With former President Trump seeking a second term in the White House, his administration could be filled with supporters eager to implement his policies and willing to cater to his every whim. .
Some commentators who have worked closely with Mr. Trump say the former president has acted more impulsively in part due to a lame-duck situation, with fewer officials willing to act as guardrails in the second Trump administration. They have expressed concern that this could happen.
“One of my biggest concerns about the second Trump administration is that the guardrails will disappear,” said Sarah Matthews, a former Trump press secretary who has become a critic of the former president. “I think there were a lot of people in the first Trump administration who were very skeptical of him but believed it was their duty to serve. So they went to work for him. , I think they tried to coach him and get him to serve a better path. ”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who supported Trump in 2016 and 2020 before launching a primary campaign against Trump in the 2024 election, said he believed Trump could be on a “vengeance journey.” He told The Washington Post that his biggest concern is his chances for a second term.
“No one will put up guardrails around him and he will go on a journey of revenge against all his perceived enemies,” Christie said. “And that’s scary for this country.”
The first Trump administration included many more traditional Republicans who were seen as a bulwark against the then-president’s impulses and more controversial ideas.
Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis addressed President Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks about torture, major alliances, and global conflicts. Former chief of staff John Kelly tried to control the flow of information to Mr. Trump. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley pushed back against President Trump’s calls for a military crackdown on protesters during the 2020 civil war. Former Vice President Mike Pence also rejected President Trump’s pressure campaign to reject the 2020 election results.
In 2018, former Trump administration official Myles Taylor penned an infamous, initially anonymous op-ed for the New York Times about the coordinated efforts of staffers to “thwart” the president’s worst instincts.
But with Trump in full control of the Republican Party, the former president and his team appear poised to fill a possible second administration with more supporters who are fully in favor of Trumpism. is.
Conservative groups in Washington, D.C., are already working to identify potential candidates for the second Trump administration, most notably former Trump White House staffers Paul Dunnes and Spencer.・This is the “Project 2025” initiative of the Heritage Foundation, led by Chretien.
But the Trump campaign has sought to distance itself from outside groups that submit policy and personnel proposals during the campaign, instead allowing Trump himself to make final decisions on senior leadership and other decisions when the time comes. He insisted that he would give up.
“There is no discussion about who will take office in the second Trump administration. President Trump will choose the best people for his cabinet to undo all the damage crooked Joe Biden has done to our country. ” Trump campaign spokesperson Stephen Chan said in a statement to The Hill.
The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is expected to take a more active role in vetting staff candidates for the second administration, but sources said Trump Jr. There are no plans to implement the possibility or day-to-day response. – Daytime staffing efforts.
trump jr. told the New York Post In a March interview, Trump said former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and former Trump aide Cliff Sims were among the people he envisioned leading the transition.
“We have a lot of great people to choose from in the first four years of this administration, and we know who will be the best, the most loyal, and the ones who will implement America First policies,” Trump Jr. said.
Some former aides have expressed interest in returning to a potential second administration.
John McEntee, the former White House director of presidential personnel who oversaw a short-lived effort to weaken the civil service in the final days of the Trump administration, is among those working on Project 2025.
Mr. McEntee was selected to lead a project to gather resumes for the next administration, where the organization’s motto is “Personnel is policy.”
Meanwhile, President Trump said he would try again to invoke the “Schedule F” order, overseen by McEntee, that would immediately lay off more civil service jobs, saying he would “exert that authority very aggressively.” . President Trump could also bypass Senate confirmation in a legally questionable move and allow more government officials to hold acting positions.
Stephen Miller, the architect of many of President Trump’s hardline immigration policies, has been active in developing a vision for a second term, and he has expressed concerns about the even more restrictive policies the former president could adopt if he is re-elected. outlines the approach.
Mr. Miller said. new york times Last year, President Trump said he would rely on the executive branch to carry out “the most spectacular immigration crackdown” and promised a “blitzkrieg” on immigration lawyers.
Trump’s former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tom Homan, also said he is ready to return to the second Trump administration to help “organize and operate the largest deportation operation in the history of this country.”
Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department lawyer who is accused in Georgia of preparing to launch a baseless investigation into the state’s vote count on Trump’s behalf, is also involved in Project 2025. .
Just Security’s report on Trump’s campaign comments and Republican organizing details other plans for the re-elected president to wield more power.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr similarly predicted in a December interview on Fox News that the lack of a potential election result could make President Trump less likely to be swayed by his advisers.
“The main thing you can do during his first term is point out to him how this hurts his prospects for a second term,” he said. “If he wins a second term, I don’t know what considerations he would have to make to thwart bad ideas.”
Barr said this week that he supports a Republican ticket in the November election.
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