One thing that can be said about the Trump 47 transition team: it is not wasting time.
Another thing that can be said: You can tell which Cabinet departments seem to mean the most to Trump. Also, you can see where he plans to run certain departments from the White House. There is lots of information to be had in the first two weeks since the election.
Here are the Cabinet winners: State, Interior, Energy, Commerce, and (probably) Treasury. State, Interior, Energy, and Commerce have all had functioning adults named as their secretary nominee. Serious, stable individuals with reasonable experience in the field of expertise called for by the job have all been named for these agencies: Florida Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum for Secretary of the Interior, Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright for Secretary of Energy, and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Harold Lutnick for Secretary of Commerce.
Burgum has also been named "energy czar" and will chair the newly formed National Energy Council, which will advise the President on energy matters. Wright will also serve on the council.
Treasury may be the most significant department of all in Trump's view, as it will be responsible for implementing many of his economic policies and help him to influence the Fed Chairman. The Treasury secretary job saw infighting between the two leading candidates, Lutnick and hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, over the weekend.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump was frustrated by overt lobbying by Cantor Fitzgerald executives and even Elon Musk and put out a request for additional candidates. A former economic adviser from the George W. Bush administration Kevin Warsh, seems to be a new frontrunner. Tuesday, Trump put an end to the initial speculation and named Lutnick Commerce Secretary.
Not every Cabinet Department is so fortunate. There's – what? What is Robert Kennedy Jr. anyway? What is his expertise? Oh, that's right. He's an environmental lawyer. And a prolific anti-vaccine activist. Health and Human Services it is!
Homeland Security will be getting a Telegenic Mouthpiece in Chief with the nomination of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. It is very clear that Homeland Security, at least regarding immigration policy and border security, will be run by White House staff – namely border czar Tom Homan and deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller. FEMA? Well, if flood victims need a disobedient dog shot. . .
After DHS, the Cabinet scale tips far into Loser territory. Donald Trump is Big Mad at the military and is not disguising it. Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth is another Telegenic Mouthpiece but with a more targeted agenda. A veteran but most definitely not a general, Hegseth was a major in the Minnesota National Guard with 13 years of service. He has spent most of non-military career as a conservative activist and Fox News commentator. His predecessors in this century have averaged 35+ years' experience in defense matters, either as members of Congress, members of the military, or both.
Hegseth is openly contemptuous of America's military leadership and has expressed his eagerness to fire the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it appears, simply because he can.
Trump may be Big Mad at the Department of Defense, but he is WAY Madder, Far More Bigly, at the Department of Justice. This is why he has nominated an individual whose most significant direct legal experience has been with the defense counsel he has retained to respond to criminal underage sex trafficking investigations by the Justice Department and the House Ethics Committee.
Nominating Matt Gaetz for Attorney General is like, well, nominating Matt Gaetz as Attorney General. It's its own absurdity; it needs no pithy metaphor. To underscore the point, Trump has appointed his own personal lead defense counsel, Todd Blanche, to be the Deputy Attorney General, a role considered to be the chief operating officer of the DOJ.
If it looks like the dispatching of henchmen, well, it is. Blanche, to his credit, is at least a former federal prosecutor.
Gaetz's nomination was announced just days before the House Ethics Committee was expected to release its report into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use by Gaetz. It was expected to be extremely damaging. House ethics investigations end if the member resigns from Congress. Gaetz resigned the day he was nominated.
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who will be reviewing Gaetz's nomination, have made it clear they want the House Ethics Committee's report released to them. House Speaker Mike Johnson can't seem to string together two coherent phrases on the topic.
Although Trump's appointments range from the competent and functional (Rubio, Burgum, Wright) to the kinda goofy (RFK Jr., Noem) to the wholly unfit (Hegseth, Gaetz, and don't forget Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence), for the most part they have a common thread: the ability to be a photogenic surrogate on TV news programs. In many ways, Cabinet selections were casting calls as much as expertise reviews.
I think one area this will impact the government is in the public affairs community. Along with all the other nominations in a new administration, an assistant secretary for public affairs, responsible for press operations and other public outreach, is also appointed in each department. I believe this role will be significantly less visible and important in this administration, and the public face and outreach roles will be managed almost wholly by the Cabinet members themselves.
Along with following the Trump transition team, I've been reading editorials and opinion columns that seem to never end mulling over what Democrats need to do differently. I've read that Democrats need to embrace their left-wing policy arm and proudly proclaim progressive values. I've read that it's all Biden's fault for not getting out of the race sooner. I've read that the Harris campaign spent too much on stupid stuff.
I'm not a Democrat, but I have lived under two two-term Democratic Presidents in my lifetime. President Bill Clinton hauled the party to the center and worked with Congress to achieve the last balanced budget our country has seen nearly 30 years ago. President Barack Obama infuriated immigration advocates who dubbed him the "Deporter-in-Chief" when he responded to increased activity at the border (the Obama administration's deportation numbers were higher than the Trump administration's until 2019).
I mean, I'm not a Democrat, but if you are going into an election where the top two issues are the economy and immigration, maybe you ought to talk to the guys who got reelected by taking tough stances on those very issues. Because what we got instead was Attorney General Gaetz.
Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican for 36 years, she became an independent upon reading the 2024 Republican platform. She lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and one of cat. She can be reached at
