| | | | |  | | By Lauren Egan, Eli Stokols, Lisa Kashinsky, Megan Messerly and Ben Johansen | | Presented by |  | | | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the preparations, personnel decisions and policy deliberations of Donald Trump’s transition. POLITICO Pro subscribers receive a version of this newsletter first. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren | Email Lisa | Email Megan Since Nov. 5, there’s been nonstop media coverage of DONALD TRUMP’s Cabinet and White House staff announcements, which have rolled out at a breakneck pace. And yet, a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows that the public isn’t very familiar with the people Trump has chosen for prominent and consequential roles in his second administration, save for a few high-profile celebrities. In the post-election survey of registered voters (conducted Nov. 20 to 22), 49 percent of respondents said they had never heard of Rep. ELISE STEFANIK (R-N.Y.), Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations, and 57 percent had not heard of the Environmental Protection Agency nominee, former Rep. LEE ZELDIN of New York. Forty-four percent of respondents were unfamiliar with Trump’s Homeland Security nominee, South Dakota Gov. KRISTI NOEM, and 46 percent did not know the Department of Defense nominee, PETE HEGSETH. Sixty percent of respondents had not heard of Energy secretary nominee CHRIS WRIGHT or Commerce secretary nominee HOWARD LUTNICK. Despite many of the nominees’ frequent appearances on Fox News (Hegseth is even a former Fox & Friends weekend edition host), most of the new department heads will start the new year with a blank slate and a chance to introduce themselves to the public for the first time. That’s both a blessing and a curse. The opportunity to define themselves to the public has clear upshots, particularly for ambitious members of the party who have an eye toward 2028 and beyond. But low name-ID also raises the stakes for televised confirmation hearings. Democrats will be eager to put Trump nominees through a grinding nomination process and litigate issues such as abortion, Social Security and Medicare in the hopes of tripping up some nominees and getting them on camera delivering politically unpopular or damaging answers. An embarrassing performance or a revelation from a thus-far uninspected past could sideline a candidate’s nomination — and become a leading line on their Wikipedia page. Of course, not all of Trump’s nominees are new to the public. Voters were plenty familiar with some of the more high-profile and celebrity picks. Just 15 percent of respondents said they had not heard of MEHMET OZ, the celebrity doctor and TV personality (also known as Dr. Oz) who Trump selected to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. And just 3 percent did not know Health and Human Services nominee ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. Four percent did not know ELON MUSK, who will lead Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency. In those cases, Trump may be setting himself up to be outshined by big personalities who have their own followings and brands. Cabinet secretaries typically don’t have a national profile, especially those who came from the private sector, the House or small-population states. The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent, also found that Trump is entering office with a split favorability rating. Forty-eight percent of respondents said they had a “very” or “somewhat favorable” view of the president-elect while 49 percent had a “very” or “somewhat unfavorable” view. Vice President-elect JD VANCE’s favorability was split 42 percent to 42 percent (10 percent of respondents had “no opinion” of him and 6 percent said they had not heard of him). And despite Trump’s electoral win, voters still have some clear concerns about how he will govern. The public did not fully buy into the Democratic Party’s message (led largely by JOE BIDEN) about the need to safeguard American democracy from a second Trump administration. Still, 49 percent of voters said they “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed that Trump’s presidency would be a threat to democracy, while 45 percent “somewhat” or “strongly” disagreed. Many voters were also uneasy about Musk’s involvement in the second Trump administration, given that his companies — SpaceX and Tesla — have lucrative contracts with the federal government. Thirty-eight percent said it was “very” or “somewhat” appropriate for Musk to have a role in the administration compared to 48 percent who said it was “very” or “somewhat” inappropriate. Fifty-two percent “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed that Trump would govern as an authoritarian, compared to 34 percent who “somewhat” or “strongly” disagreed. Forty-seven percent expressed concern that Trump would use the power of the presidency to unfairly influence future elections. MESSAGE US — Are you ROBIN CARNAHAN, administrator of the General Services Administration? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
| | | | Want to know what's really happening with Congress's make-or-break spending fights? Get daily insider analysis of Hill negotiations, funding deadlines, and breaking developments—free in your inbox with Inside Congress. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | | | Who was the last secretary of War? (Answer at bottom.)
