DefCon Dozen: 12 Americans who could profoundly shape the Trump 2.0 era

By the time the 2024 presidential election ended with Donald Trump’s acceptance speech in the wee hours Wednesday morning, a conga line of job seekers had already formed outside his Mar-a-Lago compound, which has already returned officially as America’s southern White House.

The line of petitioners for patronage is a rite of passage as old as U.S. democracy. Some come because they enjoy deep confidences with the President-elect, and he will rely on their advice and acumen for the next four years. Some come because they believe their donations or volunteer campaign work merits a reward. Others arrive with the hope that they can serve patriotically in an administration that the American people have issued a mandate to carry out Trump’s detailed and lengthy agenda. 

“I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept,” the president told his victory celebration that defined the mission for all potential job seekers in the Trump 2.0 Administration.

With 2 million jobs and thousands of appointed positions open, there’ll be room inside government for many in that waiting line.

Every administration is defined by the few dozen most important voices and talents upon which each president builds his agenda. The good ones channel his vision, execute with precision and innovate their way to the finish line. And not all even take government salaries. Some shape from afar with quiet advice, and others grab the agenda in the private sector and match business and money to policy.

In sports jargon, they are the Olympics Dream Team or the New York Yankees “core four.” Their record of achievement – or lack thereof – will determine whether a president crafts achievements worthy of Rushmore or history’s scrap pile.

Here are 15 Americans who, according to Just the News reporting the last six months, are likely to play a profound role in the Trump 2.0 era.

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin

Zeldin is an active officer in the Army Reserves and a former prosecutor who played an essential role in Congress’ unraveling of the bogus Russia collusion scandal. In 2022, he nearly pulled out the Empire State miracle of winning the governorship as a Republican in Trump’s beloved but very blue New York. Over the last two years he helped build a machine that willed reluctant Republicans into the game of early voting and absentee ballots, delivering 3 million long-missing low-propensity voters to the polls without Democrats noticing.

He’s the political equivalent of a B2 stealth bomber, able to deliver a big payload with precision but without much maintenance or detection. He stopped a knife-wielding assassin on the campaign trail with his bare hands before security could reach him.

Zeldin’s high-execution, low-ego personality and diplomatic team-building skills are suited for some of the biggest and toughest jobs in Trump’s Cabinet where blasting the deep state into a new formation will be essential: Defense Secretary, Secretary of State, Attorney General, FBI Director or United Nations Ambassador, where his Jewish upbringing could force change to an institution rotting from antisemitic hatred.

Retired Gen. Keith Kellogg

Though he’s 80, this three-star Army General is the most energetic channeler of the Trump Doctrine of foreign and security policy. Cerebral, steady and visionary, Kellogg could be an ideal candidate for National Security Adviser or any other top security job.

His last two years at the America First Policy Institute helped produce some of the most compelling strategies for taking Trump’s signature "peace-through-strength" values and applying them tactically to the crises left behind in a post-Biden world: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and terrorism to name a few.

Elon Musk

With the possible exception of Thomas Edison, no figure in modern corporate America has had more impact in shorter time. He rescued free speech at Twitter and shamed the far-left’s intolerant censorship machine, invented recyclable rockets that get caught back on launch pads with two robotic arms in an eye-defying visual sight, connected satellites into one of the fastest communications systems in the world and in his spare time developed a Tesla line of vehicles that is the envy of electric vehicle buyers worldwide. He is America’s modern-day Edison but with a keener political sense that nerdy inventors rarely possess.

He’d be an asset in any role in a second Trump administration. But the man who reimagined NASA’s 50-year monopoly on space flight would be best suited for a similarly Herculean job: reinventing a bloated federal bureaucracy and budget into a smaller, cheaper and more efficient machine capable of reducing debt and better serving its constituents. Any other job seems small for this titan of innovation.

Susie Wiles

No actor is better suited for being America’s first female White House chief of staff, or Trump’s chief compass setter. Trump’s first term blew through several chiefs in short measure. But Wiles showed during Trump’s historic comeback that two impeachments, four indictments, two assassination attempts and $1 billion in lawfare against her boss could not derail, unnerve or defy her uncanny ability to stay calm, focused and achieving in the natural drama of Trump World. 

