(NewsNation) — President-elect Donald Trump has started rapidly filling his administration, with familiar names including Susie Wiles, Tom Homan, Marco Rubio and many more potentially snagging top spots come January 2025.
The plethora of Republicans joining Trump’s team will serve to diversify his policies, former White House chief of staff under Trump and NewsNation contributor Mick Mulvaney told “The Hill on NewsNation.”
“It sort of brings some balance. What have we said before? Donald Trump likes to have differing opinions. He likes loyalty,” Mulvaney said. “But that’s not the same as saying you can’t have your own opinions.”
Mulvaney noted that some choices — like tapped CIA Director John Ratcliffe and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz — are more “hawkish” than Trump when it comes to policy, while others back him wholeheartedly.
A diversified Cabinet could also lead to conflicting opinions about some of the United States’ most important policies, despite loyalty to Trump.
Bill O’Reilly: Admin will be his ‘eyes and ears,’ not leaders
President-elect Donald Trump’s administration nominations are carefully selected to serve his centralized idea of a second term, Bill O’Reilly tells “CUOMO.”
O’Reilly adds that “those who burned him are not going to reappear” in the White House, and true power will be among Trump’s top advisers rather than department heads.
Some with true power include Wiles and Rubio, who O’Reilly says will help the 47th president make most of his political moves this term. Meanwhile, people like nominated Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, will simply monitor people Trump finds suspicious.
“It’s a top-down on Trump. Trump is going to run everything, and he wants eyes and ears in all of these areas reporting back to him,” O’Reilly said. “That’s how this country is going to be run.”
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Panel says Trump Cabinet will shift foreign policy
Other experts, including Michael Allen, the former national security council senior director, and Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, discussed the president-elect’s choices on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
Here’s what they’re saying about Trump’s picks, and how it will impact America’s place overseas:
Middle East
“I think in the Middle East, you’re going to see Netanyahu with a longer leash. I think you’re going to see an Iran that ought to be more worried about enforced sanctions, particularly in their oil sector,” Allen said.
Rubio, who was tapped by Trump as secretary of state, has talked extensively about America’s relationship with Iran and called for harsher action to be taken.
“What everyone has looked for and has not seen for several years is peace through strength rather than accommodation,” Volker said. “You’re going to see a tougher approach on Iran, holding Iran accountable for the actions of its proxies, the Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah.”
Volker believes that, with Trump back in the White House and vocal administration officials like Florida Reps. Rubio and Mike Waltz, America will “lay a foundation for working together with Saudi Arabia again.”
Mike Huckabee, the newly announced ambassador to Israel and former governor of Arkansas who touts himself as a Zionist, has previously said that a two-state solution should never happen in Gaza.
“I think after Oct. 7, all of the old structures of thinking about the Middle East, Gaza — two state solution, one state solution — all of those things have to be rethought. I don’t think we can go back to where we were,” Volker said.
Mulvaney said he was surprised by Huckabee’s nomination, telling NewsNation’s Blake Burman: “This is a name I would not have picked out of a hat, but the Jewish-American community seems to like it very much, and that’s a good sign.”
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Ukraine
Trump and most of his picks have said they would immediately end the war in Ukraine, despite the president-elect’s friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Allen referred to Trump as “the art of the deal” president, characterizing his foreign policy choices as more transactional than most, “but he’ll have met his match with Vladimir Putin.”
“It’s very similar to what we just talked about with Iran. You have to put on the table consistent support for Ukraine that will tell Putin he’s not going to get any more and it’s going to get worse,” Volker said. “Sanctions are the number one thing.”
“But we’ve got to convince Vladimir Putin that it is not worth it to him to try this again,” Volker added.
