The first picks for Trump’s cabinet show more commonality between terms one and two than some might have expected. None of these are “power” positions in a Trump administration. Those are going to be in the White House, the Pentagon, Justice, CIA and Treasury. But Stefanik, Zeldin and Rubio aren’t ideologues either. They’re mostly loyalists, people who remade themselves not so much in Trump’s image as reflexive supporters. Marco Rubio is less a hardliner than a thin and insubstantial slice of soap. What he is mostly is servile, soft. At least in these positions that seems to be what Trump wants – people who’ve already been broken in.
These aren’t people who are going to be straining their leashes wanting to go all out on a MAGA agenda. They’ll do what they’re told, come when called. They’re each people you might easily have imagined in a Jeb or Romney administration. Stefanik will likely be a big talker striving to be first in her class. But in a Trump administration UN Ambassador is very much a talk position and no more.
In Rubio’s case, you can easily imagine this ending badly for him. He gives up his no-show job in Washington. But once that happens his political career is at Trump’s mercy. Does he last more than a year? What his next gig after that? And how much say does DeSantis even get over a replacement?
