At first glance, President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks seem mostly an ideologically eclectic mix. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the presumptive nominee for secretary of state, does not share the same understanding of the threat posed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the presumptive nominee for director of national intelligence, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. Jay Bhattacharya, the presumptive nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health, does not share presumptive nominee for secretary of health and human services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s view on vaccines. If you are trying to understand Trump’s Cabinet nominations from a policy perspective, you are probably wasting your time.

What all the candidates share, some more than others, is a strong personal loyalty to Trump himself, not to the conservative movement or the Republican Party. But there are millions of loyal Trumpists out there, so loyalty to Trump is not the only common or determinative factor in his choices. It is a prerequisite, but is not alone sufficient to win a high-level position in the Trump administration.