Sharp elbows and raised voices: Inside Trump’s bumpy transition
His freewheeling team has returned to the patterns of his first term in office — with shouting matches, expulsions from meetings and name-calling.
Donald Trump’s attorney and adviser Boris Epshteyn arrived recently for a meeting about Cabinet picks in the Tea Room at Mar-a-Lago only to find his way blocked.
Transition co-chair Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, told Epshteyn in front of others that this was not a meeting for him. “We’re not talking legal nominees today,” Lutnick said, according to one person familiar with the exchange.
Epshteyn refused to budge. Using his forearm, he pushed Lutnick out of the way, according to two people familiar with the incident, which Lutnick later recounted to others. “I’m coming in,” Epshteyn retorted, according to one of the people.
A third person described the incident more as Epshteyn simply brushing past Lutnick on his way into the meeting, and someone close to both men said the two “have been working closely together in assisting President Trump in putting together the greatest administration in American history.” Epshteyn and Lutnick both declined to comment.
In any other presidential transition, such a showdown and physical confrontation between two top advisers to the president-elect would be a showstopping breakdown in decorum.
But in Trump’s freewheeling orbit, the incident was soon forgotten as his team has returned to the patterns of his first term in office — with shouting matches, expulsions from meetings and name-calling, all between the public celebrations and rocket-ship photo ops. As during Trump’s first term, competing factions have begun to run roughshod over each other, sometimes kicking up clouds of dust.
This portrait of Trump’s blooming team of rivals is the result of interviews with more than half a dozen aides, advisers, confidants and others involved in the transition process, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment.
Trump presidential transition
Elon Musk, who has embraced the nickname “first buddy” on his own social network X, got in a recent tense discussion at Mar-a-Lago with Epshteyn in full view of others, said people familiar with the incident. Incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles has also had to traffic-cop meetings, asking people to leave when they’re not welcome.
And Vice President-elect JD Vance even took to social media this week to dress down a lieutenant of another Trump whisperer, Stephen K. Bannon, calling her a “mouth breathing imbecile” for criticizing his decision to work with Trump instead of attending Senate votes.
Many of the power centers of the first Trump term have moved on, with his daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, keeping their distance. Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and White House senior adviser, is also not expected to return to the administration. And Bannon, a former top White House adviser, now operates from a distance.
But new camps have formed, with little sign that Trump sees conflict as a problem at this point. At the same time, none of the people interviewed for this article described factions as vast and warring as during the 2016 transition and early days of the first Trump White House. And Trump has picked Cabinet members quickly, essentially filling most of the top jobs days before Thanksgiving. While some of the picks are viewed as challenging Senate confirmations, many have been widely praised by Republicans.
“The president loves when people are kind of going at it with each other because often it is the way to get to the right people,” said someone involved in the discussions.
A transition official downplayed any tensions. “President Trump has a dedicated transition team full of patriots who are committed to serving the President and helping him staff his new administration,” Steven Cheung said in a statement. “President Trump won a historic election in decisive fashion and he will put together a team that will ensure the will of the American people is represented.”
Pete Hegseth, a former “Fox & Friends” weekend co-host and Trump’s choice to lead the Defense Department, is facing a challenging confirmation process following reports that police investigated an allegation in 2017 that he sexually assaulted a woman in a hotel following a Republican conference in California. He has denied the allegations and said the encounter was consensual.
Matt Gaetz, Trump’s initial choice for attorney general, was accused of paying for sex and having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a drug-fueled party — allegations Gaetz has denied. On Thursday, Gaetz withdrew his name, saying he believed he had become a distraction.
The transition has unfolded as a rolling set of gala events and business meetings, with clear cliques beginning to emerge. In one group, unofficially helmed by Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., sits Vance alongside other longtime MAGA warriors such as former Fox News host Tucker Carlson; and former Trump administration official Cliff Sims. Another group, unofficially helmed by Wiles, consists largely of her cadre of loyal and disciplined campaign aides, including Trump’s 2024 political director James Blair; deputies Taylor Budowich and Robert Gabriel; and the communications team.
One person familiar with the dynamic, however, described those silos as “two friend groups” that are totally politically aligned in support of Trump and his agenda.
