Donald Trump Jr has emerged as the family’s most influential adviser of the moment as his father builds the most controversial cabinet in modern US history, sources close to Donald Trump’s eldest son say.
Trump Jr has in some cases promoted inexperienced loyalists over more qualified candidates for top positions in president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
During Trump’s first administration, as the 45th president, his elder daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, were top level political advisers, while his sons Don Jr and Eric were assigned mainly to run the family business.
Ivanka and her husband took a big step back from politics after Trump lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and during Trump’s subsequent descent into a tangle of civil and criminal cases against him, though have been more present since his victory in the election earlier this month.
Now sources have told Reuters that Don Jr is currently the leading offspring voice in his father’s ear and the president-elect has become particularly reliant on his son for advice on White House strategy.
But at least two of the more controversial choices championed by Don Jr face tough Senate confirmation challenges – vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr, of the chiefly-Democratic Kennedy political dynasty, for health secretary and former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, who faces bipartisan concern over her Russian interests and lack of experience in the intelligence community.
Appointments planning continued on Sunday, the Washington Post reported, with the likely elevation of Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford-trained physician and economist, as the next director of the National Institutes of Health.
Reuters spoke to half a dozen sources, including donors, political allies and friends, who confirmed Don Jr’s influence in pitching names for appointments, including inexperienced loyalists. Don Jr was credited with making JD Vance his father’s vice-presidential pick, helping cabinet contenders sink or rise to the fore and blocking former secretary of state Mike Pompeo from joining the cabinet.
“The reality this time is we actually know what we’re doing,” Don Jr told Fox News earlier this month. “And it’s about surrounding my father with people who are both competent and loyal.”
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.
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“I have been working with Witkoff to get him up to speed on Trump’s past efforts,” Kushner said through a spokesperson.
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 and will be his chief of staff.
“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.”