| | Trump’s tariff threat could boost auto, energy prices, via our DOUG PALMER Trump’s “energy czar” could usher in a new era at Interior, via our HEATHER RICHARDS Is climate “too woke” for Trump’s CDC?, via our ARIEL WITTENBERG Biden admin takes last shot at reining in Medicare Advantage, via our KELLY HOOPER The reporting in this section is exclusively available to POLITICO Pro subscribers. Pro is a personalized policy intelligence platform from POLITICO. If you are interested in learning more about how POLITICO Pro can support your team through the 2024 transition and beyond, visit politicopro.com. Heads up, we're all transition all the time over on our live blog: Inside Congress Live: Transition of Power. Bookmark politico.com/transition to keep up with us.`
| | | SOME MORE TRANSITION INFIGHTING: Two Trump transition insiders, CLIFF SIMS and KASH PATEL, are angling to be deputy director of the CIA — and angering others who feel they’re using their roles on the transition to undermine contenders, our JOHN SAKELLARIADIS reports. The position does not require Senate confirmation — which Patel would run into problems with — but wields enormous influence within the intelligence community. The frustration toward Sims, the former White House and ODNI communications strategist, and Patel, the former House Intelligence Committee staffer and Pentagon official, stems from the fact that both are helping the transition interview candidates for their would-be boss’s role. “The issue that a lot of us have is that these people are involved in staffing national security jobs, and at the same time they’re also promoting themselves for the same roles,” said one person familiar with the matter. There is also concern that Patel in particular is fighting dirty. A second person said there was suspicion Patel was leaking damaging stories on Sims. When asked about the conflict, a transition spokesperson said only that “remaining decisions will continue to be announced." ECON MOVES: Trump is expected to name KEVIN HASSETT as the National Economic Council director, Bloomberg’s NANCY COOK, SALEHA MOHSIN and AMANDA L. GORDON report. Hassett previously served as a senior adviser to Trump and the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during his first administration. Back then, Hassett often provided Trump with positive economic analysis, despite statistics that supported the contrary. OH, BORIS: The Trump legal team found evidence that a top adviser asked for retainer fees from potential appointees in order to promote them for jobs in the new administration, NYT’s MAGGIE HABERMAN and JONATHAN SWAN report. After being alerted by several people, Trump directed his team to carry out the review of the adviser, BORIS EPSHTEYN, who coordinated legal defenses in the president-elect’s criminal cases and is a powerful figure in the transition. DAVID WARRINGTON, who was effectively the campaign’s general counsel, conducted the review in recent days. The review claimed that Epshteyn had sought payment from two people, including SCOTT BESSENT, whom Trump tapped as his Treasury secretary. Epshteyn met with Bessent in February, according to the review, a time when it was widely known that he was interested in the post, and proposed $30,000 to $40,000 a month to “promote” him around Mar-a-Lago. FYI, VIRGINIA IS NOT D.C.: In a desperate plea to pull future Trump administration workers out of the wonder that is Navy Yard, Virginia Gov. GLENN YOUNGKIN posted a video to X urging those on the cusp of a move to the DMV to choose the Old Dominion instead. “To the new members of President Trump’s administration moving to the area, I want to personally invite you to make Virginia your home,” Youngkin said. “Virginia is right across the Potomac. We offer a great quality of life … It’s why so many people choose Virginia as the best place to live, work and raise a family.”
