It’s Tuesday, the traditional day for elections and for our pause-and-consider newsletter on politics and policy.

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Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA

It’s Tuesday, the traditional day for elections and for our pause-and-consider newsletter on politics and policy. We think of it as a mini-magazine in your inbox.

THE PRESIDENT-ELECT’S START
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews ([link removed])
Correspondent

Less than a week after the Associated Press declared him the winner of the election, former and now future president Donald Trump is quickly announcing decisions. ([link removed])

Thus far, Trump’s transition team and campaign have revealed some key personnel choices:
* Susie Wiles ([link removed]) , his campaign manager, as chief of staff
* Stephen Miller ([link removed]) , a senior policy adviser known as an immigration hard-liner, for deputy chief of staff for policy
* Tom Homan ([link removed]) , former acting chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as the “border czar”
* Lee Zeldin ([link removed]) , former New York congressman, as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
* Rep. Elise Stefanik ([link removed]) , also a New Yorker, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
* Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as secretary of state ([link removed])

And at time of publication, more reporting points to unofficial names for other top picks:
* Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., as national security adviser ([link removed])
* South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem ashead of the Department of Homeland Security ([link removed])

Things are moving fast, folks. (In writing this, three other names have been floated, though not confirmed). But we are devoted to taking some deep breaths and focusing on what is before us.

What do these picks tell us?

Trump is building a second administration team centered around loyalists he knows well.

That includes some, like Miller and Stefanik, who saw their political fortunes rise when they linked themselves to Trump. Others, like Zeldin and Waltz, have their own bases of respect within the Republican Party, but have been key surrogates and full-throated supporters of Trump on the campaign trail.

And there is another group, which includes Rubio and vice president-elect Sen. JD Vance, made up of former rivals and one-time critics of Trump who have publicly reversed themselves to become some of the most vociferous Trump backers.
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What do these picks say about policy direction?

Trump’s first appointments underscore a commitment to firm, sometimes hard-line policies that mark major departures from the Biden administration.

On immigration, Miller is known for a hard-right stance, raising the idea of using the military and National Guard to close the border and focus on immigration detention. Similarly Homan told “60 Minutes” ([link removed]) earlier this year that mass deportation is possible, and that it could be done without separating families, so long as the entire family is deported.

Waltz, Rubio and Zeldin are all vocal supporters of Israel and opponents of Iran, adding to signals that Trump plans to be tough with Tehran. We do not know yet what this will mean for Israel’s policy in Gaza or any possible cease-fire. But Rubio in the past has been on one side of that debate, opposing cease-fire calls ([link removed]) and agreeing with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel must destroy Hamas. His view is that civilian harm, generally, is the fault of Hamas.

Zeldin as the pick for the EPA had come with fewer guideposts. During his time in Congress, and in my reporting and work with him, Zeldin has not been particularly known for energy or environmental policy. But he is seen as a straight-talking, get-it-done guy that is affable, if uncompromising, behind the scenes.

He is fully on board with the Trump agenda, meaning he’s expected to gut several Biden climate-related actions, including the push to incentivize electric vehicles and clean car manufacturing. Trump has already said that he would again pull the U.S. out ([link removed]) of the Paris climate agreement.

At the same time, Zeldin is stressing the energy portion of the Trump agenda, which includes Trump’s rally cry of “drill, baby, drill.” This likely means expanding fossil fuel leasing and drilling on federal lands.

As Trump promised in his campaign ([link removed]) , his agenda is one that ignores and sometimes denies the threat of climate change and focuses on American energy dominance, including fossil fuel production.

What does this mean for the House?

With at least two Republican members of Congress departing for the administration, House Republicans will start the year with smaller numbers.

Republicans are within reach ([link removed]) of keeping their majority (though a cluster of races is still not called, including in California.) But that majority would be thin, perhaps four or five seats.

Losing Stefanik and Waltz, even for a few months as special elections are called, would mean Republicans in the House would have just a three-seat majority during that time.

That will make it tough and give several Republican factions the chance to threaten to hold up items if they don’t get their way. This is the exact dynamic that led to congressional chaos throughout 2023.

The main difference this time around: Trump. House members did not feel much pressure to fall in line with party leaders during the Biden administration. That could change with Trump.

How does this transition compare to others?

This is the fastest pace of announcements that we have seen in recent history.

President Joe Biden’s first nominations, those of his national security team ([link removed]) , were announced Nov. 23, 2020. ([link removed]) That was 16 days after the Associated Press called the election ([link removed]) for him.

Trump started to roll out his national security team, as well as others, five days after the election was called for him last Wednesday.

