Trump’s very catholic cabinet

Donald Trump’s second term administration is taking shape, and thus far it’s turned out to be impressively Catholic in its approach — representing Trump’s dominance of the Republican coalition and his capacity to ignore the worst instincts of some of his more vocal supporters on the New Right who see governance through a naive lens.

One of the questions heading into this term was who Trump would disappoint by being insufficiently one thing or the other — by being too radical in some areas or too modest in others. But at this point, there are very few people disappointed in the names he’s chosen, outside of a handful of very online voices who had fantasies of their favorite pundits and follows on X getting a shot at cabinet positions.

The choices of Elise Stefanik for United Nations ambassador, Mike Waltz for national security advisor and reportedly Marco Rubio for secretary of state give the administration an immediate united front signaling Trump intends to get tough on China and Iran, projecting strength instead of the meandering and accommodationist attitudes of the Biden-Harris administration. And in the White House, his appointments of loyalists Susie Wiles as chief of staff, Stephen Miller as deputy chief for policy and Tom Homan as border czar goes directly to the importance of immigration for this incoming administration. Going from Michael Regan to Lee Zeldin at EPA and Alejandro Mayorkas to Kristi Noem at the Department of Homeland Security is quite a shift — and rewards Trump loyalists with a strong capacity for communication.

These are solid, qualified choices designed to please those at the center of the Republican coalition — not fringe characters or ragtag enthusiasts from the island of misfit toys, much to the frustration of some on the internet who had engaged in fanciful daydreams about choosing people for these jobs based on their YouTube appearances. There’s also a bias toward experience in government: in Trump’s first term, he made the outsider error of assuming that just because you are smart outside of government, you could navigate the halls of DC as capably, leading to him putting people with undeniably impressive résumés like Rex Tillerson in jobs that proved impossible for them to navigate because of a lifetime spent in the private sector.

In anticipation of Trump’s victory, many DC organizations came up with their own slates of suggested candidates for key jobs, each representing their version as the one true staff sheet for MAGA. None of them actually held claim over these decisions, though — they all come down to what the big guy wants. To this point, what he seems to want is to pull from a wide swathe of the party he’s expanded to the point of electoral dominance. There will doubtless be a few eyebrow-raising choices by the end of the day, but as administration starts go, this is an indication that Trump is bringing in qualified grown-ups, not just listening to whoever will be his biggest fanboy in the moment. That’s a good thing.