Donald Trump Jr is helping his father pick the most controversial Cabinet of modern times

NEW YORK - Donald Trump Jr has emerged as the most influential Trump family member in the transition to the White House as his father Donald Trump builds the most controversial Cabinet in modern US history, according to half a dozen sources with knowledge of his role.

The President-elect has elevated inexperienced loyalists over more qualified candidates for top positions in his administration.

Trump, who fiercely prizes loyalty, has long relied on family members for political advice, but which relative has his ear is known to vary.

This time, it is his eldest child who has helped Cabinet contenders sink or rise to the fore – from championing Senator J.D. Vance as Trump’s running mate to blocking former secretary of state Mike Pompeo from joining the Cabinet, according to the sources, who include donors, personal friends and political allies.

Trump’s son is due to join conservative venture capital fund 1789 Capital, although one of the sources said he will continue to host his politics-focused podcast and support candidates that espouse his father’s brand of politics.

Trump Jr will provide advice to his father in the White House, the sources added, although they cautioned that he was unlikely to be involved in day-to-day deliberations.

Trump Jr and the Trump-Vance transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

In addition to ensuring that candidates are loyal to his father, Trump Jr typically seeks out contenders who embrace an anti-establishment world view, including protectionist economic policies, and a reduction in military interventions and overseas aid, according to a handful of the sources and his own comments on social media site X and in public.

Two candidates Trump Jr championed may face a rocky confirmation process in the Senate: Robert F. Kennedy Jr, whom Trump plans to nominate as the top US health official, and Tulsi Gabbard, whom Trump plans to nominate as intelligence chief.

Kennedy is an environmental activist who has spread misinformation on vaccines.

Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, has implied that Russian President Vladimir Putin had valid grounds for invading Ukraine. She also stirred controversy when she met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad amid his bloody crackdown on dissidents in 2017.

Influential, to a point

Trump Jr was also instrumental in lobbying his father to pick his close friend Vance as his running mate.

Vance was popular with Trump’s base, but his anti-corporate rhetoric, opposition to Ukraine aid and past comments panning some Democratic women as “childless cat ladies” gave some donors and supporters pause.

Trump was ultimately happy with Vance, giving Trump Jr extra political capital as an adviser during the transition, one of the sources added.

Not all of Trump Jr’s picks have landed jobs.

He was keen on Mr Richard Grenell, a personal friend and former ambassador to Germany, becoming secretary of state, according to a separate source familiar with the matter. His father ended up picking Senator Marco Rubio, whose views are deemed by Trump’s core supporters as too traditional and internationalist.

Two of the sources close to Trump Jr said he does not weigh in on all personnel decisions and is not working on the transition process or at Mar-a-Lago full time. He is also not expected to play a big role in vetting candidates for lower-level jobs, a source close to him said.

“The reality this time is we actually know what we’re doing,” Trump Jr told Fox News earlier in November. “And it’s about surrounding my father with people who are both competent and loyal.”

Following in sister’s footsteps

Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner were prominent in his 2016 presidential campaign and the subsequent transition and throughout his first term.

This time, they are far less active, although Kushner, formerly Trump’s senior adviser who focused on the Middle East, told Reuters that he is briefing real estate investor Steve Witkoff on his new job as special envoy to the region.

“I have been working with Witkoff to get him up to speed on Trump’s past efforts,” Kushner said through a spokesperson.

Half a dozen sources close to Kushner said they expect him to be involved in Middle Eastern policy in an unofficial capacity, with the goal of normalising relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia under an expansion of the 2020 Abraham Accords. Kushner helped broker the accords, a series of normalisation agreements between Israel and Arab nations.

Kushner, Ivanka Trump and sibling Eric Trump, who runs the Trump Organisation business, do not plan to join the new administration, according to their representatives, as well as sources.

One source close to the transition said Trump does not appear to need his family for advice as much as in the past because of aides like Susie Wiles, who helped to run the most disciplined of his election campaigns to date.

Trump has named Wiles his chief of staff, a powerful position in Washington.

“Stuff is really buttoned down,” the source said of Trump’s current team. “He may not need the family this time like he used to.”

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