What Trump’s personnel selection reveals about his plans for the second term

A week after Donald Trump won a second term in the White House, the outlines of his new presidency were emerging.

The president-elect has announced nearly a dozen appointments, the first steps toward filling his staff at the White House and key government departments. He also spoke to the media and on social media about his priorities when he takes office in January, with a particular focus on immigration and foreign policy.

After a sometimes chaotic start to his first term, Trump is laying the groundwork for his next administration with a more clearly defined plan — and staff ready to implement it.

Here’s a look at what we’ve learned so far.

Some of Trump’s newly announced appointments suggest that the president-elect’s campaign promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. is not an exaggeration.

Stephen Miller, who has been Trump’s close adviser and speechwriter since 2015, is likely to shape any plans for mass deportations – and restrict both illegal and legal immigration – since Trump has named him deputy chief of staff for policy at the White House. During Trump’s first term, he helped develop some of the administration’s toughest immigration policies.

Thomas Homan, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term, supported the president’s policy of separating undocumented families detained at the U.S.-Mexico border. Now he’s back with an even broader portfolio, as Trump’s “immigration czar.”

“I will lead the largest deportation force this country has ever seen,” Homan said at a conservative conference in July.

Critics have warned that Trump’s mass deportation plan could cost more than $300 billion. However, in an interview with NBC News last week, the president-elect said cost was not an issue.

“When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries and now they are returning to these countries because they are not staying here,” he said. “There is no price tag.”

Many conservatives believe that China poses the greatest threat, both economically and militarily, to continued U.S. global dominance. While Trump was more cautious and restricted most of his China activities Reviews of the field of tradeHe fills his foreign policy team with vocal critics of China.

The president-elect chose Congressman Mike Waltz of Florida, a retired Army colonel, as his national security adviser, a key foreign policy post in the White House. Waltz said the U.S. was in a “cold war” with China and was one of the first members of Congress to call for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

In October, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, accused China of “blatant and malicious election interference” after Chinese-backed hackers reportedly tried to collect information from the former president’s phones.

While Trump has not yet officially announced his nominee for secretary of state, Florida Senator Marco Rubio – another China hawk – appears to be the main candidate for the top diplomat post. In 2020, Rubio was sanctioned by the Chinese government after pushing through measures to punish the country for its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

US-China relations were often difficult during Trump’s first term amid trade disputes and the Covid pandemic. The Biden administration, which retained many of Trump’s China tariffs and imposed some new ones, only somewhat calmed the situation. Now it looks like the next Trump administration will pick up where the last one left off.

While the list of Trump’s political appointees continues to grow, there is another group that remains small – and extremely influential.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is a constant presence at Trump’s interim headquarters at Mar-a-Lago. According to media reports, he is advising the president-elect on the selection of cabinet nominees and even took part in a conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week.

He also regularly expresses his political views on his social media platform

Musk’s political action committee spent about $200 million to support Trump’s presidential campaign, and he pledges to continue funding the group’s efforts to advance the president-elect’s agenda and help Republican candidates in the upcoming congressional elections.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen where Robert F. Kennedy Jr., another key figure, will end up. Trump has said he plans to give the former Democrat and vaccine skeptic, who abandoned his independence efforts and backed the Republican, a role in making America “healthy” again.

“He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him do them,” Trump said in his election victory speech.

Musk and Kennedy may not have explicitly defined their roles in the incoming Trump administration, but their influence will be felt.

If Trump takes office, Republicans will have control of the Senate and could still capture the House, albeit by a narrow margin. But the president-elect’s initial actions suggest he is more concerned with exercising his presidential power than cooperating with the legislature.

Last week, he posted on social media that Senate Republican leadership should pave the way for more presidential “pause appointments” – which would allow him to fill top administration positions without Senate approval if Congress doesn’t meets. The move would increase the president’s power by undermining the chamber’s constitutional role to provide “advice and consent” on political appointments.

Meanwhile, the president-elect continues to undermine narrow majorities in Congress. Senators who move into administrative roles can be quickly replaced through appointment by their home state’s governor. But any vacancies in the House — like those created by the departures of Stefanik and Waltz — require special elections that could take months to plan.

Some of Trump’s advisers, including Musk, have warned that the president-elect could jeopardize his legislative agenda if he removes too many more Republicans from the chambers.

Even under the best of circumstances, congressional legislation requires time, effort, and compromise. Executive actions, such as enforcing new immigration regulations, can be carried out with the stroke of a presidential pen.

Trump’s actions suggest that, at least for now, he is more focused on the latter.

Trump has only just begun to fill the thousands of jobs that will become vacant with a new presidential administration, not to mention the high-level career bureaucrats he will supposedly replace.

In 2016, as a political newcomer, he was dependent on more established Republicans for key positions. This time he has a wealth of potential candidates with proven support, and after eight years, Trump loyalists are the Republican establishment.

Some, like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, whom Trump named as his homeland security secretary on Tuesday, have been passionate Trump defenders from the start.

Others, like Rubio and Stefanik, were critics of Trump early in his first presidential run, but have now spent years proving that their harsh words are a thing of the past.

However, Rubio, who ran for president against Trump in 2016, may still have White House ambitions. Trump in his first term often bristled at candidates who appeared to be hogging the spotlight, and even the warmest relationships could go sour.

While Trump is emphasizing loyalty in his early personnel announcements, administration pressure will ultimately determine whether his second four years in office end differently than his first.