Trump's courtiers vie for influence

Nowhere has the outcome of the US presidential election led to more immediate change than at Donald Trump's estate at Mar-A-Lago. Property is of course no stranger to the attentions of the powerful. But today, Trump's sprawling 126-room club is the home of future power in America.

When the president-elect sits at court, he is surrounded by members of his entourage. Together, they are wasting no time in reshaping the country into their collective ideological dreamscape.

Trump's transition team was already at work even before last Tuesday's election ended. But today, her huge victory over Vice President Kamala Harris has not only lent urgency to the task, but also a sense of zeal.

For some figures, a once inconceivable opportunity now presents itself. Elon Musk didn't just find himself involved in the president-elect's phone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He is also reportedly seeking positions in the next Trump administration for key figures in his own corporate empire. They would serve as a permanent bridge between America's most powerful businessman and the White House, ensuring that Musk's interests and concerns are reflected in the Oval Office at all times.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr is also poised to receive rich rewards, after the environmentalist and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist abandoned his independent bid for the nation's highest office and instead supported Trump.

Before the election, members of the transition team denied reports that RFK might be a candidate to head the Department of Health and Human Services. It turns out that RFK has more ambitious goals and claims that Trump promised him an even more substantial mandate.

In a phone call last week with supporters, the scion of America's most famous liberal family said he expects to be tasked with entirely reshaping America's public health policies in the he most right-wing administration in the country.

Kennedy claimed he would be given oversight of public health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In the halls of these agencies, fear abounds about the possible consequences of Kennedy's nomination.

The website Policy reports a feverish race for the position in the president-elect's field in Florida. Literally, in some cases, potential candidates are jockeying for positions as close to Trump's dinner table as possible in order to get his attention. If reports are correct, an almost medieval scene unfolds nightly at the club, with Mar-A-Lago once again the place to see and be seen by the president-elect.

Musk remains at the top, having spent more than $119 million of his own money to support the Trump campaign. In recent days, his proximity to the president-elect suggests he now has much more clout than Vice President-elect JD Vance.

Donald Trump Jr also plays a central role in selecting Cabinet members and other senior officials, fueling well-established suggestions that he may seek to run for the White House himself in the future.

Others, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Metas Mark Zuckerberg, are already cashingafter carefully making sure they hadn't done anything to offend Trump during the campaign.

Bezos, who stopped his Washington Post After supporting Harris for president, the newspaper saw its personal wealth increase by $7 billion following Wall Street's embrace of the election results. In other words, Bezos made a profit of $28,000 for every pearl-hungry Washington Post reader who chose to cancel their subscription.

It will soon be up to Trump's campaign manager, Susie Wiles, to bring together the many supplicants seeking favors from the new American leader. As the next White House chief of staff, she will control access to Trump upon taking office.

His appointment alone indicates that in his second term, the president-elect is determined not to repeat the mistakes that he says hampered his first administration. There will be no room on Trump's presidential court for nonbelievers or seasoned careerists steeped in politics but lacking connections to the Make America Great Again movement.

Trump and his advisers want the White House and the new Cabinet to be populated only by their ideological fellow travelers. At Mar-A-Lago, favors are granted, but only to those who carefully prepositioned themselves and helped Trump achieve his historic victory.