President-elect Donald Trump's decision to exclude Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo, two key components of his first administration, from coming in with his upcoming presidency, reflects his wish to bring about change, former Rep. Jack Kingston told Newsmax on Sunday.
"I don't know what went into those decisions, but I think that part of this is all about change," the Georgia Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend." "If he brings back too many people from his old administration, then people are going to say, Well, you know, maybe we want a different kind of change and some new faces."
Trump announced on his Truth Social page Saturday that he "will not be inviting" Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations, or Pompeo, his secretary of state, to be in the upcoming administration.
"I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our country," Trump said.
Kingston said Haley and Pompeo campaigned for Trump, so he doesn't sense any infighting, but still, "part of wearing the crown is you've got to make some of the tough decisions."
He added that there is a "great player pool" of talent Trump can recruit for his administration, "people like Rick Grenell, Robert Wilkie, and Sarah Sanders Huckabee who are going to be advisers to him and who are going to be close to him."
"I think he's going to take his own counsel on it and not do what the press says," said Kingston. "He's not going to try to fulfill the agenda of certain constituencies just so he can get the press hit for the day. He wants people who truly believe in the MAGA agenda and want to make America great again."
He added that during Trump's first administration, many of the people who joined came in "with their own agenda," but now, "that's not Donald Trump. That's not what the American people just voted for, so I'm very excited that they have their act together in a way we've never seen before."
Kingston also praised Trump's selection of campaign co-Chair Susie Wiles as his chief of staff.
"She's a known quantity, and she's one of the people that we know can talk to President Trump very quietly, very sternly, in an agreeable, disagreeing way on certain issues," he said. "But when they come out of the back room, they're united. You're not going to have the drama that you may have with some other selections."
Wiles, he added, "doesn't have her own personal political agenda, so I think it's a great steady hand."
She's also been part of Trump's campaigns "for many years," said Kingston. "I'm very happy he's hitting the ground running with that first choice."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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