| | A message from PhRMA: PBMs get rebates on medicines. They should share those savings with you. PBMs get rebates that can lower the cost of some medicines by 50% or more. Those middlemen often force you to pay full price. Why? Because they refuse to share savings that can lower what you pay at the pharmacy. Congress should make sure medicine savings go directly to patients, not middlemen. | | | | | SEVERAL MONTHS LATER: SUSIE WILES, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, announced that the president-elect has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Biden White House, key documents that assist with the presidential transition process. “This engagement allows our intended Cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations, including the deployment of landing teams to every department and agency, and complete the orderly transition of power,” Wiles said in a statement. The Trump team’s unprecedented delay in signing these agreements, weeks after winning the election, had alarmed former officials and ethics experts who warned it could leave the new administration unprepared to govern on day one. As our ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and ADAM CANCRYN reported this weekend, advisers to RFK Jr. had been previously unable to coordinate the transition with HHS because the MOU wasn’t signed. UNTIL IT’S NOT … Sen. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa) on Tuesday downplayed Trump’s threats of broad tariffs against major U.S. trading partners as a “negotiating tactic” — though he acknowledged he was concerned about the “potential” for a larger trade war, our MEREDITH LEE HILL reports. Trump on Monday threatened a wave of blanket tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China unless the countries stop the flow of drugs and immigrants into America. “I think you got to see it as a negotiating tool,” Grassley told reporters. On Monday night, via Truth Social, the president-elect said he would impose a 25 percent tariff on Mexico and Canada as well as a 10 percent tariff on all Chinese goods. Farm-state Republicans like Grassley have been wary of how Trump’s tariff pledges could roil the U.S. agriculture sector again, with American farmers still recovering from Trump’s 2018 trade war against China. TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME: Mexican President CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM responded to Trump’s tariff threats, suggesting that Mexico could impose tariffs of its own, our ARI HAWKINS reports. Sheinbaum said she was willing to engage in talks on the issues but said drugs were a U.S. problem. “One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses,” Sheinbaum said, referring to U.S. automakers that have plants on both sides of the border. She added that Mexico has made significant progress on stemming the flow of migrants, noting “caravans of migrants no longer reach the border.” THE ROLL BACKS BEGINS: Trump is poised to pull the plug on President Biden’s yearslong push to cancel student debt for tens of millions of people, our MICHAEL STRATFORD reports. Trump transition advisers and outside allies have been discussing ways to quickly unwind the various Biden-era initiatives that offered new or easier paths to loan forgiveness for borrowers. Trump’s nominee for Education secretary, LINDA McMAHON, chairs the America First Policy Institute, the outside group that’s been preparing for a second term and has blasted Biden’s loan policies as “unlawful, counterproductive and deeply unfair.” JONATHAN PIDLUZNY, who directs higher education issues at AFPI, is also working on student loan and education issues for the transition. MILLIONS ON THE LINE: The World Health Organization could lose its top government donor and hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions if Trump withdraws the United States from the body, as he attempted to do in his first term, our CARMEN PAUN reports. If Trump succeeds this time around, America could lose access to the global network that sets the composition of the flu vaccine every year. U.S. pharmaceutical companies could also lose the WHO’s help in selling their products, according to current and former U.S. government officials. The president can end U.S. membership in the body without the consent of Congress, as long as he gives a one year-notice and continues paying dues in that year. The Trump transition team declined to comment directly about his plans.
| | | | A message from PhRMA:   | | | | | One of Trump’s Alleged Assassins Sent Me a Letter (POLITICO Ankush Khardori) They Attended Trump’s Trial. Now He’s Offering Them High-Profile Jobs (NYT’s Benjamin Oreskes) Trump’s Labor Pick Is a Break With the Past (Bloomberg’s Josh Eidelson)
| | A message from PhRMA: Congress should make sure medicine savings go directly to patients, not middlemen.
PBMs negotiate rebates that can lower the cost of some medicines by 50 percent or more. Yet, they can charge you full price at the pharmacy.
It’s time to lower costs for patients by taking on the middlemen. Learn more. | | | | | KENNETH C. ROYALL, a Democrat, was the last person to serve as secretary of War, holding the position for 61 days in 1947 under HARRY TRUMAN before the position was abolished. The National Security Act of 1947 replaced the position with the secretary of the Army and secretary of the Air Force. For two years, Royall also served as the first secretary of the Army. A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it! Edited by Jennifer Haberkorn and Rishika Dugyala.
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