Donald Trump’s personnel picks have stayed within the Republican mainstream – few are Trump cronies, and some were even opponents of the president-elect

Donald Trump ran an outsider campaign that seemingly violated every convention of American politics, but the team he is assembling for government looks increasingly like a conventional Republican cabinet.

Few of these picks could be considered moderate. “From the point of view of liberals, most of the appointments are abhorrent,” Whit Ayres, a top Republican political consultant and pollster, told the Guardian, “but they would have been with any Republican president.”

Trump's cabinet picks: here are all of the appointments so far Read more

Despite the eyebrows raised by his early appointment of Steve Bannon – a top adviser during the president-elect’s campaign and the former CEO of the far-right news site Breitbart – to be a close White House aide, the Trump administration’s personnel picks have stayed within the Republican mainstream.

The relative lack of bombthrowers and firebrands in Trump’s populist mould is in part a tribute to the surprise nature of his victory. Trump’s campaign had devoted relatively little attention to a transition effort and also to the roles that traditional Republican power players like vice-president elect Mike Pence and the incoming White House chief of staff, Reince Preibus, would play in Trump’s inner circle.

The result is that many of Trump’s cabinet picks bear the imprimatur of the Republican party and the conservative movement. Few are Trump cronies or explicitly associated with his most controversial views. In fact, some like South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, Trump’s pick to be ambassador to the United Nations, were vocal opponents of the president-elect in the Republican primary.

Ayres said: “In many ways the appointments so far could very well have been named by a President Jeb Bush or President Marco Rubio. This is not for the most part revolutionary.”

Trump has made some of his least ideological picks in the area of national security and foreign policy. Trump has picked two generals, James Mattis to lead the Department of Defense and John Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Both men possess sufficient support from the defense community to temper the criticism Trump received on the campaign trail.

Mattis, who had been promoted as a potential third party candidate by Never Trump conservatives earlier in 2016, led the United States Central Command for three years under Barack Obama. A gruff intellectual alternately nicknamed “Mad Dog” and “the warrior monk,” Mattis is deeply respected in much of the foreign policy establishment, despite notably clashing with the Obama administration over his more hawkish views on Iran.

Kelly, whose son Robert was killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2010, led the United States Southern Command, which is responsible for American military operations in Central America, South America and the Caribbean. But some human rights advocates have expressed concern over his oversight of Guantánamo Bay while leading southern command. Kelly developed a reputation for opposition to Obama’s intended closure of the detention facility.

Both of these picks have received bipartisan praise. One well-connected Never Trump conservative saw the picks as “sending a reassuring message to the Never Trump national security community ... that it might be OK to go in and serve”.

However, Trump also selected Michael Flynn to be his national security adviser, which is not a cabinet position. A former military intelligence chief who has been a vocal critic of the Obama administration and became a close Trump ally over the course of the campaign, Flynn has embraced a number of conspiracy theories and tweeted out controversial statements like “fear of Muslims is rational” since leaving the army.

“There are big concerns regarding his judgment and capability for forward-looking thought,” the Never Trump conservative noted, although he said Flynn did have a “consummate pedigree” and had the potential to be effective in his position.

Many of Trump’s other selections have been longtime conservative stalwarts who would have been contenders for positions in the administration of any Republican president.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump’s choices, left to right: Tom Price (health and human services), Scott Pruitt (EPA) Steven Mnuchin (Treasury) and Jeff Sessions (attorney general). Photograph: Reuters

Haley has been considered a rising star for some time within the GOP and is considered by many to be a potential presidential candidate in the future. Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services, Rep Tom Price of Georgia, is a healthcare policy wonk who has long been one of the most vocal opponents to Obama’s Affordable Care Act. His choice for transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, served for eight years as George W Bush’s secretary of Labor. Chao, who is married to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, also served in the administrations of George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan. Betsy DeVos, whom Trump has tapped for education secretary, is a major GOP donor who served chair of the Michigan Republican party. Further, Andy Puzder, Trump’s selection for secretary of Labor, is a fast food CEO and longtime Republican donor who actively campaigned for Mitt Romney.

All of these picks have solid conservative credentials. They are ardent opponents of regulation and government involvement in the economy. Puzder is skeptical about the need for a federal minimum wage, Price supports steps to privatize Medicare and DeVos is an ardent advocate for school vouchers.

As Rich Galen, a Republican strategist told the Guardian, “He appears to be picking people who generally conform to his business sense of less regulation and more laissez-faire.” But another president of a party that finds many government regulations repugnant could have selected all these picks as well.

However, Trump has made several cabinet choices who conform to his unique sensibilities and campaign promises.

His choice for attorney general is Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, an ardent opponent of immigration and free trade who has been accused of using racist language and was the first federal elected official to endorse Trump. Top Sessions aides have long played key roles in helping Trump define his policy positions throughout his campaign.

The president-elect has also picked former rival and longtime surrogate Ben Carson to be secretary of housing and urban development. A retired neurosurgeon with little political experience, Carson has long been a loyal Trump ally. As Bill Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution told the Guardian, although “Carson grew up in an inner city [he] has no known qualifications for the job.”

In addition, Trump has pegged Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker and producer of a number of Hollywood movies, to be secretary of treasury.

Mnuchin was Trump’s finance chairman during the campaign but has little other political experience. Although two former Treasury secretaries, Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson, also previously worked at Goldman Sachs, both had served as chairmen of the major investment bank.

Yet even those unconventional choices consist of a four-term senator, a former presidential candidate and a top campaign donor who spent nearly two decades at Goldman Sachs.

The picks ultimately raise the specter that Trump’s administration could be more conventional than many had anticipated, following Trump’s repeated pledges to “drain the swamp.” In fact, Puzder has even been attacked by a number of Trump allies, including Breitbart, for his past support of immigration reform.

But, even if many of Trump’s picks for cabinet wouldn’t have been out of place in a Cruz or even a Rubio or Kasich administration, there is still one big difference: the ultimate decisions will not be made by an establishment Republican politician or a movement conservative: they’ll be made by Donald Trump.