From an article in Vanity Fair:
"Before the election, the White House transition effort had been led by Chris Christie and his top aides, Rich Bagger and William Palatucci, who spent months diligently creating cabinet shortlists and assembling names to fill the roughly 4,000 positions available to political appointees. Now, with Christie demoted in favor of vice president-elect Mike Pence, the transition effort has reportedly devolved into chaos, with a miscellany of Trump loyalists, family members, lobbyists and other fringe figures fighting for influence and purging dissenters.
Christie and his aides aren’t the only ones who have lost position in the abrupt reshuffling. Former congressman Mike Rogers, an experienced foreign policy hand and former House Intelligence Committee chairman who had been coordinating national security efforts for the transition team, suddenly resigned Tuesday in what sources described to NBC News as a “Stalin-esque purge.” (Rogers said he hoped to continue to “provide advice and counsel as needed to the incoming Trump administration.”) Two people close to the transition told Bloomberg that Rogers was fired at the behest of Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband, due to the enduring animosity between Kushner and Christie. (As U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Christie had prosecuted and jailed Kushner’s father for tax fraud and witness tampering, among other charges.) Multiple sources told NBC News that Christie had already fallen out of favor with the Trump family for failing to sufficiently prove his loyalty at key moments during the campaign, but that it was his enmity with Kushner that doomed him.
The power struggle suggests that the same bitter infighting that often threatened to derail the Trump campaign is likely to follow the billionaire into the White House. Pence has since taken over, and is scheduled to meet with Donald Trump on Tuesday to review a “number of names” for senior positions, according to spokesperson Jason Miller. But Pence has yet to fill out the necessary legal paperwork, previously signed by Christie, holding up the handover. The transition team also hasn’t released a code of ethics nor begun the vetting process for potential appointees, reportedly putting the team well behind schedule. “[The shakeup] definitely caused some confusion,” one person on the transition team told Politico. “There’s been a lot of dust that’s been kicked up.”
So far, only two top White House appointments have been made: Stephen Bannon, the former chief executive of Breitbart News, was named Trump’s chief strategist and senior counselor, provoking a swift backlash from critics who accuse Bannon of having turned the conservative news site into a haven for racists and anti-Semites; and Reince Priebus,currently the head of the Republican National Committee, as White House chief of staff. Priebus was reportedly favored by Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, while Bannon was considered a consensus choice among the many rival power centers of Trumpworld. Now, a group of ardent Trump loyalists—including Pence, Priebus, Bannon, Kushner, and Alabama senator Jeff Sessions—are steering the ship, Politico reports, each competing for influence as Trump seeks to complete his cabinet. Already, informal inquiries have been made to give top security clearance to Trump’s three eldest children, plus Kushner, despite longstanding federal law prohibiting the president from hiring immediate family to work in the federal government. Other key Trump surrogates are also expected to be handsomely rewarded for their loyalty. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is reportedly a top pick for secretary of state (“if Rudy wants it, he’ll get it,” Newt Gingrich noted), while Laura Ingraham, a conservative talk-radio host and early supporter of the president-elect’s candidacy, is under consideration for White House press secretary, Politico reports. Other top Trump supporters are also in line to collect payment: Trump donor and campaign finance cha ir Steve Mnuchin is being looked at for Treasury Secretary, and Sarah Palin could land the top spot at the Department of the Interior.
That isn’t to say that all of Trump’s biggest fans will find sanctuary in his administration. Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, has reportedly found himself boxed out by other key Trump allies, including the president-elect’s children.
[...]
Roger Stone, another longtime Trump confidant, presaged Lewandowski’s second inglorious ouster. “Does anyone think @jaredkushner would let that happen?” he tweeted, after the Washington Post reported that Lewandowski was being considered for chief of staff. Another Republican operative with ties to the Trump campaign was more direct: “The kids, the son-in-law and the new leadership—they don’t like Corey,” he told Politico. It seems the hard-charging ex-campaign manager never fully grasped that when it comes to Trump, loyalty may be important—certainly more so than qualifications or experience—but family is paramount."
^^^ What a cast of characters! My, my, my . . . what could possibly go wrong?
