Donald Trump 2.0: Can the Polarizing Politician Pull Off a Presidential Repeat
Ignorant, incoherent or even fascist. This is how they portray a former president Donald Trump’s United States many colleagues who were under his orders and broke with him, which opens a big question: With whom would the Republican surround himself if he returned to the White House?
In case of winning on November 5 against the Democrats Kamala Harris, everything indicates that Trump would form a more loyal and radical second cabinet after a turbulent first term (2017-2021) which was marked by waves of resignations and layoffs, many of them announced on Twitter.
The last to attack the Republican in the latter part of the campaign was his former chief of staff John Kellywho has called Trump a “fascist” and accuses him of being an admirer of Adolf Hitler.
About thirty former colleagues have been critical of the former president, especially after a mob of Trump fanatics attacked the Capitol in 2021, and only half of his former cabinet supports him in these elections.
The list of detractors is long, starting with his former vice president, Mike Pence, who broke with Trump after he ordered him to stop the transfer of powers with Democrat Joe Biden. Pence has said he will not vote for Trump.
Most criticism revolves around two issues: their lack of knowledge about how the government works and their authoritarian tendencies, Carl Cavalli, an expert on political parties at the University of North Georgia, summarizes for EFE.
“Many officials became disillusioned because they were advisers or politicians with a more traditional profile and they realized that Trump did not know how the government works and that he was not interested either,” he detailed.
John Bolton, his third National Security adviser, tells EFE that working with the former president is like “living inside a pinball machine” because “he did not follow a coherent political line.”
“We couldn’t keep him focused. He has a very short attention span on most things,” he details.
A loyal and radical team
Trump, a New York real estate magnate who became very popular for a TV show where he fired people, often argues that he fired his colleagues because they did a bad job and now knows who he can trust if he rules again.
For now he has given almost no details about who would be accompanying him, but it seems clear that he would reward blind loyalty, especially after feeling backed by the Supreme Court ruling which gave presidents broad judicial immunity.
“The first season was surrounded by people who tried to curb his impulses. The second season will be populated by loyalists who will pay attention to his whims,” said Cavalli.
One of the main figures would be his vice president, JD Vance, a senator who opposed Trump in the past but later bowed to his will, to the point that, unlike Pence, he supported the false story of electoral fraud in 2020.
The Republican intends to incorporate in his transition team Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who resigned from his presidential campaign to support Trump, and has promised a position to Elon Musk, a magnate who defends him tooth and nail in what was formerly Twitter.
Several names are being considered for Secretary of State, including that of Senator Marco Rubio, a hardline defender of Cuba and Venezuela, who was a finalist as a possible vice president.
Stephen Miller, a loyal Trump adviser behind his anti-immigration policies, could have an important perspective, as could Richard Grenell, his controversial former ambassador to Germany.
As for the family clan, Trump placed his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the White House, but also distanced himself from them. In his place, the first-born, Donald Trump Jr., and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump have gained influence.
Some of the fiercest criticism against Trump comes from those who were responsible for the country’s security during his term, such as former Secretary of Defense James Mattis or former head of the Armed Forces Mark Milley, who consider him a threat to r Constitution.
In an unprecedented gesture, Trump has charged in this campaign against the country’s military leadership because he sees it as too progressive: “I will fire it.”