Wiles' boss has only four years to achieve one of the most ambitious agendas in U.S. history. Such a task requires an unflappable and focused captain. Wiles may very well fit the bill and has a metal forged in the fires of the last four years of Trump world. She’s tough but kind, curious but focused and infatigable but strategic. And no one manages the President-elect’s moods and tireless drive better.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

This Democrat-turned-Trump Republican drew millions to Trump's cause by launching the "Make America Healthy Again" vision that lured seniors, Gen Z-ers and women alike to a new Big GOP Tent. He’s suited to bust Big Pharma’s hold on Washington and science without ending its innovation, reinventing the federal public health bureaucracy (especially the Food and Drug Administration) and charismatically whipping up bipartisan support for common sense and being healthy again. 

Nathan Ough

He’s not a household name in America, and he’s not even in Trump World right now. But this CEO of VoltaGrid could be essential to the Trump energy revolution. Yes, Trump will "Drill, Baby, Drill" for more energy. But his legacy on energy policy will be chiseled in stone to transform America’s electric grid.

Ough is an Elon Musk equivalent in the world of building electric grids. He and his firm have innovated in ways big and small, from the once creaky Texas utility grid to the aspirations of Fortune 100 companies who want to build their own mini-grids for their data and power centers.

If Trump is to catapult America’s forward to the Artificial Intelligence era ahead of China, he’ll need a guru to re-invent the transmission of power across this country. An electric utility industry that has proven it can’t figure out how to quickly get electric chargers for Musk’s EVs or to cope with the intermittent production of wind and solar power is in dire need of a disrupter. Ough could well be that disruptive innovator.

Fred Fleitz

The U.S. intelligence community has not only disserved Americans by placing its thumbs on the scale of elections with political stunts like the bogus Russia collusion scandal and the politically motivated Hunter Biden laptop letter, it also has failed to detect some of the world’s worst crises the last few years from the rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror atrocities.

It’s the job of U.S. intel executives to detect a crisis before it happens and that megaplex has failed miserably in the Biden-Harris years. Fleitz enjoys Trump's confidence as evidenced by the fact that he has sat at the same table as the president during recent visits from foreign leaders, including Hungary’s prime minister.

The task of blowing up and reassembling the CIA, DIA and other intel apparatus requires the expertise and knowledge of an insider and the mindset of an outsider who can’t be co-opted. Fleitz is that unique blend: he was a long-term CIA analyst and House Intelligence Committee staffer who later rose to National Security Council chief of staff.

He understands the threats, tactics and weaknesses of America’s foremost adversaries like China, Russia and Iran. And he’s closely tied with Gen. Kellogg, creating a potentially key alliance between drafters of intelligence policy and managers of operations.

Ambassador Ric Grenell

A career diplomat who befriended a State Department-distrusting Trump, Grenell helped carried out one of the 45th president's most audacious first-term achievements: getting long overdue and complacent NATO members to pony up more for Europe’s security costs. He did so while serving as U.S. Ambassador to Germany under the guiding hand of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 

Grenell also took over as acting Director of National Intelligence during a moment of turmoil, getting key Russia collusion evidence  declassified after years of foot-dragging. He also got inserted into the tense Balkans conflict and helped secure one of Trump's diplomatic triumphs: a deal to restore flights and travel between rivals Kosovo and Serbia.

Grenell can be bombastic yet diplomatic, partisan yet discreet, visionary yet execution-focused, and blisteringly funny and yet entirely serious. People who know him say he has the chops and communications skills to take on another major Trump mission from which others might shrink. 

If Trump wants to blow up the anti-American and antisemitic drift of the United Nations while making it more affordable and efficient like he once did with NATO, Grenell might just answer the call. He could serve many other roles – diplomatic or security – since he has been confirmed by the Senate in the past and shares Trump’s trust and style.

