Trump’s courtiers vie for influence
Nowhere has the outcome of America’s presidential election led to more immediate change than at Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate. The property is, of course, no stranger to the attentions of the powerful. But now, Trump’s sprawling, 126-room club finds itself the locus of future power in America.
As the president-elect holds court, he is surrounded by members of his inner circle. Together, they are wasting no time planning to reshape the country in their collective ideological dreamscape.
Trump’s transition team was already at work even before last Tuesday’s election wrapped up. But now, his enormous win over Vice President Kamala Harris has lent not only urgency to the task, but a sense of zeal as well.
For some figures, once-inconceivable opportunity now knocks. Elon Musk has not only found himself included in the president-elect’s telephone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He is also reportedly seeking to secure positions within the next Trump administration for key figures from his own corporate empire. They would serve as a continuing bridge between America’s most powerful businessman and the White House, ensuring Musk’s interests and concerns are at all times reflected within the Oval Office.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr is also poised for rich rewards, after the environmentalist and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist abandoned his independent run for the nation’s top office and endorsed Trump instead.
Before the election, transition team members denied reports that RFK might be a candidate to head the Department of Health and Human Services. It turns out, RFK has loftier goals, and claims that Trump has promised him an even more substantial remit.
In a call last week with supporters, the scion of America’s most famous liberal family said he expects to be charged with reshaping entirely America’s public health policies in the country’s most right-wing administration.
Kennedy claimed he will be granted “control of the public health agencies” including the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Agriculture. Within the corridors of those agencies, fear abounds about what Kennedy’s appointment might entail.
The website Politico reports fevered jockeying for position at the president-elect’s Florida estate. Literally, in some cases, with would-be appointees battling to secure positions as close to Trump’s dinner table as possible in order to secure his attention. If reports are correct, an almost medieval scene plays out nightly at the club, with Mar-A-Lago once again the place to see the president-elect and be seen by him.
Musk remains at the top table, after spending more than $119m of his own money supporting the Trump campaign. In recent days, his proximity to the president-elect has suggested he now carries far more weight than vice president-elect JD Vance.
Donald Trump Jr is also central to the selection of Cabinet members and other senior officials, fueling well-established suggestions that he may seek to run for the White House himself in the future.
Others, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, are already cashing in, after carefully ensuring they did nothing to offend Trump during the campaign.
Bezos, who stopped his Washington Post newspaper from endorsing Harris for the presidency, saw his personal wealth increase by $7bn as a result of Wall Street’s embrace of the election’s outcome. Put another way, Bezos made a profit of $28,000 for every pearl-clutching Washington Post reader who chose to cancel their subscription.
It will soon fall to Trump’s campaign manager, Susie Wiles, to herd the numerous supplicants seeking favours from America’s new leader. As the next White House Chief of Staff, she will control access to Trump from the moment he takes office.
Her appointment alone indicates that in his second term, the president-elect is determined not to repeat the errors that he believes hobbled his first administration. There will be no place in Trump’s presidential court for non-believers, or seasoned careerists steeped in policy but lacking ties to the Make America Great Again movement.
Trump and his advisers want the White House and the new Cabinet populated only by their fellow ideological travelers. At Mar-A-Lago, favours are being bestowed, but only for those who pre-positioned themselves with care, and helped Trump secure his historic win.
