'Flair for television': How Trump is assembling a 'made-for-TV Cabinet'

25 November 2024

Before his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump was best known for being a real estate developer who hosted a popular reality show: "The Apprentice."

2016 marked Trump's second presidential run, not his first. Trump first ran for president via the Reform Party in 2000, but that campaign didn't get ready far. And Trump dropped out of the race in February 2000.

Trump has long been obsessed with television; in 2000, he was hoping that Oprah Winfrey would become his running mate. And CNN reporters Steve Contorno and Kristen Holmes, in an article published on November 23, note the strong presence of television personalities in the president-elect's picks for his incoming second administration.

"A common thread weaves through many of Donald Trump's picks for his incoming administration, a quality the president-elect values as highly as loyalty and perhaps even more than conventional qualifications: a flair for television," Contorno and Holmes report. "He has plucked two Fox News stars from their airwaves: Sean Duffy for transportation secretary and Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon. For the agency overseeing Medicare and Medicaid, Trump has turned to Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician known for his health show that aired for 13 seasons."

The journalists add, "His pick for the Department of Education, meanwhile, is Linda McMahon, who co-founded and built a professional wrestling and entertainment empire alongside her husband."

Contorno and Holmes note that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Trump's pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel, spent six years hosting a show on Fox News. And former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's pick for director of intelligence and a former Democrat turned far-right MAGA Republican, has had a strong Fox News presence in recent years.

"As a former reality TV star," Contorno and Holmes observe, "Trump is deeply attuned to the power of the small screen. His selection process has centered on people who can not only articulate his message, but also, defend him in the kind of high-stakes, combative settings that define modern media. His transition team, operating in a war-room style setup at Mar-a-Lago, has embraced this focus."

The CNN reporters continue, "On large screens, his advisers play video clips of potential appointees' media performances, including footage of them defending Trump but also their past criticism of him, underscoring the centrality of media strategy in his decision-making. The outcome is a made-for-TV Cabinet who he thinks will sell his agenda to Americans and defend the administration against media scrutiny on their networks."

Read CNN's full report at this link.

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