President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has created a mock Situation Room at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in order to make staffing decisions, according to a report.
The president-elect’s transition team is busy sifting through “digital dossiers” of candidates for about 40 Cabinet positions and agency leadership roles before Trump takes office in January, Axios reported. The team has once again turned his historic Florida resort into a sort of “White House South” for the process, mirroring the process that took place at Trump Tower after his 2016 win.
The Palm Beach war room is reportedly filled with television monitors, where aides can bring up clips of individual candidates’ television appearances—a critical factor for the famously ratings-obsessed Trump.
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Several close Trump allies have been in the room weighing in on hiring decisions, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, Trump transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick, and billionaire Elon Musk, who has been spotted at the Florida resort alongside Trump and his family consistently since the Election Night victory last week.
Other Trump insiders, including recently named chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, are also expected to weigh in on the hiring decisions, The New York Times reported on Monday.
Trump has already announced some major hiring choices, the first being former co-campaign chair Susie Wiles as his chief of staff—the first woman to ever serve in the role.
On Monday, he announced that New York Rep. Elise Stefanik would serve as United Nations ambassador—tapping a close ally in the House of Representatives and current chair of the House Republican Conference to represent the U.S. on the international stage.
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