No checks. Trump’s advisors will be puppets.
Leary, foreign policy columnist, ‘24
(Alex and Andrew Restuccia, “Trump Foreign Policy 2.0: Fewer Allies, Less Trade, More Loyalists,” Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-foreign-policy-2-0-fewer-allies-less-trade-more-loyalists-ac2429d0)
More White House loyalists
Personnel would be a key factor in the shape of Trump’s foreign policy in a second term. The Republican Party is divided over how aggressive the U.S. should be on the world stage, with some taking a more hawkish approach and others making the case that America should withdraw and refocus on domestic affairs. Trump is poised to surround himself with the latter.
His current advisers on foreign policy and national security include Keith Kellogg, a former national security adviser to Mike Pence when he was vice president; Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s former trade representative; Richard Grenell, a former ambassador and acting director of national intelligence; the former intelligence chief John Ratcliffe; and the former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, among others. All of them are viewed as candidates for key roles in another Trump administration.
Some former Trump administration officials have privately expressed concern that in a potential second term the government would be stocked with few senior officials who would be willing to oppose Trump’s most radical ideas. Trump frequently complained during his four years in office that his staff wasn’t loyal enough to him—with Bolton and some others with differing foreign-policy views pushing back internally. He is planning to purge those who aren’t in lockstep with his agenda, according to people close to him.