Trump’s transition team will require ‘loyalty’ if people want to work in possible White House return

The co-chair of the Trump campaign’s transition team has said that aspirants wishing to join a potential second administration will be vettedfor loyalty to the former president as well as his policies.

The head of the investment firm Cantor Fitzerald and Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick told the Financial Times in an interview that the goal is toavoid the high rate of turnover seen in Trump’s first term.

Lutnick told the paper that the loyalty pledge would help Trump put his agenda in place at a “speed no one’s ever done before.”

Speaking about some appointees and advisers who grew adversarial during Trump’s first term, Lutnick said: “Those people were not pure to his vision.” “They’re all going to be on the same side,” Lutnick said of a potential second term. “And they’re all going to understand the policies, and we’re going to give people the role based on their capacity — and their fidelity and loyalty to the policy, as well as to the man.”

Lutnick is leading the transition team alongside Linda McMahon, who previously headed the Small Business Administration. Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, Donald Trump Jr, former Democratic and Independent candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, and former Hawaii Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard all have honorary positions on the transition team.

Lutnick also attempted to put some distance between Trump and Project 2025, a plan put forward by the Heritage Foundation arguing for a sharp right turn of the federal government when the next Republican president enters office.

The investment firm head, who joined the transition team in August, called the rightwing agenda “radioactive” even as those who wrote the plan back Trump and Vance.

“Project 2025 is an