Copyright ABC News
To sabotage a fellow Cabinet secretary, Howard Lutnick dug up a decade-old comment critical of Donald Trump made by Sean Duffy to sink his chances of being named secretary of transportation, according to a new book about the 2024 election. The attempt ultimately failed, but the incident was one of many instances of sabotage and infighting between potential Cabinet officials that came to define Trump’s presidential transition, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl reports in his upcoming book "Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign that Changed America." The new details about the transition were first reported in an excerpt of the book published Thursday in Vanity Fair. The book details the frenzied process when billionaires, politicians and television stars flocked to Trump’s Florida club and residence, Mar-a-Lago, to rub shoulders with future leaders of government and increase their chances of being tapped by Trump. According to Karl, Trump entered his second administration with renewed confidence, compared to his first, which he said was undercut by disloyal Cabinet officials. "The difference between now and before is I know everybody now, and when I first came I knew nobody," Trump told Karl in an October 2024 phone call. "We had a lot of great people. But I didn't know people. Had to rely on recommendations. Now I know people." Despite the confidence, Trump refused to seriously consider how he would staff his transition until after his victory was secured, worried that planning an administration without winning the election could jinx his chances. "I don’t like to talk about transition until I win," Trump said, according to Karl. "When we win, you and I will talk about it. But until you win, I don't like talking about transition." Spearheaded by Lutnick, the process of selecting officials was tailored to judge the characteristics Trump valued most, according to Karl. He reports: The infighting began early in the transition, according to Karl. When word spread that Susie Wiles was meeting with Trump two days after the election to be offered the role of White House chief of staff, two other contenders -- Linda McMahon and Brooke Rollins -- rushed to Mar-a-Lago to derail the pick, according to Karl. When they arrived, Trump aides who worked for Wiles held up the aspiring Cabinet officials, going as far as to orchestrate a phone call with Vice President-elect JD Vance to prevent them from seeing Trump in time, according to Karl. McMahon and Rollins arrived too late, eventually landing jobs leading the departments of Education and Agriculture, respectively. Lutnick, now the secretary of commerce, specifically lobbied for a former Uber executive to run the Department of Transportation. When he learned that Trump was considering Duffy -- a former Fox Business host and reality TV star from MTV’s "The Real World" -- Lutnick dug up a 2015 interview when Duffy was critical of Trump to sink his chances of being picked. Karl reports:
