GOP strategist: Trump’s circle of loyalists

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00:00Now, of course, politics involves a lot of show, and the media is a big factor in that.

00:05But there are some who felt uncomfortable watching the televised cabinet meetings where

00:09many of the secretaries that have been appointed by President Trump have made kind of fawning

00:13statements expressing awe and amazement about how, you know, the president's been handling

00:17everything. Has it felt like that at all to you? It hasn't. And I think what the president has

00:24learned and learned in the first term is he came to Washington as an outsider. He still is an

00:29outsider, but now he's an outsider that has some insights. And the insights were learned

00:33the hard way. I think Newt Gingrich, our former speaker, wrote a book saying lessons learned

00:38the hard way. The lessons in the hard way is that in the first go around, the first administration,

00:43he relied on a lot of establishment figures who were not loyalists. And I think he has

00:49turned to loyalists. I believe that fawning that you refer to is genuine. I believe many

00:55of the individuals that the president has selected to serve the cabinet are individuals that admired

01:00him, have been his friends and allies for a very, very long period of time. And I think

01:04sending that message that there is loyalty is important within the administration, including

01:10individuals such as Senator, sorry, Secretary Rubio now of State Rubio, who's differed with

01:15him in the past. I think the message is clear. And that is there's a Trump agenda. And if you

01:21believe in it and are part of it, you have to demonstrate it.