With help from Nahal Toosi, Meredith McGraw, Jack Detsch, John Sakellariadis, Veronika Melkozerova and Daniel Lippman Subscribe here | Email Robbie | Email Eric President-elect DONALD TRUMP ’s transition team is already taking shape, giving early insights into who could staff his national security and defense team once he takes office in January NatSec Daily and the rest of POLITICO’s ace reporting team has spoken to former Trump officials and Republicans close to the campaign to collate a user guide for natsec wonks of transition officials and contenders for senior administration posts. The speculation around Cabinet secretary posts is hogging a lot of attention, but lower-level appointees in the National Security Council, State Department and Pentagon could have outsized influence over the direction of Trump’s foreign policy. And people who work on the transition often end up joining the administration in influential posts. Without further ado, here’s who’s in the room or in the mix: The State Department: BRIAN HOOK, former State Department policy planner and special envoy for Iran, has been tapped to lead the State Department transition team. The Pentagon: ROBERT WILKIE, former Veterans Affairs secretary in the first Trump administration, is leading the Defense Department’s transition team, as our colleagues reported in today’s Morning Defense (for Pros!). National Security Council: JOEL RAYBURN and MICHAEL ANTON are expected to play roles in Trump’s NSC transition team, several people familiar with internal campaign and transition deliberations said. Rayburn was a Trump appointee for Middle East policy in the State Department and an adviser to Sen. BILL HAGERTY (R-Tenn.). Sidebar: It’s worth noting that Hagerty is a contender for Trump’s secretary of State post, as we have previously reported. Anton was a former National Security Council spokesman under Trump. (The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on this or other positions.) Intel: Trump’s former director for national intelligence, JOHN RATCLIFFE, is involved in transition planning for national security policy. (POLITICO first reported his name and others on this list last week.) CLIFF SIMS, who served as deputy director of national intelligence for strategy and communications in the first Trump administration, is also playing a leading role in national security and intelligence transition matters, according to the people familiar with internal campaign and transition matters. Global trade: Trump’s former trade representative, ROBERT LIGHTHIZER, and Lighthizer’s former chief of staff, JAMIESON GREER, are playing a leading role in economic and international trade transition policy. Cybersecurity: JOSHUA STEINMAN , a former Trump NSC official, is a leading contender for the NSC’s top cyber policy post, as our cybersecurity colleagues report (for Pros!). Others who could be involved in the transition’s cybersecurity team and take up top administration posts include SEAN PLANKEY, a former NSC and Energy Department official, and KAREN EVANS , a former Trump Homeland Security Department official. Technology: MICHAEL KRATSIOS and GAIL SLATER are managing tech policy during the Trump transition, as POLITICO reported today (for Pros!). Kratsios is managing director of the artificial intelligence startup Scale AI, which has secured some notable Pentagon contracts, and was former chief technology officer in the first Trump administration. Slater is another Trump administration alumni who also serves as economic policy adviser to Vice President-elect JD VANCE. One key litmus test that could be a deciding factor for who joins Trump’s national security team once he takes office: Loyalty. People close to the president-elect aren’t being subtle about how loyalty could matter above all else for job seekers in a second Trump term. As MIKE DAVIS — a leading contender to be Trump’s attorney general — put it in a post on X: “Dear Trump Job Seekers: Long time, no chat. Before asking me for help, I am going to ask you to provide me specific and concrete evidence of your łoyalty to Trump. If you cannot provide a lot of that, stop asking me. Political appointments require both competency and loyalty.”
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