Washington: As President-elect Donald Trump taps the people he wants in his second-term administration, one quality is paramount: unwavering loyalty.

The least surprising of his picks was Elon Musk, the SpaceX chief who spent tens of millions of dollars to get Trump elected and has now been rewarded with a newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, an entity Trump indicated will operate outside government, to slash spending and force “drastic change” throughout the bureaucracy by July 4, 2026.

Also chosen to head the department alongside Musk was another wealthy Trump supporter: biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who initially challenged Trump for the Republican presidential nomination before dropping out of the race and becoming one of the former president’s strongest campaign surrogates.

Donald Trump on election night in Florida.Credit: AP, digitally tinted

And then there was the unexpected pick in the form of Fox and Friends Weekend co-host Pete Hegseth, who Trump nominated to be his secretary of defence, giving the 44-year-old army veteran the job of leading America’s military amid growing global uncertainty.

While Hegseth is a non-traditional choice to head the Pentagon, the Army National Guard veteran has been an........

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