President Trump ignores media predictions and nominates primarily Capitol Hill veterans such as Marco Rubio

For months, the media has been warning that President Donald Trump's second term would have “no guardrails” and would likely cede the top spot to a bunch of right-wing lunatics.

Instead, the president yesterday selected Marco Rubio, a 14-year senator and son of Cuban immigrants who has been informally advising him on foreign policy, to be his secretary of state.

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The president-elect has also nominated a number of Hill veterans who are traditional conservatives and agree with him on important issues and could easily be nominated by Mitt Romney.

Also yesterday, President Trump selected South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a dog-shooting survivor who was kicked out of the Veep Stakes, to be Secretary of Homeland Security.

President Trump has made these changes at lightning speed in just one week after the election. He has stayed away from television and has not made any inflammatory posts. He is trying to show that he is serious about governing by going all out.

In the past, presidents and president-elects have appeared on the air, praised a candidate or perhaps two, and succumbed to a short speech of thanks from the chosen candidate. But President Trump seems to be ignoring all of that.

Of course, not all the top positions are filled, but even some top Democrats are praising Rubio's choice (while some in the MAGA movement are disappointed). He is undoubtedly a hawk and will be the face of American foreign policy as he travels around the world.

Indeed, during the 2016 presidential campaign, he said some awful things about President Trump, who mocked him as Little Marco. I saw Mr. Rubio on the campaign trail that year, and he's a very charismatic speaker.

But the two men mended fences long ago. Mr. Rubio tried to push immigration reform a decade ago as part of various Senate gangs, but has since distanced himself from that effort.

Over and over again, I have seen television reports claiming, almost accusatory, that President Trump employs “loyalists.” Excuse me, but do you think Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton didn't hire allies? Presidents want aides who generally agree with them and who aren't troublemakers. Biden has hired longtime advisers Ron Klain, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti.

From a conservative perspective, when Biden hired senior government officials who wanted to tighten environmental regulations, strengthen labor unions, and spend hundreds of billions of dollars to fight the pandemic, it was a departure from Trump 1.0. It was a strong departure. Now, Trump will reverse many of Biden's policies with a stroke of the pen.

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Other nominees so far include Rep. Elise Stefanik of upstate New York, a member of the House leadership and an impeachment advocate, to be ambassador to the United Nations.

President Trump also selected former Long Island Congressman Lee Zeldin to run the EPA. He is a mainstream conservative who campaigned against excessive environmental regulation and received a lifetime score of 14 percent from the League of Conservative Voters. He told Fox News that the government would “rescind regulations” that are causing companies “suffering” and “forcing” them to move overseas.

President Trump then nominated Florida Republican Rep. Mike Walz, a former Green Beret, to serve as White House national security adviser without requiring Senate confirmation. He is a China hawk and a Ukraine skeptic. “It is the right thing to do to stop Russia before it draws NATO, and by extension, the United States, into war,” Walz wrote. “But we cannot continue to place this burden solely on the American people, especially while Western Europe is cleared.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) attends a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Doral, Florida on July 9, 2024. (Joe Radle/Getty Images)

They are serious people who know how Washington works.

By the way, Mr. Trump narrowed what was expected to be a very small Republican advantage in the House by selecting two members. But in Rubio's case, Gov. Ron DeSantis can appoint a successor to serve until the midterm elections.

As I write this, President Trump has just nominated former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has led numerous delegations to the country and is staunchly pro-Israel.

And after I submitted this, Trump nominated Bill McGinley, who had been in charge of election integrity at the RNC and general counsel for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to be White House counsel.

Then, after I submitted the insert, another announcement was made. John Ratcliffe has been selected to head the CIA. The former Texas congressman, known for criticizing the FBI as being biased against President Trump, became director of national intelligence in 2020.

Last night, Trump made his first hire from Fox News. Pete Hegseth, an Army veteran and co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” has been named Secretary of Defense. President Trump noted that Hegseth has visited Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, received two Bronze Stars, and just published the bestseller “War with the Warrior.''

Mr. Trump had sought confirmation the previous year, but amid media revelations that Mr. Ratcliffe had tampered with prosecutors' efforts in immigration and terrorism cases, Republican senators and former intelligence officials were seeking confirmation. Ratcliffe withdrew after concerns were voiced about him. Therefore, he certainly deserves a highly partisan nomination.

Two aggressive hard-liners, critics have labeled extremists, are Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, both of whom are appointed to address border issues, a top priority for President Trump. I was hired.

Miller, who spearheaded Trump's immigration policy during Trump's first term, was promoted to chief of staff, but even that title doesn't capture the influence he has as a trusted member of Trump's inner circle. He promoted a highly controversial family separation policy.

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Homan, who led ICE during his first term, is known as the border czar. When I asked him if there was any way to avoid family separation like last time, he said it was definitely to deport everyone together.

“The Washington Post can write all they want to me about “Tom Homan's Deportation,'' he said at a summer news conference. “He's really good at it!'' . They haven't seen it yet, wait until 2025! ”

Mr. Miller and Mr. Homan will be responsible for carrying out the mass deportation of the approximately 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, or at least initiating the process so that the next president can say he has kept his promise. Critics say this goal is completely unrealistic.

There are other people who enjoy great influence right now. Elon Musk, who donated $119 million to support Trump, is now the most powerful private citizen in history — he heads the waste board, posted hundreds of messages on He is on hand to call for Volodymyr Zelensky, while simultaneously seeking billions of dollars in federal contracts.

President Trump said last night that Musk would become head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which he promised would “shock the entire system” with support from former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Tom Homan, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., Thursday, February 22, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

RFK Jr. will get some title, but President Trump will have to decide whether to follow his hotly debated ideas on vaccines and removing fluoride from water systems. He also threatened to fire FDA officials who have waged a “war on public health,” accusing the agency of suppressing products such as raw milk, ivermectin and vitamins.

And, of course, J.D. Vance is an unusually active vice president and considered successor.

The top job of Treasury Secretary and the extremely sensitive post of Attorney General are yet to come. I would also like to know who the press secretary will be!

One of the reasons we've been subjected to weeks of negative to skeptical reporting is because every beat reporter on the planet has to write the obligatory article about Donald Trump.

Whether you're covering sports, religion, labor, housing, entertainment, courts, energy, television, schools, crime, etc., keep in mind that the 47th president impacts everything. need to write about.

Even just yesterday:

Washington Post: “President Trump promised to shut down the Department of Education. What does that mean?”

New York Times: “President Trump's 'Drill Baby Drill' is a double whammy for oil companies.”

And, “Universities are wondering whether they will become 'the enemy' under the Trump administration.”

But my personal favorite is “What Trump’s Presidency Means for the Alcohol Industry.”

(Mr. Trump doesn't drink alcohol, but he wants deregulation in all industries.)

Drudge's headline also reads, “Wife divorces husband over voting.”

The Mirror reported: “A man said he couldn't believe his wife was planning to 'throw away her whole life' after filing for divorce over her vote for Donald Trump.

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Her distraught husband wrote on social media that he was left speechless and feared politics could destroy their marriage. ”

I think there are various forms of family separation policies.