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard

Another Democrat who became "red-pilled," Gabbard is a master communicator, a champion of civil liberty and a military veteran who served in the Middle East. She was an enormous asset on the campaign trail and could serve in many capacities in Trump 2.0. Some have suggested she’d be perfect as Ambassador to the U.N. Another place that might be historic: Making her Veteran's Administration secretary during a moment in American history where the scourge of veteran homelessness and suicide – especially female veterans – has gone unsolved.

Kash Patel

No figure closer to Trump stirs more fear among establishment Republicans, legacy news media, congressional Democrats or longtime bureaucrats than Patel, the engine behind the book and movie "Government Gangsters." This former House Intelligence Committee chief investigative counsel has made the “deep state” entrenched bureaucracy the target of his disdain. He played one of the largest roles in unraveling the fraudulent "Russia collusion scandal" against Trump, then moved to the National Security Council where he used his role as counterterrorism coordinator to help take out Iran’s most feared terrorist, the late Gen. Qasem Soleimani. He finished at the Pentagon as acting chief of staff.

His detractors inside and outside the GOP world often claim he’s too aggressive or impulsive. But like the claims the drone strike against Soleimani would ignite World War III, those concerns never actually materialized. And on paper, he has a remarkable resume of experience as a former federal prosecutor, public defender, congressional counsel, NSC staffer and Pentagon chief of staff.

Since his former boss at the House Intelligence Committee, retired Rep. Devin Nunes, likely can’t afford to leave his perch as the CEO of Trump’s burgeoning Truth Social media empire, Patel is the closest weapon Trump may have to his much wanted intel and FBI bureaucracy buster. A senior role in law enforcement, operational intelligence or Musk’s government realignment seems possible.

Rep. Elise Stefanik

This former Bush White House staffer turned congresswoman is a rising star inside the House leadership and has been an unabashed Trump supporter for a long time. She has a unique ability to channel the Trump spirit and policy vision to women and young Americans alike.

Policy smart and sharp-tongued in communication, Stefanik has an uncanny ability to spot talent (as she proved in recruiting female House candidates) and to turn the table on media critics and Democrats alike. She could easily land in the Cabinet or – if the GOP’s slim margin in the House is too small to risk – stay in Congress and become a key quarterback to the Trump legislative agenda.

Alfredo Ortiz

A student of the late great businessman extraordinaire Bernie Marcus, Ortiz was sitting alongside Trump when he signed into law his first major legislative victory: the 2017 tax cuts.

Ortiz has been one of the conservative movement’s most effective ambassadors to the Hispanic community that tipped toward Trump in a historic way this election and to Main Street USA’s small business community as the head of the Marcus-created Job Creators Network.

He has a proven record as a regulation buster and delivered success creating a GOP counter lawfare strategy, including helping to defeat Joe Biden’s student loan and vaccine mandate regulations. He’s a master communicator with many friends on Capitol Hill and could make an effective Labor Secretary or Small Business Administrator

Other Key Players

Mark Paoletta: Though not a household name, this former deputy White House counsel has been one of the GOP’s most effective lawyers for two decades, from defending Justice Clarence Thomas to shepherding congressional energy policy and investigations. He could serve in one many key positions from White House counsel to Attorney General, Solicitor General or federal judge.

Sens. Rick Scott, Ron Johnson, Chuck Grassley, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio: Grassley is the dean of the Senate and the key to federal judiciary appointments and FBI/DOJ oversight as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The other four are the vanguard of a generational Trump change in a tired and often unimaginative Senate GOP caucus. One could even emerge as a new Senate leader.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan: If the FBI and DOJ are to be reformed, he could be Trump’s field general in the House.

Vice President-Elect JD Vance: Need one say anything more? He’s the natural heir to the Trump legacy. It will be fun to see him try to earn it.

Departing North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum: Can anyone say Energy Secretary?

Ben Carson: A return to HUD Secretary seems in order.

Linda McMahon: This former Cabinet secretary is a driving force of the Trump 2.0 transition. She knows from her extensive business that personnel is policy.