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Ricky Carioti

President-elect <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a> has quickly put together <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/trump-administration-appointees/" target=_blank>his Cabinet picks</a>. Loyalty to him has been a major factor.

But Trump is also sending a mixed message with his choices: Will his administration be more of a traditional Republican one, or one that shakes up the system as much as it can?

And despite saying during the presidential campaign that he had nothing to do with Project 2025, the policy blueprint coordinated by the conservative Heritage Foundation, Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/23/trump-project-2025-administration-nominees/73550d5a-a9e9-11ef-a365-f28068283fb3_story.html" target=_blank>picked one of its architects to a top government job.</a>

“On a lot of this, we just don’t know what to make of it,” Michael Strain, an economist at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said of Trump’s Cabinet announcements.

Here are some broad trends behind the Cabinet picks so far.

On some, Trump is clear: He wants disruption and retribution

Several of Trump’s selections for some of the highest-profile jobs are longtime loyalists. Some seem to have an animus for the agencies they would lead and have professed a willingness to carry out Trump’s personal agenda, including prosecuting his enemies.

Nowhere is that clearer than in Trump’s picks to lead the Justice Department. After former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz pulled out of consideration, Trump picked former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who has expressed a willingness to prosecute the Justice Department lawyers who charged Trump in two criminal cases, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/11/23/pam-bondi-doj-attorney-general-trump-pick/" target=_blank>as The Washington Post’s Mark Berman and David Nakamura write</a>.

Bondi might soon be in a position to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/11/22/trump-jack-smith-prosecutors-firing-justice-department-investigation/" target="_blank">fire nearly everyone who worked to investigate the president-elect</a> during the past few years. “The prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones,” she said last year.

Special counsel Jack Smith moved this week to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/11/25/trump-cases-motion-to-dismiss-jack-smith/" target=_blank>drop both federal cases against Trump</a>, including election interference charges related to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/january-6-capitol-riot/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Jan. 6</a>, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Smith said he “stands fully behind” the allegations against Trump, while also referencing Justice Department policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president.

Trump’s picks for other Cabinet roles point to ways he wants to disrupt or even overturn how the government works, including:

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/15/pete-hegseth-sexual-assault-investigation/?itid=lk_inline_manual_19" target=_blank>Pete Hegseth</a>, a former Fox News host tapped to lead the Defense Department, has said he wants to stop “woke”-ness in the military. Critics on Capitol Hill say that Hegseth is unqualified to lead the Pentagon and that the selection requires close scrutiny.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump named to be the nation’s top health official, is a vaccine skeptic. Some Republican senators say Kennedy will <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/11/20/rfk-senators-vaccines-abortion-agriculture/?itid=lk_inline_manual_20" target=_blank>need to explain those views</a>.

Natural gas CEO Chris Wright, who has attacked climate-change policies, is Trump’s pick to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/16/energy-secretary-trump-chris-wright/?itid=lk_inline_manual_21" target=_blank>be energy secretary</a>. Former congressman Lee Zeldin, a Trump loyalist with little environmental experience, was chosen to be the next <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/11/11/trump-epa-lee-zeldin/?itid=lk_inline_manual_21" target=_blank>Environmental Protection Agency administrator</a>.

Trump’s supporters argue these unconventional picks are exactly what Americans voted for. As Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/25/trump-cabinet-nominees-second-term-disruption/" target=_blank>writes in The Washington Post</a>: “The American people elected Trump again so that he could break what needs to be broken.”

On other picks, what Trump wants is murkier

Trump is sending mixed messages with his picks for some other agencies. He named a Wall Street billionaire, Scott Bessent, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/22/scott-bessent-treasury-secretary-trump-cabinet-pick/" target=_blank>to be the all-important treasury secretary</a>, which pays the government’s bills and helps drive economic policy.

But Bessent seems to harbor some skepticism about Trump’s controversial plan to impose tariffs on most imports. Trump thinks tariffs will bring manufacturing back to the United States, but <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=596a0e109bbc0f6d71c91171&s=673bb1dbb922210df7591743&utm_campaign=wp_the_5_minute_fix&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&linknum=5&linktot=45" target=_blank>economists warn </a>tariffs could raise prices for most Americans and worsen inflation. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/us/politics/trump-treasury-secretary-tariffs.html" target=_blank>Bessent has suggested</a> they are a negotiating tool, rather than a way to reboot American manufacturing.

And instituting tariffs might make it too expensive for Trump to cut taxes, especially for the wealthy or for corporations. So Trump  might have to choose: tax cuts or tariffs.

For the head of the Labor Department, Trump picked an outgoing Republican member of Congress, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/22/lori-chavez-deremer-labor-secretary-trump/" target=_blank>Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who has close ties to unions</a> — a constituency that has traditionally been allied with Democrats, but whose members are increasingly supporting Trump.

And when it comes to immigration, Trump has made clear with his picks that he wants to try mass deportations. He has named <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/11/trump-prepares-immigration-crackdown-with-miller-homan-posts/" target=_blank>hard-liners from his first administration</a> as he looks to deport an untold number of immigrants living in the country illegally.

But the effects of these moves would contradict some of his economic goals. Deporting immigrants who haven’t committed crimes could raise prices and make inflation worse amid a worker shortage, economists warn. (<a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=596a0e109bbc0f6d71c91171&s=67366bdae57bc003e58c79a0&utm_campaign=wp_the_5_minute_fix&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&linknum=5&linktot=49" target=_blank>In addition, it could also look bad politically</a>.)

So Trump might have to choose here, too: mass deportations or keeping inflation down.

“There are a lot of conflicting goals here,” Strain said. “It seems to me like President Trump hasn’t made up his mind on a lot of these questions. But something has got to give.”

A lot depends on Trump — and perhaps the economy

In his first term, Trump was often motivated by the stock market. And he occasionally bowed to public pressure and ended controversial policies, such as separating migrant families at the border.

Senate Republicans have a say on who leads Trump’s government, too. Most of his picks need a majority of votes in the Senate to be confirmed. (Although Trump has also said that if he meets resistance, he would bypass the Senate to install whomever he wants <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/12/trump-recess-appointments-how-they-work/" target=_blank>using recess appointments</a>.)

The mere potential of a confirmation process before the Senate was enough for <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=596a0e109bbc0f6d71c91171&s=673faaf95a45fa0d87f75d31&utm_campaign=wp_the_5_minute_fix&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&linknum=5&linktot=48" target=_blank>Gaetz to step aside</a> eight days after Trump picked him to lead the Justice Department. Gaetz had been under investigation over allegations involving sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. But other nominees <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/21/pete-hegseth-monterey-police-report/?itid=mr_politics_1" target=_blank>with sexual misconduct allegations</a> against them haven’t felt that same pressure.

The Fix was an official honoree for best political blog in the 2017 Webby Awards

Texas Christian University, bachelor's degree in international relations and Spanish

Amber Phillips explains and analyzes politics and authors The 5-Minute Fix newsletter, a quick analysis of the day's biggest political news. 

Amber Phillips

Trump’s Cabinet picks: His plans for disruption, retribution explained

the-washington-post

The Washington Post

Ricky Carioti is an award-winning photographer and has worked for The Washington Post since 2002.