs weren’t filled, obviously, but even some top Democrats praised Rubio’s choice (while others in the MAGA movement were disappointed). There is no doubt that he is a hawk, and he will be the face of American foreign policy as he travels around the world.

Sure, he said bad things about Trump, who mocked him like little Marco, when they both ran in 2016. I watched Rubio on the road that year and he is a very powerful speaker.

But the two have been mending fences for a long time. Rubio has tried to push immigration reform over the past decade as part of various Senate caucuses, but has since distanced himself from the effort.

I keep seeing TV chyrons who, almost suspiciously, say that Trump is hiring “honest.” Excuse me–do you think Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton didn’t hire honest people? Presidents want aides who tend to get along with them and who won’t turn into bullies. Biden has hired longtime advisers like Ron Klain, Mike Donilon and Steve Richetti.

From a conservative point of view, when Biden hired top officials who wanted to tighten environmental laws, strengthen labor unions and spend hundreds of billions of dollars to dig up the epidemic, that was a drastic departure from Trump 1.0. Now Trump will reverse many of Biden’s policies with the stroke of a pen.

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Other picks so far: New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a member of the House leadership and an impeachment defender, has been nominated for UN ambassadorship.

Trump also picked former Long Island congressman Lee Zeldin to run the EPA. He is a conservative who has opposed extreme environmental laws and received a lifetime rating of 14 percent from the League of Conservation Voters. He told Fox News that the administration will “roll back regulations” that make businesses “struggle” and “force” them to go overseas.

After that, Trump tapped Florida GOP congressman Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret, as a White House national security adviser, which does not require Senate confirmation. He is a China hawk and a Ukrainian skeptic. “Stopping Russia before it drags NATO and therefore the US into war is the right thing to do,” Waltz wrote. “But the burden cannot continue to be solely on the shoulders of the American people, especially while Western Europe is passing by.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., attends a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump at the Trump National Doral Golf Club on July 9, 2024 in Doral, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

These are honest people who know how Washington works.

By the way, Trump narrowed what was expected to be a slight GOP edge in the House by electing two members. But in Rubio’s case, Gov. Ron DeSantis can nominate a replacement until the midterm elections.

As I write this, Trump has just named Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate, as ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has led many delegations to the country and supports Israel.

And after filing this, Trump named Bill McGinley, who served the RNC loyally in the election and is the general counsel of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as his White House counsel.

And after I posted, another announcement: John Ratcliffe is being contacted by the director of the CIA. The former Texas congressman, known for criticizing the FBI as being biased against Trump, became his director of national intelligence in 2020.

Last night, Trump made his first appointment on Fox News. Pete Hegseth, a combat veteran and host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” has been nominated for Secretary of Defense. Trump noted that Hegseth served tours in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan, was awarded two Bronze Stars, and recently published the bestseller “The War on Warriors.”

Trump tried to confirm him last year, but Ratcliffe backed out after GOP chiefs and former intel officials expressed concern about him, amid media revelations that he embellished his prosecution efforts on immigration and terrorism cases. So he certainly qualifies as a very partial selection.

The two nominees who could be described as aggressive – critics would say radical – are Stephen Miller and Tom Homan – both hired to tackle Trump’s top priority, the border.

Miller, who led immigration policy in Trump’s first term, has been promoted to deputy chief of staff, and that title does not include the momentum he will have as a trusted member of the inner circle. He pushed for a policy of family separation that was highly controversial.

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Homan, who ran ICE for the first term, is being called the border governor. When asked if there is a way to avoid separating families, as happened last time, he said sure – deport them all together.

He said at a conference this summer: “The Washington Post can do all the stories they want on me about ‘Tom Homan’s deportin’ people, he’s very good at it!’ They haven’t seen s*** Wait until 2025!”

Miller and Homan will be responsible for deporting the 11 million illegal immigrants living in America, or at least starting the process so that the president-elect can claim to have kept his promise. Critics say the policy is absurd.

Now there are others who will enjoy great influence. Elon Musk, who donated $119 million to Trump, is now the most powerful private citizen ever to head the waste disposal commission, sending hundreds of messages to X, sitting on Trump’s phone to Volodymyr Zelenskyy – all the while seeking billions in government contracts.

Trump said last night that Musk would lead the Department of Government Operations – he promised to “send shockwaves through the system” – with the help of former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Tom Homan, former acting director of US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, US, on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

RFK Jr. will get some headlines, but Trump has to decide if he will stick with his controversial views on vaccines and removing fluoride from water systems. He also threatened to fire FDA officials who waged a “public health war,” saying the agency suppressed products like raw milk, ivermectin and vitamins.

And of course, JD Vance will be the extraordinary acting vice president and heir apparent.

Up next: the top jobs of Treasury secretary and the incredibly sensitive post of attorney general. I also want to know who will be the press secretary!

One of the reasons we have weeks and weeks of negative coverage is that every beat reporter in the world must now do mandatory pieces on Donald Trump.

Whether it covers sports, religion, labor, housing, entertainment, courts, energy, television, schools or crime, they need to write about the impact of the 47th president–remembering that he considers everything.

From yesterday only:

Washington Post: “Trump Pledges to Close Education Department. What Would That Mean?”

New York Times: “Trump’s ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Cuts Both Ways for Oil Companies.”

Also: “Colleges Wonder If They’ll Be ‘The Enemy’ Under Trump”

But my personal favorite: “What Trump’s Presidency Means for the Brewery Industry.”

(Trump isn’t drinking, but every industry wants less regulation.)

There’s also this Drudge article: “Wife Divorces Husband by Voting.”

As the Mirror reports, “The man said he didn’t believe his wife was ready to ‘throw our lives away’ after filing for divorce over her vote for Donald Trump.

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The distraught husband wrote on social media that he has run out of words that the marriage could collapse because of politics.”

I think the family separation policy comes in many forms.