The president-elect is outpacing his 2016 self as well. His first Cabinet announcement that year was made on Nov. 18 ([link removed]) , nine days after the election was called. ([link removed])

What does this tell us? That a lesson Trump learned from his first term is to move even more quickly. We should expect a frenetic pace, not just for appointments but for everything, particularly for the next six to 10 months.

This will be a key period of time that sets the stage for the next four years. Generally, the first year is the most productive of any president. And Trump and his allies are specifically eyeing his first 100 days for many goals.

Which of these goals writ large will become tangled in Congress, even a Republican Congress, is harder to say.

WE’D LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Were you a split-ticket voter who cast a ballot for Donald Trump for president? Send us your thoughts by filling out this form. ([link removed]) Your responses will help guide our coverage in the coming weeks.
More on politics from our coverage:
* Watch: Republicans get closer to winning control ([link removed]) of both chambers of Congress.
* One Big Question: How are Democrats coming to terms with their election losses? NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter discuss. ([link removed])
* A Closer Look: The influence Elon Musk could have ([link removed]) in the upcoming Trump administration.
* Perspectives: How anger over the war in Gaza may have shaped some voters’ choices ([link removed]) .

MOVE OVER, GROVER

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In this photo composition are three ([link removed]) separate ([link removed]) photographs ([link removed]) of Grover Cleveland between 1873 and 1890. Photos courtesy of C.M. Bell Studio Collection/Library of Congress

By Hannah Grabenstein, @hgrabenstein ([link removed])
Reporter, Digital

Donald Trump was the second president to be elected to two non-consecutive terms. But Grover Cleveland did it first. ([link removed])

Both men have had their scandals. Cleveland accepted custody ([link removed]) of a boy he may or may not fathered out of wedlock and had the mother institutionalized. He later married the 21-year-old daughter ([link removed]) of his late law partner. More than two dozen women have accused Trump of sexual assault ([link removed]) , and a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing and defaming columnist E. Jean Carroll.

But the similarities largely end there, said Jeffrey Engel, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University.

Cleveland was “the kind of guy that his enemies and opponents respected,” he said.

He was known as a relatively upstanding, anti-corrupt president who rejected the big party machines that dominated politics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he added.

During Cleveland’s first presidency, he was devoted to reducing spending to special interest groups ([link removed]) . According to the White House Historical Association, the 22nd and 24th president:
* Ordered an investigation into western lands held by the railroad companies, forcing them to return 81,000,000 acres.
* Vetoed a bill for federal aid for drought-stricken farmers in Texas writing ([link removed]) that such federal aid “weakens the sturdiness of our national character.”

While he won the popular vote in 1888 ([link removed]) , Cleveland lost the Electoral College. A “lackluster” campaign and Cleveland’s opposition to tariffs contributed to his loss, said Ellen Fitzpatrick, a historian of modern American history at the University of New Hampshire, in an email.

Fitzpatrick stressed that Trump and Cleveland were two presidents who lived in different times and aren’t really comparable.

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A 1893 postcard depicting “Cleveland Soup” that nods to the economic depression in the country at the time. Image courtesy of Library of Congress

After winning again in 1892, Cleveland served during the following year’s economic crash. This tanked his popularity, Engel said.

But was Cleveland interested in a third term? Engel doesn’t think so.

Cleveland served his two presidencies before the 22nd Amendment ([link removed]) , which prohibits a president from serving more than two terms. Still, he decided against running again and left office, retiring in Princeton, New Jersey.

Cleveland now shares his presidential achievement with the incoming 47th president, but there’s one record he alone still retains. He’s the only president buried in the Garden State. ([link removed])

#POLITICSTRIVIA
By Joshua Barajas, @Josh_Barrage ([link removed])
Senior Editor, Digital

Whenever a new president assumes the Oval Office, the art inside the room also gets a makeover.

The chosen art — paintings, busts and other historical objects — can reflect a president’s tastes and politics. President Joe Biden had a portrait of Benjamin Franklin hanging to one side of the Resolute desk. ([link removed].) (He also had a moon rock from NASA ([link removed]) nearby.)

Biden’s Franklin portrait replaced the painting his predecessor, Donald Trump, had chosen for the same prominent spot in the Oval Office.

Our question: Whose portrait did Trump choose to hang in the Oval Office in the early days of his first administration?

Send your answers to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.

Last week, we asked: This former president failed to get reelected after facing an opponent who compared his administration to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: “Destruction, Delay, Deceit and Despair.”

The answer: Herbert Hoover. ([link removed]) He decisively lost to Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. FDR indeed invoked the “four horsemen” ([link removed]) when talking about Hoover’s administration.

Congratulations to our winners: Paul Taylor and Diane Frank!

Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.
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