Don Jr and Eric Trump ‘in charge of picking Trump administration officials round two’

Donald Trump’s adult sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, are playing a central role in drawing up a list of potential candidates to join a second Trump administration in anticipation of their father’s victory over Joe Biden in November’s presidential election, Axios reports.

The brothers are not running the transition team, leaving that responsibility to the Trump campaign’s senior adviser, Susie Wiles, but are instead playing a lead role in vetting prospective officials and staffers on ideological grounds, according to the site.

By doing so, they reportedly hope to ensure a greater degree of loyalty than the former president experienced during his chaotic first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021.

Mr Trump Jr in particular has made it his mission “to keep the John Boltons of the world outside a second Trump administration”, one insider cited by Axios states, referring to the Republican’s estranged former national security adviser, a foreign policy hawk who has become a potent critic since being dismissed in September 2019.

The Independent has reached out to the Trump campaign for more information about the precise nature of the Trump brothers’ roles within the transition team.

The former president’s first cabinet included a number of figures like Mr Bolton, his first White House chief of staff, John Kelly, and defence secretary, Jim Mattis, who naively believed they could play a restraining role, helping to steer Mr Trump away from his worst instincts, an assumption that too frequently proved overly optimistic and more often than not resulted in swift departures.

The candidate is keen to avoid repeating such tactical missteps should he win a belated second term in the Oval Office and hopes to return with a