Staffing the Next Trump Administration: Pitfalls to Avoid the Second Time

In 2019, I received the following message from a stranger about my pro-Trump commentary: “You are shit, and your opinion is shit, and quite frankly I wish we lived in a country where people like you were raped and burned. I personally would love to see that lying mouth of yours stapled and sewn shut so I could listen to your muffled screams as your eyes are being dug from your head.” 

Not every piece of mail I received was as ugly, but barrages of hate mail were a regular part of my life as a Trump supporter who consistently advocated for the president in public. 

Yet, in early 2020, I learned from the White House that its personnel office had blocked me from taking a position in the administration. It was emblematic of a disastrous staffing process that did not serve the 45th president well.

As Donald Trump prepares to assume office as the 47th president, personnel will once again play a key role in determining success or failure for many aspects of his administration. The president-elect himself has vowed to do better the second time around. Nevertheless, plenty of pitfalls loom. My own story may offer valuable lessons. 

I became a staunch Trump supporter in 2016, serving as the deputy director of a pro-Trump super PAC. As one establishment Republican after another shunned or outright condemned Donald Trump, I defended the then-candidate on controversial issues, including immigration and securing the southern border, his proposal of the so-called Muslim ban, foreign policy and preventing “stupid, endless wars,” allegations of racism and sexism, and more. 

When President Trump entered the White House, I continued my advocacy. As the last year of his first term dawned, however, I learned that his team had prohibited me from working for the president. Adding insult to injury, the administration had hired and elevated numerous staffers who secretly—and even openly—detested the president.

While I was contemplating whether to notify law enforcement after each threatening piece of hate mail, and while I lost friends, longstanding contacts, and career opportunities due to my steadfast defense of the president, Never Trumpers filled his administration. Some profited handsomely afterwards. All undermined the president and the agenda on which he was elected from within.

Why did the White House personnel gatekeepers deem me unfit to serve? Apparently, I had not fawned over each of the president’s personality traits, and had even dared to express reservations about one or two of his positions while promoting his candidacy and presidency. 

Never mind that I had declared that Trump had a mandate to enact the policies he campaigned on, including those with which others disagreed. As I had written for Fox News, “Unlike a typical politician, Trump is not going to confine himself to the solutions that have not worked in the past. To Americans who want a better deal for their families and their country, that is very much worth applauding.” 

Ironically, the opinions that earned my ban from the White House were all delivered as part of an effort to advocate for Trump and his agenda, usually to extremely hostile audiences. 

None of that mattered. I was blocked for the first three years of the administration. Only when President Trump installed more competent, more MAGA-centric management of the White House personnel office in the fourth year was the ban lifted. 

For his second term, Trump is determined not to repeat the staffing mistakes of the first. Indeed, many of his picks thus far reflect that determination. Loyal and competent former staffers have been nominated for senior positions, including Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy and Russ Vought as the head of the Office of Management and Budget. Political outsiders or unconventional politicians who share the president’s desire to disrupt the status quo in Washington, have also filled the Cabinet lineup. They include tech mogul Elon Musk, health advocate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and Wall Street titan Howard Lutnick.

Yet, there are reasons to be vigilant. News reports indicate that the Trump transition team has retained private firms to vet candidates and unearth past statements and opinions critical of the president-elect. As my personal experience shows, this is an effort that could quickly go awry unless proper judgment is exercised.

Some of the most fervent Never Trumpers are former staffers of the first Trump administration, including Cabinet-level officials and less prominent aides who have garnered press attention since their departure. None of these people had uttered negative commentary in public about Trump before they were hired. Yet some of them loathed him and his policies and felt a duty to “protect” the country from its duly elected president, while others were mentally weak and intellectually shallow, turning against Trump when it became convenient to do so.

Dave Smith, a libertarian comedian, influencer, Trump supporter, opponent of endless wars, and a regular guest on the popular “Tucker Carlson Show” and “Joe Rogan Show,” expressed wholehearted agreement with the observation that although some of Trump’s Cabinet nominations are excellent, “a good portion…is the same swamp rebranded.” Of course, fixtures of the Washington political establishment, or the swamp that Trump has promised to drain, have now become most adept at mincing words to avoid offending Trump even when they do not support his agenda.

Meanwhile, some of the more low-key Never Trumpers who should have never been hired in the first Trump administration have been given significant responsibilities in the current transition effort. Hard to imagine they would be eager to recruit MAGA devotees. 

The truth is, being a Trump supporter is not easy. Not everyone has what it takes. The next administration should welcome those who have the spine to stand firm when vicious attacks come, which they inevitably will. Those whose views are diametrically opposed to the president’s have no business in the administration, but applicants who have stuck their necks out to defend the president-elect and his agenda are far less likely to wilt under pressure than those who have kept their mouths shut and feigned agreement. 

Trump, not his staff, was elected by the American people. In his first term, this cherished democratic principle was stomped on by sycophants, opportunists, incompetent fools, and slimy political creatures that made their way into the administration. Preventing another staffing disaster requires not just rejecting Never Trumpers who campaigned against the president, but also choosing those who have stood with him, especially when it was not easy to do so.

Making America Great Again requires no less.

Ying Ma  was deputy director of the Committee for American Sovereignty, a pro-Trump super PAC, in the runup to the 2016 presidential election.

Image: President Donald J. Trump waves to the crowd at the National Christmas Tree Lighting 2019 ceremony Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019, on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)