Sharp elbows and raised voices: Inside Trump's bumpy transition

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Last edited Sat Nov 23, 2024, 10:14 AM - Edit history (1)

Sharp elbows and raised voices: Inside Trump’s bumpy transition

His freewheeling team has returned to the patterns of his first term in office — with shouting matches, expulsions from meetings and name-calling.


President-elect Donald Trump's motorcade departs his residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

By Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer
November 23, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST

Donald Trump’s attorney and adviser Boris Epshteyn showed up recently for a meeting about Cabinet picks in the Tea Room at Mar-a-Lago only to find his way blocked. ... Transition co-chair Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, told Epshteyn in front of others that this was not a meeting for him. “We’re not talking legal nominees today,” Lutnick said, according to one person familiar with the exchange. ... Epshteyn refused to budge. Using his forearm, he pushed Lutnick out of the way, according to two people familiar with the incident, which Lutnick later recounted to others. “I’m coming in,” Epshteyn retorted, according to one of the people.

A third person described the incident more as Epshteyn simply brushing past Lutnick on his way into the meeting, and someone close to both men said the two “have been working closely together in assisting President Trump in putting together the greatest administration in American history.” Epshteyn and Lutnick both declined to comment.

In any other presidential transition, such a showdown and physical confrontation between two top advisers to the president-elect would be a showstopping breakdown in decorum. ... But in Trump’s freewheeling orbit, the incident was soon forgotten as his team has returned to the patterns of his first term in office — with shouting matches, expulsions from meetings and name-calling, all between the public celebrations and rocket-ship photo ops. As during Trump’s first term, competing factions have begun to run roughshod over each other, sometimes kicking up clouds of dust.

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The fledgling relationship between Epshteyn and Musk — the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla chief who Trump tapped to lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” — has also been strained. Musk grew frustrated with Epshteyn over what he saw as his outsize influence over staffing and Musk’s belief that he was leaking to the media — griping to anyone who would listen, including Trump. ... The tensions came to a head last week on the patio of Mar-a-Lago, in what one witness described as “a big blowup” and a “huge fight.” The two men grew loud as Musk accused Epshteyn of leaking, with Epshteyn replying: “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

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By Ashley Parker
Ashley Parker is Senior National Political Correspondent for The Washington Post. She has been part of three Post teams that won Pulitzer Prizes — two for National Reporting (in 2018 and 2024) and one for Public Service (in 2022). She joined The Post in 2017, after 11 years at the New York Times. She is also an on-air contributor to NBC News/MSNBC.follow on X @ashleyrparker

By Josh Dawsey
Josh Dawsey is a political enterprise and investigations reporter for The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 2017 and previously covered the White House. Before that, he covered the White House for Politico, and New York City Hall and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for the Wall Street Journal.follow on X @jdawsey1

By Michael Scherer
Michael Scherer is a national political reporter at The Washington Post. He was previously the Washington bureau chief for Time magazine, where he also served as the White House correspondent. Before joining Time, he was the Washington correspondent for Salon.com.follow on X @michaelscherer