Running through the list of politicians who supported Donald Trump while others headed for the hills — people like Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie and Sarah Palin — but are not in the president-elect’s Cabinet, radio host Rusty Humphries had one question.
Doesn’t this make you wonder about the president-elect’s loyalty? As the transition unfolds, some are finding it was easier to get early seats aboard the Trump train than at the table in the incoming administration.
A Republican strategist expressed the opposite concern, however. “I worry Trump will be too loyal to the people he appoints and won’t fire them or make changes when he needs to,” the strategist said.
That was a criticism of Ronald Reagan at some points during his administration, and it came up with Trump during the campaign. So which is it?
If confirmed by the Senate, Trump’s Cabinet will include an energy secretary who called him a “cancer on conservatism,” an education secretary who never endorsed him and said he didn’t represent the Republican Party, and a labor secretary who appeared to agree with columnist George Will that Trump’s immigration policies would doom the GOP.
None of them had to offer the public apology Trump reportedly demanded of Mitt Romney (transition spokesmen have denied that one was required of Romney too). But the fact that Romney got a long look for secretary of state after being one of the most committed “Never Trumpers” throughout the campaign has raised hackles too.
The only Trump stalwart to be offered a prime Cabinet position so far is Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who offered the soon-to-be president institutional Washington support at a time when it was particularly hard to come by.
On the other hand, it appears that the outcry from Trump loyalists — including his own campaign manager — played at least some role in keeping from Romney from getting the nod for secretary of state. Trump has defended Stephen Bannon, soon to be his chief strategist on the White House staff, in the face of media criticism.
Some early adopters who aren’t household names, like former Sessions aide and new senior policy adviser to the president Stephen Miller, are in fact getting key jobs. The nominee for ambassador to Israel was already in the Trump fold, but not as well-known as Mike Huckabee, who kept getting linked with the job despite his denials.
Trump is already being criticized for seeking roles for his most fervent loyalists — members of his family, especially daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
There is also some subjectivity about who qualifies as a true Trump loyalist. In “Never Trump” circles, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is viewed as having been loyal to the president-elect to a fault. Priebus will be the next White House chief of staff and fellow RNC man Sean Spicer seems likely to join him as press secretary.
Yet other Trump boosters complain that not only were even supportive party leaders like Priebus not present at creation, they fear it is the more establishment-friendly voices in Trump’s inner circle who are shutting them out of jobs in the new administration.
Loyalty was one of Trump’s selling points during the campaign. When he was slow to pull the trigger on firing embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Trump said that discarding inconvenient people was the act of a conventional politician.
When Hillary Clinton sacked Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schutlz after leaked emails suggested the DNC favored Clinton over Bernie Sanders, Trump hit his Democratic rival for disloyalty.
“Debbie was totally loyal to Hillary, and Hillary threw her under the bus,” Trump said on the stump. “Man, I don’t want her covering my back.”
But Trump’s biggest pitch to the voters was his managerial prowess, which came with a promise to “hire the best people.” His detractors during the campaign used the pledge as a punchline, often arguing the people he had on his team weren’t the best people.
Trump’s campaign won and their supposed betters lost. But the president-elect has now has access to a wider array of talent and can upgrade in some areas. Enter the generals and billionaires.
“He wants to be successful above all else,” is how one Republican operative described it. “Remember, he promised ‘winning.'”
The idea that Trump’s earliest and most dogged endorsers were shoo-ins for whatever jobs they wanted isn’t the first bit of conventional wisdom about the president-elect that has proven wrong.
