By Stephen Collinson, CNN
(From top L), SpaceX, Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, US entrepreneur and former Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump senior advisor Susie Wiles, Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Thomas Homan, House Republican Conference Chair Representative Elise Stefanik, Representative John Ratcliffe, US Representative Mike Waltz, US Senator Marco Rubio, Congressman Lee Zeldin, Political advisor Stephen Miller, South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem. Photo: AFP
Analysis - It was a night of MAGA shock and awe that even Donald Trump's most devoted fans might not have dreamed possible.
But the president-elect's blizzard of Cabinet and staff picks on Wednesday, each one more unorthodox than the last, only bolstered fears among his critics that his chaotic crew is about to take the country on a dangerous ride.
Trump named his new super buddy Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX pioneer, to head a new department to gut government agencies and budgets. Musk is an authentic genius and visionary. But in his new job, the world's richest man may be able to wipe out governance and regulations while enjoying the largesse of vast federal contracts for his businesses. It's a situation that makes the ethical alarms and conflicts of interest of Trump's first term look minuscule by comparison.
Musk will be joined at what Trump is calling the "Department of Government Efficiency" by rabble-rousing GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who left little doubt that the plan is to eviscerate government itself. "SHUT IT DOWN," he posted on X, the platform owned by Musk and now bristling with pro-Trump propaganda. It's unclear how this new department, which Trump said would "provide advice and guidance from outside of Government," would actually operate.
In an even more stunning move, Trump named Pete Hegseth - a Fox News anchor and outspoken booster of the president-elect - for secretary of defense. Hegseth has a distinguished combat record and does sterling work for veterans, but he lacks the decades of high-level strategic experience that presidents normally seek from those put in charge of the most powerful military in the world.
This came as Trump made official his selection of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem for secretary of Homeland security. She doesn't have any direct pedigree in keeping the entire country safe, or anti-terrorism, cybersecurity or customs and border enforcement. But she has spent years lionizing Trump on conservative TV and is a rock star in the "Make America Great Again" movement.
America's covert operatives could soon be under the control of another Trump acolyte. Former acting Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who faced previous accusations of weaponising intelligence to boost Trump's political prospects, has now been tapped to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump chose former presidential candidate, Fox News host and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who CNN's KFile reported once said, "there's really no such thing as a Palestinian," as the new US ambassador to Israel, dealing an immediate blow to fading hopes that a two-state solution might ease the Middle East's torment.
Trump is reaping the rewards of his victory
What may be the most unorthodox White House and Cabinet staff in decades is the product of Trump's sweeping election victory a week ago. Many of his supporters despise Washington government and want revenge against elites. The defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, plunged her voters into gloom and conjured a palpable sense of fear that the nation is about to enter a volatile and perilous new era.
But for a while Tuesday, it was almost possible to think that Trump might not turn out as disruptive as expected and that his efficient new White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was managing a tight ship as Cabinet selections methodically rolled out. CNN and other media outlets reported Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a statesman known around the world, was likely to be picked for secretary of state.
But Tuesday night's flurry of activity from the rarified atmosphere of Trump's Mar-a-Lago club - where Musk is reportedly sitting in on the selection process - suggested the coming Washington storm would be as extreme as expected. (And Rubio's selection - which relieved many allies abroad who fear for alliances with Washington - has not been made official amid suggestions that Trump's base is chafing at the elevation of an ex-critic who once leaned neo-conservative.)
The sense of mounting chaos was exacerbated by a Wall Street Journal story that the Trump transition team is considering an executive order that would create a "warrior board," which would have the power to recommend the removal of three- and four-star officers. The story fuelled new fears that Trump - who threatened to fire generals wholesale during the campaign - will purge top brass and politicize the military, after mulling on the trail that he could turn its might on his political enemies when in office.
What Trump is thinking
Four things are true about Trump's shocking picks for top staffers.
The president-elect is entitled to name who he wants to his Cabinet and team after the democratic legitimacy of his presidential election victory.
The selection of people like Musk, Noem and Hegseth are partly designed to honour the aspirations of Trump's voters and epitomize the president-elect's own outsider brand - as well as his deeply developed craving for loyalty.
His choice of ultra-loyalists is borne out of Trump's frustration that establishment military officers, officials and conventional Washington operators reined in his own most extreme impulses in his first term.
