Trump’s eldest son emerges as key voice influencing cabinet picks – report

Donald Trump Jr has emerged as the family’s most influential adviser of the moment as his father builds the most controversial cabinet in modern US history, sources close to Donald Trump’s eldest son say.

Trump Jr has in some cases promoted inexperienced loyalists over more qualified candidates for top positions in president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.

During Trump’s first administration, as the 45th president, his elder daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, were top level political advisers, while his sons Don Jr and Eric were assigned mainly to run the family business.

Ivanka and her husband took a big step back from politics after Trump lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and during Trump’s subsequent descent into a tangle of civil and criminal cases against him, though have been more present since his victory in the election earlier this month.

Now sources have told Reuters that Don Jr is currently the leading offspring voice in his father’s ear and the president-elect has become particularly reliant on his son for advice on White House strategy.

But at least two of the more controversial choices championed by Don Jr face tough Senate confirmation challenges – vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr, of the chiefly-Democratic Kennedy political dynasty, for health secretary and former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, who faces bipartisan concern over her Russian interests and lack of experience in the intelligence community.