Feeling betrayed, Trump wants a second administration stocked with loyalists

WASHINGTON — Sitting in the Oval Office in the infancy of his presidency in 2017, Donald Trump found himself surrounded by new aides who had worked for other prominent Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, his most bitter rival from the previous year’s primaries.

The “America First” president evidently worried that they wouldn’t now put the American president first.

Trump went around the room, inquisition-style, asking each aide to declare allegiance, according to a person who was present.

“He was quizzing people in the Oval if they were loyal to him or previous bosses,” the source recalled seven years later.

But no matter how much emphasis Trump put on loyalty in his first term, he found himself disappointed and frustrated when people he had hired chose other considerations over his instructions — their own reputations, future ambitions and even the Constitution.

During one meeting three years into his term, the president sat with his third defense secretary, Mark Esper, a top aide who had been tasked with installing loyalists in the administration and other senior advisers. The aides wondered aloud how they had kept missing the mark and choosing people who weren’t loyal enough.

“Trump said, ‘We can’t let that happen again,’” according to a source familiar with the conversation.

From Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ allowing for the appointment of Russia special prosecutor Robert Mueller to Attorney General William Barr’s refusing to declare the 2020 election invalid and Vice President Mike Pence’s declining to reject electors, Trump felt he had been betrayed by the very officials who owed him the most.

Esper, too, would later be unceremoniously cast out after being at odds with Trump on a number of issues.

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