For all of the unorthodox spectacle of prospects parading through Trump Tower and on television, Donald Trump has hewed surprisingly closely to the traditional conservative playbook in building out his government.

With two-thirds of his Cabinet filled out and many of his cabinet-level appointments selected, Trump has united his party far more successfully as president-elect with a series of standard-fare picks than he ever did as a candidate — even at the risk of backlash from supporters for failing to drain the swamp of Washington.


“I’m liking what I see,” said Norm Coleman, former Republican senator and a current lobbyist who did not support Trump. “For someone who wasn’t on the train, he’s putting together a pretty good team.”

So far, Trump’s announced and expected team includes at least three military generals, two governors, one state attorney general, two congressmen, one senator, and three current or former Goldman Sachs bankers, among a host of business executives and billionaires.

Democrats have called out Trump for hypocrisy with these picks, decried the hardline conservatism of some and the qualifications of others. But with complete GOP control of Congress they have little recourse to stop him.

In his first month, Trump has already rewarded some of his biggest fundraisers and donors with prominent jobs, including former wrestling executive Linda McMahon to head the Small Business Association, Trump’s finance director Steve Mnuchin as treasury secretary and billionaire Todd Ricketts who helped run a pro-Trump super PAC as deputy commerce secretary. Betsy DeVos, another prominent billionaire GOP donor, is the incoming education secretary.

So far, Donald Trump’s announced and expected team includes at least three military generals, including retired Gen. James Mattis. | Getty

It’s not exactly swamp-draining. But official Washington is perfectly fine with that.

“There’s not much to complain about,” said veteran Republican lobbyist Charlie Black. “Who are you going to complain about?”

Behind the scenes, there are simmering tensions, often playing out in the internal tug-of-war for control between Reince Priebus, Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff and former party chairman who is seen as the avatar of the political establishment, and Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist who cut his teeth as the rabble-rousing outsider who led Breitbart News.

“Right now there are hundreds of establishment quislings, Trojan horses trying to get into this administration, swearing, ‘Oh I was for Trump this whole time’ when they weren’t,” complained Roger Stone, an informal Trump adviser who met with Trump this week, on Alex Jones’ radio program.

During the campaign, Trump sounded populist and nationalist notes but he appears unworried about appointing three current or former Goldman Sachs bankers to his inner circle — Mnuchin, Bannon and Gary Cohn, the current Goldman president, as director of the National Economic Council.

More broadly, Trump has relished bringing in a group of millionaires and billionaires. This squad of plutocrats, Trump has argued, will negotiate better for the public at large.

“Because I want people that made a fortune!” Trump said at a rally Thursday in Iowa.

The most prominent Cabinet post of all — secretary of state — remains unfilled as Trump has turned his pursuit of a top diplomat into an ongoing reality series, complete with the latest plot twist on Friday that Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s fiercest and most loyal defenders, was out of the running. The two frontrunners are seen as Mitt Romney and Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, as Sen. Bob Corker and former Gen. David Petraeus are still considered other possibilities.

Steven Mnuchin’s confirmation is also a potential area of concern as he is a political newcomer, once made money through the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme and has previously given money to Democrats. | Getty

“People trying to mind-f--- each other,” said one transition source of the continual secretary of state jockeying.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence has emerged as a key power center in the still-forming administration, after replacing Gov. Chris Christie days after the election as chairman of the transition. His ascent has relieved social conservatives in particular who worried about Trump and Christie’s devotion to their issues.

“I’m trying not to be too giddy tonight,” said Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint, a leader of the conservative movement, as he introduced Pence at a D.C. event this week.

Two of Trump’s most prominent early supporters —Giuliani and Christie — remain jobless, as Christie was rejected this week as a potential chair of the Republican Party. But Trump has promoted some early backers, including tapping Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general and Dr. Ben Carson to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Notably, Trump’s most prominent choice of a former critic, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as United Nations ambassador, also served as an indirect favor to one of his earliest backers. Haley’s nomination, once confirmed, will allow Lt. Gov. Henry McMasters, Trump’s most prominent South Carolina endorser before the primary, to ascend to the governorship.

Some of Trump’s picks, notably Carson, have little relevant experience in the areas they are now charged with overseeing. Mnuchin’s confirmation is also a potential area of concern as he is a political newcomer, once made money through the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme and has previously given money to Democrats.

Rep. Tom Price, a physician and longtime conservative legislator, will run the Department of Health and Human Services and oversee what Republicans hope will be the dismantling of Obamacare. | Getty

Other Trump appointments are consummate insiders. Rep. Tom Price, a physician and longtime conservative legislator, will run the Department of Health and Human Services and oversee what Republicans hope will be the dismantling of President Obama’s signature health-care law. Elaine Chao, Trump’s pick to head the transportation department, is a former deputy there, ran the labor department under President George W. Bush and is the wife of the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Trump has been very hands-on in interviewing and selection of his cabinet choices, summoning them one by one to Trump Tower and his golf course in New Jersey.

“I think it’d be hard for Americans to understand how casual everything is,” said Corker, who has interviewed for secretary of state. “It’s laid back on one hand, on the other hand a lot going on at one time.”

But once Trump picks someone, transition officials said his choices are expected to have wide latitude to govern their own departments.

“This cabinet is diverse ideologically. It’s diverse in terms of gender and race and background,” Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said Friday on Fox News.

Yuval Levin, the editor of National Affairs who was a conservative critic of Trump throughout the campaign, said the choices so far were better than he expected.

“I think the cabinet choices, for the most part, have given us cause for hope,” Levin said.