A third group consists of people connected to the America First Policy Institute, including AFPI President Brooke Rollins, transition co-chair Linda McMahon — who Trump on Tuesday announced as his choice for secretary of education — and Keith Kellogg, who served as national security adviser to Trump’s previous vice president, Mike Pence. The group served as a sort of government-in-waiting during the campaign, and held an event at Trump’s club last week. But many observers have been surprised at their lack of influence in these first few weeks.
There are also a number of independent actors whose power extends directly from their personal relationship with Trump. Epshteyn — a longtime adviser who took a coordinating role in Trump’s criminal defense efforts in recent years — frustrated a number of fellow Trump advisers when, on a flight to Washington last week, he encouraged Trump to pick Gaetz for attorney general. He was not the only person on the plane who was supportive of Gaetz for attorney general, and Epshteyn has played a crucial role in a number of picks.
The fledgling relationship between Epshteyn and Musk — the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla chief who Trump tapped to lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” — has also been strained. Musk grew frustrated with Epshteyn over what he saw as his outsize influence over staffing and Musk’s belief that he was leaking to the media — griping to anyone who would listen, including Trump.
The tensions came to a head last week on the patio of Mar-a-Lago, in what one witness described as “a big blowup” and a “huge fight.” The two men grew loud as Musk accused Epshteyn of leaking, with Epshteyn replying: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Axios first reported the fight on the patio.
“It’s Boris against the world,” said one Trump confidant, while another described him as on “an island of his own.” But one of them added that Epshteyn’s power emanates from Trump himself, who appreciates him as a loyal fixer and attack dog.
Epshteyn, for instance, was part of the legal effort that culminated Friday with the judge in the Manhattan hush money case against Trump indefinitely postponing his sentencing.
Last week, someone in the president-elect’s orbit helped agitate Trump after sharing with him a folder of clips from Sims’s 2019 book, “Team of Vipers,” about his time in the Trump administration — a behind-the-scenes memoir that was critical of some of the people around Trump, but not of Trump himself.
After the memoir, Sims had worked his way back into Trump’s graces, serving as a key deputy to then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe — Trump’s current pick for CIA director — as well as coordinating speechwriting for the 2020 and 2024 conventions, hosting a fundraiser for Trump in his home state of Alabama, and working closely with Lutnick on the transition.
But the dossier of old news stories about the memoir briefly angered Trump, until Sims’s various allies — including Lutnick, Ratcliffe, Trump Jr., Vance and Wiles — helped calm the president-elect down and gave a string of on-the-record quotes in support of Sims to Politico, which first reported the incident.
Less than three weeks after the election, Musk has already begun rubbing some people the wrong way with his omnipresence around Trump, earning headlines for being a houseguest who overstays their welcome. But for now, like Epshteyn, he has a powerful constituency of one — the president-elect, who on Tuesday traveled to Texas to join Musk for a SpaceX Starship rocket launch.
Lutnick, who some privately describe as an alpha with a big ego, has also irritated some fellow Trump advisers, who complain of his aggressive personality. Lutnick exasperated Trump in his behind-the-scenes maneuvering for treasury secretary, including lobbying Trump himself. Though Lutnick did not persuade the president-elect, he did emerge with a plum assignment nonetheless as Trump’s choice for commerce secretary.
Another surprise was Trump’s decision to choose Sergio Gor to head the White House Presidential Personnel Office, a quiet but influential role that helps staff the federal government.
Gor, along with Trump Jr., founded Winning Team Publishing — the firm that produces Trump’s books — and the president-elect likes Gor because of the money he’s made him on book deals, multiple people briefed on the decision said.
And some of the tensions have begun to spill into public view. On Tuesday, Vance went after Grace Chong — the chief operating officer of Bannon’s “WarRoom” podcast — calling her “a mouth breathing imbecile” on X after she attacked him for missing Senate votes Monday, when Democrats approved a new judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
“You guys better show up and do your one fricken job!!” Chong wrote, referring to Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Trump’s pick for secretary of state.
After Vance insulted her, she deleted her post, while Vance followed suit soon after. But the first line of Chong’s X profile now reads: “mouth breathing imbecile.”
No comments:
Post a Comment