An earlier version of this article was first published in the On the Trail 2024 newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox on Friday mornings here.
Happy Thanksgiving, friends. I hope everyone’s political conversations around the dinner table went swimmingly. A short newsletter today — hope all enjoy a restful weekend.
The big idea
Behind closed doors
Eight years ago today, Mitt Romney sat for the most humiliating dinner of his life. Thanksgiving had just passed, and while the rest of the country stumbled in from a post-holiday coma, Romney hitched a flight to New York. Only nine months earlier, Romney had dismissed Donald Trump as a “phony” and a “fraud”; now, Romney would be his dinner guest.
It was less a job interview than it was an audition. Trump needed a secretary of state, and Romney was a suitable choice. The two had already worked through the job description: days earlier, Romney had visited Trump’s New Jersey golf club and had given Trump a list of conditions. Trump only had one — complete loyalty.
Trump, who had eked out a surprise electoral vote victory weeks earlier, was taking his time in assembling his Cabinet and filling top-level administration staff. His most recent job was as a reality TV host; his first acts as president-elect carried “Apprentice”-style flair. Press camped out at Trump Tower in Manhattan to catch a glimpse of job hunters as they filed in and out of closed-door meetings with Trump and his staff. Impromptu press conferences were called and Trump made a show out of announcing his nominees.
In the buildup to those announcements, there was public speculation and suspense — and awkward dinner meetings. The image of Trump and Romney went viral: a white tablecloth, a dimly lit room, Trump grinning while Romney grimaced. Romney later insisted to biographer McKay Coppins that his facial expression was not “humiliation or shame, but simply irritation at being photographed,” Coppins wrote.
But the humiliation was the point. In 2016, Trump made a great deal out of seeing just how loyal his Cabinet appointees would be — how fast they’d bend the knee, how quickly they’d kiss the ring. Romney, it later turned out, was not up to the task. Coppins writes that Trump told Romney, “You really need to say that you’ve come to the conclusion that I’m terrific and that I’ll be a great president.” Romney couldn’t bring himself to do it, and Trump picked someone else.
That 2016 transition effort differs from this year’s in one major way. Instead of parading potential nominees through hotel lobbies and humiliating them at dinners, Trump’s team is operating behind the scenes. Trump’s picks are announced via social media or emailed press releases. New nominees are barred from speaking with media. It’s a clandestine operation, and it’s working at a blistering pace: late last week, Trump nominated his final Cabinet member, weeks before he did the same after winning in 2016.
In another way, though, Trump’s 2024 transition effort is just like his 2016 one: loyalty trumps all. As Trump puts the finishing touches on his Cabinet this time around, he places a higher premium on loyalty than even qualifications or experience. Showing up at Trump’s criminal trials helped. Defending Trump on cable TV helped. The ideological hodgepodge of people making up Trump’s Cabinet all have one thing in common: they defer to Trump. Those like Romney, who are unwilling to pledge fealty to Trump above all, need not apply.
3 things to know
- Jamieson Greer is President-elect Donald Trump’s first Latter-day Saint pick to a key administration spot. Greer is to be nominated as U.S. trade representative, who oversees international trade negotiations. Read more here.
- Trump promised to impose a 25% tariff on all goods from Mexico and Canada on his first day in office over their management of the border and fentanyl. My colleague Brigham Tomco goes over how leaders in those countries responded and the pros and cons of tariffs. Read more here.
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which has made some pro-life conservatives nervous. Read more here.