SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
In the week and a half since he won a clear victory, President-elect Donald Trump has been naming his cabinet nominees at a breakneck pace. Today, he tapped Oilfield Services executive and major Republican donor Chris Wright to serve as Energy Secretary. Broadly, there has been a clear thread among all of these picks so far, loyalty. Here to talk about Trump's new team and how it's different from his first administration is NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro. Hey, Domenico.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey. Great to be with you, Scott.
DETROW: Always good to talk to you - let's start with this. What are the major differences this time versus Trump's first time in office?
MONTANARO: Well, you know, these are, by and large, very different picks and really reflect Trump's own evolution in politics. I mean, eight years ago, Trump was really an unknown in Washington. He didn't have many friends here, so he was really relying on more established Republicans to help him out with these picks. But there wound up being a lot of conflicts, as we know, with some of those cabinet members that Trump didn't know very well. I mean, they sometimes stood in the way of things he wanted to do that broke with the normal way of - that things had been done for years. This time around, he's really surrounding himself with a team of loyalists.
DETROW: A lot to pick from, but what are some examples that stick out to you so far?
MONTANARO: Sure. Well, let's start with Homeland Security, you know, which is where a lot of the work that Trump is going to need to happen on immigration going to take place, and his pick is South Dakota governor Kristi Noem. You know, she's a big Trump ally. She campaigned with him. But compare that to 2016. Then it was John Kelly, Marine Corps General. He became Trump's chief of staff, but they had a huge falling out. And before this election, Kelly said Trump fits the definition of a fascist and would govern like a dictator.
DETROW: And that difference, including how some of those first-term picks ended up talking about Trump after the fact - I feel like that is a clear trend we're seeing with some of these other picks as well, if you look department to department.
MONTANARO: Oh, absolutely. I mean, just take, you know, health and human services...
DETROW: Yeah.
MONTANARO: ...For example. Trump is nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who spread false and debunked claims about vaccines. That has a lot of public health professionals concerned. But RFK Jr. endorsed Trump during the campaign, and that's what seems to really matter to Trump. You know, Trump has criticized the - or RFK Jr. has criticized the closeness of the government to the pharmaceutical industry. But in 2016, Trump appointed Republican Congressman Tom Price, but later, it was Alex Azar, who was a pharmaceutical executive.
DETROW: Right.
MONTANARO: You know, of course, there are also the Departments of Defense and Justice. At defense this time. Trump Pete - picked Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and veteran of the National Guard. Again, compare that to four years ago. It was General James Mattis to this post. Mattis also soured on Trump, calling him a threat to the Constitution, later.
At justice, eight years ago, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions was Trump's first attorney general. He clashed with Trump over the independence of the Department. This time around, it's Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz. Gaetz resigned from Congress as a report from the House Ethics Committee was set to come out about allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use. But again, for Trump, it's been all about the fact that he was a very loyal ally.
DETROW: One other thing to talk about, which is not an actual department, but it's this big project that's being headed up by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Can you tell us more about this?
MONTANARO: Yeah. You know, Musk, the world's richest man, has dubbed this the Department of Government Efficiency. It's not a real department, but it's more like a task force that's intended to come up with, you know, big ideas to take an axe to the size of government agencies. What comes of that, we don't know, but it really reflects the MAGA influence and distrust of government. Musk and Trump, interestingly, haven't always been allies, but that changed, again, when Musk came out in support of Trump, used his platform, X, to promote Trump. Ramaswamy, of course, ran for president, gained a following among younger men in particular about decreasing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs across society.
DETROW: OK, about 15 seconds left - thoughts on the biggest shift from all of this that we're seeing so far.
MONTANARO: You know, look, I see Trump as more the one who's ultimately running these agencies, and a lot of these picks are basically going to do what Trump wants without pushback like he got the first time around.
DETROW: Yeah.
MONTANARO: That could mean more change more quickly, especially because Trump controls Congress, too.
DETROW: That's NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Thanks so much.
MONTANARO: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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