Trump Jr., Tucker Carlson Emerge as Key Players in Trump Cabinet Selection

On 12 Novem­ber 2024, Bloomberg report­ed that Pres­i­dent-elect Trump’s ini­tial admin­is­tra­tion appoint­ments show his son, Don­ald Jr., and for­mer Fox News host Tuck­er Carl­son have become key influ­encers in staffing deci­sions. The arti­cle begins:

Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump has only begun to fill out the ranks of his incom­ing admin­is­tra­tion. His first choic­es con­firm that his son Don­ald Jr. and the for­mer Fox TV per­son­al­i­ty Tuck­er Carl­son have emerged as major influ­ences over his picks. Carl­son and Trump Jr. played a role in per­suad­ing Trump to choose JD Vance as his run­ning mate at the Repub­li­can con­ven­tion in Mil­wau­kee. They appeared to have wield­ed their influ­ence again this week­end as Trump announced Sat­ur­day that for­mer Sec­re­tary of State Michael Pom­peo and for­mer Unit­ed Nations Ambas­sador Nik­ki Haley wouldn’t serve. Pom­peo had been angling for a job as defense sec­re­tary but was seen as too sup­port­ive of Ukraine. Pom­peo had also con­sid­ered a pres­i­den­tial run this year and crit­i­cized Trump — though nev­er by name — sev­er­al times. But Trump Jr. and Carl­son, who now holds forth with a web­cast on X, made no secret of their oppo­si­tion. In May, Don Jr. said Pom­peo should be “smart enough” not to run against his father.

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Key Points:

1. Trump Jr. posi­tions him­self as a loy­al­ty gate­keep­er, block­ing poten­tial appointees like Pom­peo, who pre­vi­ous­ly crit­i­cized his father or sup­port­ed Ukraine.
2. Unlike Trump’s first term, where Kush­n­er and Ivan­ka were cen­tral, Don Jr. has emerged as a dom­i­nant fam­i­ly influence.
3. Tuck­er Carl­son’s endorse­ments car­ry sig­nif­i­cant weight, with job seek­ers now active­ly court­ing his sup­port for admin­is­tra­tion positions.
4. The tran­si­tion process breaks from tra­di­tion­al vet­ting pro­ce­dures, with Elon Musk also join­ing key diplo­mat­ic calls and offer­ing staffing input.