"Before the election, the White House transition effort had been led by Chris Christie and his top aides, Rich Bagger and William Palatucci, who spent months diligently creating cabinet shortlists and assembling names to fill the roughly 4,000 positions available to political appointees. Now, with Christie demoted in favor of vice president-elect Mike Pence, the transition effort has reportedly devolved into chaos, with a miscellany of Trump loyalists, family members, lobbyists and other fringe figures fighting for influence and purging dissenters.
Christie and his aides aren’t the only ones who have lost position in the abrupt reshuffling. Former congressman Mike Rogers, an experienced foreign policy hand and former House Intelligence Committee chairman who had been coordinating national security efforts for the transition team, suddenly resigned Tuesday in what sources described to NBC News as a “Stalin-esque purge.” (Rogers said he hoped to continue to “provide advice and counsel as needed to the incoming Trump administration.”) Two people close to the transition told Bloomberg that Rogers was fired at the behest of Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband, due to the enduring animosity between Kushner and Christie. (As U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Christie had prosecuted and jailed Kushner’s father for tax fraud and witness tampering, among other charges.) Multiple sources told NBC News that Christie had already fallen out of favor with the Trump family for failing to sufficiently prove his loyalty at key moments during the campaign, but that it was his enmity with Kushner that doomed him.
The power struggle suggests that the same bitter infighting that often threatened to derail the Trump campaign is likely to follow the billionaire into the White House. Pence has since taken over, and is scheduled to meet with Donald Trump on Tuesday to review a “number of names” for senior positions, according to spokesperson Jason Miller. But Pence has yet to fill out the necessary legal paperwork, previously signed by Christie, holding up the handover. The transition team also hasn’t released a code of ethics nor begun the vetting process for potential appointees, reportedly putting the team well behind schedule. “[The shakeup] definitely caused some confusion,” one person on the transition team told Politico. “There’s been a lot of dust that’s been kicked up.”
So far, only two top White House appointments have been made: Stephen Bannon, the former chief executive of Breitbart News, was named Trump’s chief strategist and senior counselor, provoking a swift backlash from critics who accuse Bannon of having turned the conservative news site into a haven for racists and anti-Semites; and Reince Priebus,currently the head of the Republican National Committee, as White House chief of staff. Priebus was reportedly favored by Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, while Bannon was considered a consensus choice among the many rival power centers of Trumpworld. Now, a group of ardent Trump loyalists—including Pence, Priebus, Bannon, Kushner, and Alabama senator Jeff Sessions—are steering the ship, Politico reports, each competing for influence as Trump seeks to complete his cabinet. Already, informal inquiries have been made to give top security clearance to Trump’s three eldest children, plus Kushner, despite longstanding federal law prohibiting the president from hiring immediate family to work in the federal government. Other key Trump surrogates are also expected to be handsomely rewarded for their loyalty. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is reportedly a top pick for secretary of state (“if Rudy wants it, he’ll get it,” Newt Gingrich noted), while Laura Ingraham, a conservative talk-radio host and early supporter of the president-elect’s candidacy, is under consideration for White House press secretary, Politico reports. Other top Trump supporters are also in line to collect payment: Trump donor and campaign finance cha ir Steve Mnuchin is being looked at for Treasury Secretary, and Sarah Palin could land the top spot at the Department of the Interior.
That isn’t to say that all of Trump’s biggest fans will find sanctuary in his administration. Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, has reportedly found himself boxed out by other key Trump allies, including the president-elect’s children.
[...]
Roger Stone, another longtime Trump confidant, presaged Lewandowski’s second inglorious ouster. “Does anyone think @jaredkushner would let that happen?” he tweeted, after the Washington Post reported that Lewandowski was being considered for chief of staff. Another Republican operative with ties to the Trump campaign was more direct: “The kids, the son-in-law and the new leadership—they don’t like Corey,” he told Politico. It seems the hard-charging ex-campaign manager never fully grasped that when it comes to Trump, loyalty may be important—certainly more so than qualifications or experience—but family is paramount."
^^^ What a cast of characters! My, my, my . . . what could possibly go wrong?