Who’s really running Donald Trump’s transition
Over the weekend, Donald Trump zipped around his West Palm Beach club on a golf cart with Elon Musk, stopping to introduce him to club members. The president-elect took Musk to the gift shop at Mar-a-Lago to look at hats, and the men dined alfresco with Melania Trump, as club members applauded and craned their necks for a glimpse of Trump with the world’s richest man.
That wasn’t the only buzz of activity: Howard Lutnick, a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, was spotted making his way through the lobby of Mar-a-Lago with a stack of papers, presumably related to the massive governmental change of hands just months away. Later, he was seen having lunch with Trump and his 17-year-old granddaughter Kai at the golf club.
Also spotted was incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles coming and going from the club, where some rooms are closed off with curtains for VIP transition meetings. On the sidelines of meetings, honorary transition co-chairs Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard posed for photos with Mar-a-Lago members and hangers-on throughout the weekend.
During Trump’s first transition, the press got a live look at VIPs being paraded through the Trump Tower lobby for meetings upstairs — or, in Mitt Romney’s case, an embarrassing frog leg dinner with Trump at Jean Georges. This time is less public, as the comings and goings are recorded on social media and in conversations with reporters. The work of the transition is taking place out of view of the photos of meals enjoyed underneath the yellow-striped umbrellas at the Mar-a-Lago patio, as Trump and his team huddle with a coterie of power players.
Another difference: Where in 2016 Trump leaned on Washington establishment types to navigate his initiation to the government, this time around he’s more likely to take advice from people more known for their influence in the worlds of business and political commentary, or for their massive social media followings. The undertaking has the feel of a startup, according to those sitting in on the meetings.
Trump and his transition advisers, according to a person familiar with the setup, are reviewing candidates from a room at Mar-a-Lago with long tables and a few televisions where he can be shown media clips and bios of candidates on screen.
People close to Trump say he has always sought input from a random assortment of advisers, ranging from captains of industry to the Las Vegas waitress who Trump said became the inspiration for his no-tax-on-tips proposal. But as he and his team plot out his next administration, the message being sent by the people he’s huddling with in Palm Beach is that he’s more welcoming than ever to Republican outsiders who want to shake up Washington.
“There's a lot of different factions. There's a lot of people calling Trump. There's a lot of people who thought one thing was set in stone and are finding out that's not the case, and the chessboard is going to be shuffled a lot in the coming weeks,” said one person with knowledge of the transition.
A person involved in transition meetings described the affair as a “positive type of startup culture,” where Trump and his team are “pulling the best people into the room to give ideas, regardless of titles.”
“There’s positive energy, creativity, openness to ideas,” the person said.
One club member and observer of the transition said the process has appeared much more organized and “discreet” than past Trump endeavors at his club — referencing the time former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Trump held a national security meeting about North Korea in front of dinner guests.
Already, Trump has announced the roles of chief of staff, deputy chief of staff for policy, EPA administrator, border czar and U.N. ambassador. He's expected to roll out more high profile roles in the coming days. Meanwhile, some contenders are taking themselves out of the running as conversations evolve — including Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), a contender for attorney general who said he’d like to stay on the Hill.
Those who have been in meetings with Trump and his team in recent days or have given input include not just his transition co-chairs Lutnick and Linda McMahon, but Musk, Vice President-elect JD Vance, his son Donald Trump Jr., Gabbard and Kennedy. There’s also a rotating cast of conservative influencers like Charlie Kirk and Vivek Ramaswamy, according to four people with knowledge of the meetings.
Others, like Trump’s personal friend Steve Witkoff, who is co-chairing the inaugural committee, have also been providing input on Trump’s still-forming cabinet, said another person with knowledge of the deliberations. And, of course, Trump continues to dial up friends and allies outside the transition for their opinions.
The main source of Musk’s influence is obvious — the $120 million he poured into helping elect Trump, while also personally promoting Trump and other Trump-aligned voices on X, his social media platform. Musk has been personally weighing in on Trump’s choices for the cabinet and has even been in the room for calls with world leaders.
Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump this summer helped secure support from a key demographic of independent voters, ranging from crunchy suburban mothers concerned about childhood health outcomes to young men typically not involved in Republican politics. He’s now poised to have a major role handling some part of Trump’s health care portfolio.
Trump has also been taking advice from his son, Donald Jr., who has emerged as a top unofficial adviser to the former president over the last several years. Over the weekend, Trump Jr. played a role in shooting down any discussion of Mike Pompeo or Nikki Haley for any official roles, and he has made clear that his father will staff his White House with loyalists.
After going to bat for Vance during the veepstakes, Trump Jr. has been pleased so far with the names put forward by Trump’s transition team, a person familiar with the matter said. He continues to weigh in on roles he cares about, like he did in 2016, when the outdoorsman personally vouched for Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) to serve as Interior secretary.
“Don Jr. was very effective in getting JD picked. But I think his big role on the transition is being someone who can stop people who are perceived as not loyal to his father and his father's agenda. You saw that with Pompeo,” said a person close to the Trump operation.
Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist group Turning Point USA, is among the influencers whose stock has risen in the last week. Kirk, who has been seen around Mar-a-Lago since Friday, is now poised to be among the better connected GOP influencers in Trump's orbit.
Trump called Kirk on Wednesday after his victory. And in the last week Kirk weighed in publicly in favor of two of Trump’s staffing picks before they were announced: Wiles for chief of staff and Stephen Miller for deputy chief of staff. Like Musk, Kennedy and Ramaswamy, Kirk has also sought to use his influence to push GOP control of the Senate to the right, backing Sen. Rick Scott for the position over two more traditional Republicans.
Kirk’s current favor, can be traced to a successful get-out-the-vote operation his organization ran, one of several that the Trump campaign relied on in place of a robust internal campaign field program. And his focus on reaching Gen Z voters looked all the more prescient, given Trump’s larger than expected gains this year with young voters.
Kirk has long been friends with Trump Jr., working as his body man during the 2016 campaign, when Kirk fetched the younger Trump Diet Cokes and helped with his social media.
Yet despite the high-profile presence of MAGA stars at Mar-a-Lago who have broadcast their comings and goings online, the most powerful remains Wiles, who is seen as the ultimate power broker after orchestrating Trump’s political comeback and 2024 win. She was the first major hiring decision he announced as a signal of her continued influence in Trump’s operation.
“She’ll hire a lot of the incoming White House staff and also has a big voice in cabinet members as well,” said a person familiar with the transition. “So it’s really not too different from the influence she had as campaign manager when she gave advice and made sure that the White House is staffed up with people who are ready from Day One.”