Many of his nominations are also consistent with the ideological undertones of his political movement. Former White House official Steve Bannon - who was released from federal prison the week before Election Day, after being convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress - famously declared early in the first term that Trump was all about the "deconstruction of the administrative state." That seems about to be sent into warp speed.
But Trump is also taking a risk. While it makes sense to pick outside revolutionaries to tear down governance, many of his picks lack the kind of in-depth experience and knowledge of the departments they will run. They could be churned up by the agencies they're meant to transform.
Musk, from space pioneer to government reformer?
Trump's new relationship with Musk, who emerged as a powerful force in his bid to win a second term, is a fascinating development even if it is not clear that the supposed new department he will head will be a real government agency.
The president-elect and the tech pioneer are in some ways an odd pairing. Musk is deeply read, and biographers say he has spent considerable time pondering the mysteries of the universe, the future of mankind and the riddle of consciousness. Trump makes no pretence at such an intellectual hinterland. And during his business and political career laced with scandals and drama, the president-elect has often looked like he's simply trying to make it to the end of the day in one piece.
But both Musk and Trump thrive in the chaos that they create. They are both iconoclasts who have shown that the rules that apply to others don't inhibit them. Both have used wealth to access power and to topple entrenched businesses and political interests.
In Musk's case, a personality that strains convention has resulted in astonishing advances in the electric vehicle industry that few others have been able to make profitable. The SpaceX line of rockets that rescued US orbital exploration has Musk aiming to put men on Mars.
With that background and a record of turning around red-tape-bound industries with innovation, Musk might be an ideal figure to reform the hide-bound US government and a federal system that often stifles fast change.
Yet Musk's increasing political radicalism and the spectre of his massive potential conflicts of interests raise the possibility of an American oligarchy that rather than revitalizing government could corrupt it. And Musk makes a habit of destructive reinvention - a factor that could have enormous consequences in his new position in Trump's team.
Musk caused consternation when he suggested that he could cut US$2 trillion in federal spending in the run-up to the election. The entire budget comes in at roughly US$6.5 trillion. Spending restrictions along these lines would almost certainly cut into programs like Social Security, the military budget, and other popular items that could cause a political firestorm and considerable hardship for millions of Americans who lack his and Trump's fortunes. If that pain becomes clear, Trump may balk at paying a personal political price for his government overhaul.
It's also unclear how realistic the Musk-Ramaswamy project will be. It's up to Congress to approve budgets for government. Trump and Musk can't just decree what will happen. And even with the likely GOP monopoly on Capitol Hill, the idea that lawmakers will agree to such drastic fiscal surgery seems fanciful.
'Wow': senators react to Hegseth nomination
The case for Hegseth at the department of defense starts with his decorated military career, which includes deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of his major tasks, if confirmed, will be to seek to significantly boost the defense budget in line with Trump's campaign promises to improve readiness, especially with a view to the rising challenge from the new superpower, China.
But his relative lack of political and international experience left some Trump critics bewildered by the choice.
Democratic Representative Dan Goldman of New York told CNN's Erin Burnett, "I'm shocked. And this is exactly what we worried about, and we warned about Donald Trump, which is that he is going to appoint unqualified loyalists to shape the government into his own personal fiefdom." Goldman added, "I appreciate Mr Hegseth's service in our armed forces but being a serviceman, it does not make you qualified to lead the department of defense and to have access to our nuclear weapons."
Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, meanwhile, told CNN's Kaitlan Collins the biggest challenge for Hegseth would come if the president-elect put him in a position of obeying or refusing a potentially unlawful or unconstitutional command. "What will Pete Hegseth do the first time Trump tells him to put the 82nd Airborne on the streets of Portland, Oregon?" Bolton said.
Hegseth's selection surprised Capitol Hill too, but there were no immediate signs that he'd have trouble winning confirmation.
"Wow," said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
GOP Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina had one word: "Interesting."
Several Republicans said they trusted Trump's choice and predicted that Hegseth would be surrounded by capable people.
But Trump's former White House attorney Ty Cobb, speaking about the quality of the president-elect's nominees more generally, drew an analogy with the NBA. "I think we are seeing a lot of Bronny James and not many Steph Currys," he told CNN's Burnett.
In the case of Hegseth, there was one particular quality that appealed to the president-elect, who has reportedly been vetting nominees by watching their television appearances.
"Trump also thinks he has the look," one source told CNN's Alayna Treene.
- CNN
