{"id":145,"date":"2024-11-11T07:18:06","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T07:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/calling-all-nat-sec-wonks-these-are-the-transition-positions-you-should-be-paying-attention-to\/"},"modified":"2024-11-11T07:18:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T07:18:06","slug":"calling-all-nat-sec-wonks-these-are-the-transition-positions-you-should-be-paying-attention-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/calling-all-nat-sec-wonks-these-are-the-transition-positions-you-should-be-paying-attention-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Calling all nat sec wonks: These are the transition positions you should be paying attention to"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s national security 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s foreign policy. And transition officials often end up joining the administration in influential posts.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s who\u2019s in the room or in the mix:<\/p>\n

The State Department\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Brian Hook, former State Department policy planner and special envoy for Iran, has been tapped to lead the State Department transition team.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Robert Wilkie, former Veterans Affairs secretary in the first Trump administration, is leading the Defense Department\u2019s transition team.<\/p>\n

The White House National Security Council<\/b><\/p>\n

Joel Rayburn is expected to play a role in Trump\u2019s 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.) \u2014 who is himself a leading contender to be Trump\u2019s secretary of state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Michael Anton is also expected to play a role, several people said. Anton was a former National Security Council spokesperson under Trump. (The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on this or other positions.)<\/p>\n

The intelligence community<\/b><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s former director for national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, is involved in transition planning for national security policy. (Blue Light News first reported his name and others on this list last week<\/a>.) Cliff Sims, who served as a deputy director of national intelligence 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.<\/p>\n

Global trade issues<\/b><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s former trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, and Lighthizer\u2019s former chief of staff, Jamieson Greer, are playing a leading role in economic and international trade transition policy.<\/p>\n

Cybersecurity<\/b><\/p>\n

Joshua Steinman, a former Trump NSC official, is a leading contender for the NSC\u2019s top cyber policy post. Others who could be involved in the transition\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

One key litmus test that could be a deciding factor for who joins Trump\u2019s national security team once he takes office: Loyalty.<\/p>\n

People close to the president-elect aren\u2019t being subtle about how loyalty could matter above all else for job seekers in a second Trump term. As Mike Davis \u2014 a contender to be Trump\u2019s attorney general<\/a> \u2014 put it in a post on X<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cDear 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 \u0142oyalty to Trump. If you cannot provide a lot of that, stop asking me. Political appointments require both competency and loyalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

A version of this report first appeared in National Security Daily, our guide to everything happening from the SitRoom to the E-Ring, with the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy. <\/i>Sign up for the newsletter<\/i><\/a> to get the goods in your inbox.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s national security 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. 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}