WASHINGTON (AP) — There is one common trait that President-elect Donald Trump clearly values as he selects candidates for his up-to-date administration: experience on television.
Trump loves this “central casting” look, as he likes to call it.
Some, like his nominee for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, are TV hosts on Trump’s favorite network, Fox News. Mike Huckabee, who was elected US ambassador to Israel, hosted the Fox show “Huckabee” from 2008 to 2015 after serving as governor of Arkansas.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former syndicated talk show host and heart surgeon, was named Tuesday to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that oversees health insurance programs for millions of older, penniless and disabled Americans. He would report to Trump’s chosen Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., himself a regular on cable news.
Trump, himself a former reality TV star, has made no secret of his intention to pack his administration with loyalists after his decisive 2024 election victory – including some whose lack of relevant experience has raised concerns among lawmakers. But he’s also working to build a more energetic government this term, and in his eyes, many of those people happen to overlap with celebrities.
This trend was also missed by Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who posted on social media after the Oz nomination: “We are becoming the world’s first nuclear-armed reality TV show.”
For good measure, Himes added, “I’m just spitballing here, but what if the attorney general and the HHS secretary fight each other in an octagonal cage?” That was a reference to Trump’s affinity for the UFC fighters who fight in the octagon .
The choice of television personalities is not unusual for the future president: Some of his first-term candidates – John Bolton, Larry Kudlow, Heather Nauert and Mercedes Schlapp – have all appeared on television – mostly on Fox. Omarosa Manigault Newman, a confrontational cast member on the first season of Trump’s NBC show “The Apprentice,” was briefly in the White House before being fired.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who led Trump’s transition team in 2016 until he was fired, said that eight years ago Trump conducted “apprentice-like interviews at Bedminster” and called potential hires to his New Jersey club.
On a conference call Tuesday organized by the Council on Foreign Relations, Christie said this year’s Cabinet decisions were different than those in 2016 but were still about “casting Donald Trump on a TV show.”
“He’s casting,” Christie said.
Trump readily highlighted the media experience of his decisions when announcing them. He said Duffy, a former lawmaker and former cast member of MTV’s “The Real World,” was “a STAR on Fox News.”
Hegseth, a military veteran, “has been an anchor at FOX News for eight years, where he used that platform to fight for our military and our veterans,” Trump said. He also noted that Hegseth’s book “The War on Warriors” spent nine weeks on the New York Times “bestseller list,” including two weeks at No. 1.
Of Oz, Trump said: “He won nine Daytime Emmy Awards as host of ‘Dr. Oz Show, where he taught millions of Americans how to make healthier lifestyle choices.”
It is also true that those seeking positions in Trump’s orbit often take to the airwaves to speak to an audience. Tom Homan, Trump’s choice for “border czar,” is a recurrent contributor to Fox. Ohio Senator JD Vance was chosen as Trump’s running mate in part because he comes across so well on the show.
Trump’s decision to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, raised his profile when he argued on Fox News that a pre-election appearance by Democratic candidate Kamala Harris on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” was a violation of the represents “same time”. Rules for the appearance of candidates on television.
In some ways, the connection between the White House and the cable news pundit tends to cut across administrations of both parties. President Joe Biden had three MSNBC staffers on his transition team and his former press secretary left the network after leaving the White House. However, for key positions such as the Defense Department, Biden sought career diplomats, long-time government employees and military leaders.
Trump’s affinity for Fox News is well-documented, although the romance cooled for a time after Fox called for Biden in Arizona in 2020, a move that angered Trump and many of the network’s viewers. Trump suggested that viewers switch to other conservative news channels.
While Arizona’s call ultimately proved correct, it sparked internal doubt and led some Fox personalities to turn to conspiracy theories, ultimately costing the network $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems.
But Trump is still an avid observer — the network offers Trump a window into conservative thinking, with commentary from Republican lawmakers and thinkers who often speak directly to the president-elect.
___
Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.
