A meeting held by former President Donald Trump in 2017 in which he demanded loyalty from his aides and advisers set him up for establishing a group of “shock troops” to transform the federal government to his wishes in 2024.
In 2017, shortly after being elected as president, Trump went around the Oval Office “inquisition-style” and asked each aide to declare allegiance to him, a person who was present at the meeting told NBC News.
“He was quizzing people in the Oval if they were loyal to him or previous bosses,” the person said, recalling the event.
However, Trump was met with disappointment all around as more advisers, aides, and his own vice president chose their reputation or the Constitution over the former president’s desire to stop the outcome of the 2020 election. Now that disappointment is fueling the fire for Trump to find “shock troops,” a phrase used by Steve Bannon, who will swear fealty to him — and those close to the former president said it will be a major factor in choosing appointees.
Trump has fixated on his perception that there is a lack of loyalty in politics, mostly to him, throughout his presidential campaign. He repeatedly knocked Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, his Republican primary rivals who used to be his allies, for betraying him and breaking bonds of loyalty by running against him.
In turn, he has praised people such as Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) for endorsing him after they dropped out. Trump even retired his prized nickname for DeSantis, “De-Sanctimonious,” after the Florida governor dropped out and endorsed Trump.
If Trump secures the 2024 Republican nomination and wins the general election in November, eyes will be on the slate of advisers, Cabinet members, and aides that the former president selects to run his administration — and whether the hires will be loyal to the institution or its leader.
“You have four years. You have three or four major things you can accomplish — major things — and you have to have the full support of a team that’s loyal,” an outside adviser to Trump said to NBC News. “I think the president is going to have that.”
Conservative groups are already lining up opportunities for presidential appointee-hopefuls to prove their loyalty to the former president. The Association of Republican Presidential Appointees is holding a two-day “presidential appointee boot camp” on Feb. 19 and Feb. 20 in the Washington area.
The boot camp will provide would-be appointees with insight into “the operating context in which appointees work to implement the president’s agenda” and “tactics appointees can use to help the president gain control over the levers of power and thwart a hostile bureaucracy.”
Other groups have released their own programs to prepare administration appointees. The Heritage Foundation launched Project 2025, which looks to build the “next conservative presidential administration.” The group releases videos through its Presidential Administration Academy that serve as a “one-of-a-kind educational and skill-building program” to “equip future political appointees to be ready on Day One” for Trump’s administration.
Allies of Trump are taking these outside efforts seriously as an attempt to “weed out those that would employ subterfuge” in a bid to take out the former president from the inside, a former White House official said.
“This is a sharp-elbowed sport, and we know that there will be people that want to undermine the president,” they added.
Trump’s campaign has taken care to separate themselves from the efforts of outside groups.
“The efforts by various non-profit groups are certainly appreciated and can be enormously helpful,” senior advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement to NBC News last year. “However, none of these groups or individuals speak for President Trump or his campaign. We will have an official transition effort to be announced at a later date.”
Former Trump officials are raising concerns as to what a new Trump administration would look like, with some envisioning a worst-case scenario that could threaten democracy.
“The starting point for a second Trump term will be the last year of his first term. … Loyalty will be the attribute Trump will be seeking above all else,” Mark Esper, whose tenure as defense secretary was cut short following Trump’s 2020 loss, told NBC News. “He won’t pick people like Jim Mattis or me who will push back on him. So the question becomes: What harm might occur over four years?”
Others have equated Trump’s obsession with loyalty to the world of popular book and TV series Game of Thrones.
“It reminds me of Game of Thrones,” a former Trump adviser said. “They want you to bend the knee. And if you don’t bend the knee, they take your property. They take your title. They take your reputation, and they throw you into the gulag.”
The demands for loyalty have played into Democrats and Trump critics’ hands, particularly after the former president faced backlash for him claiming he’d be a dictator “on day one.” He has said in the months following that he meant the comments in jest, but it has fueled fears that Trump could have been foreshadowing the next four years of an administration under his control.
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“What I fear is this idea of loyalty means ‘stop questioning,’” the former adviser said. “There will be consequences if you do, and that’s why I think there’s some credence to the idea that he’s a so-called authoritarian. I don’t think he is authoritarian, but he’s opening himself up to this criticism.”
“His idea of loyalty is one-way,” the adviser added.
