The only constant of Donald Trump's transition into his second term has been chaos.
The president-elect nominates friends, lackeys and people he's seen on TV via late-night posts to his personal social media page. Trump's hinted at forgoing the typical background checks on his nominees as allegations of misconduct pile up around them and the seemingly slapdash nature of Trump's process is starting to chafe lawmakers.
A new report from NBC News spoke with Trump transition insiders and Republican politicians on the Hill to take the temperature of Trump's shamble toward the Oval Office. One GOP senator, who spoke to the outlet on the condition of anonymity, said that Trump's team "botched up the nomination process pretty bad."
"They clearly aren’t vetting these people," they shared.
That tracks with reports that Trump's team was surprised by allegations against Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host who was tagged by Trump to lead the Department of Defense. Since his nomination to the role last month, a police report in which a woman claimed Hegseth sexually assaulted her surfaced alongside whistleblower reports that claimed Hegseth had a drinking problem.
Some of the chaos can be attributed to the many voices in Trump's ear. One insider compared the atmosphere around the president-elect to "Game of Thrones," with various factions jockeying for power via their recommendations.
“It’s like ‘Game of Thrones’ over there. I think [Donald Trump Jr.] has been trying to do things at times. It’s like [chief of staff] Susie [Wiles] will have a meeting and then Don Jr. will say something else," the source shared.
An unnamed Trump ally said that Elon Musk has never been far from Trump since Election Day. The source shared that the head of the as-yet uncreated Department of Government Efficiency was a big driver behind Trump's controversial choice of Kash Patel to lead the FBI.
“I think he is around Musk more than anyone else,” they shared. “There are several of the traditional sort of transition tensions and fighting over picks, but Musk casts a huge shadow.”
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