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The faces on the right are often the same as the titles change in Trump's time. Hence the latest news that President Trump is planning to make Ken Cuccinelli, former Attorney General and long-time Conservative ambassador for Virginia, his future Secretary of Homeland Security.
Cuccinelli is vying to succeed former DHS chairman, Kirstjen Nielsen, who reportedly competed for the position of current Energy Department secretary, Rick Perry, and the former secretary of the DHS. State of Kansas, Kris Kobach.
The main qualifications for the job are simple. Frustrated by the increase in the number of illegal crossings along the southern border of the United States, Trump wants an Indian party on immigration. Conservatives are convinced that Cuccinelli is perfect.
In a letter dated Friday postmarked and obtained by RealClearPolitics, 19 outside conservative organizations urged the president to choose Cuccinelli. Jim DeMint, former Senator of South Carolina, Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center and Ginni Thomas – the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas – have lent their signatures.
"In this time of national crisis and emergency situation related to national security and immigration, Ken's background as a law enforcement officer and great attorney Constitutional, as well as its reputation as a fighter, combined with its vast experience in the media, including television, make it perfectly suited to carry out the tasks of the Department of Homeland Security and your immigration program, " we read in the letter.
Cuccinelli has all the prerequisites for the Trump Cabinet, whose members regularly serve as guests of cable television. He is tough on crime, bellicose on the border, and an eloquent and often nervous interlocutor. The long-time lawyer has regularly defended the circuit of cable television to defend the president before signing with CNN in 2017 as a legal commentator.
A combative Cuccinelli caught flak for playing against Ana Navarro. During a match against Trump's immigration policy, he told the former Republican strategist and current co-host of "The View" that he was "tired of listening to your shrill voice in my ears".
This kind of pugilistic punditry probably appeals to the president, and Trump has experienced it first-hand. As Virginia's delegate, Cuccinelli devised an effort at the 2016 Republican National Convention to force a debate on the rules of appointment. It failed.
Party supporters had hoped that a roll-call vote would embarrass the presumptive candidate or deny him the candidacy. The plan collapsed when Arkansas representative Steve Womack instead called a vote to the vote before hurrying to get on the podium to escape the outcry from angry delegates. Cuccinelli rejected his credentials with disgust.
He then promised to support the candidate and, since the beginning of the years, Mr. Cuccinelli has become a trusted ally of the president. A senior administration official confirmed at RCP that the 2013 Republican candidate for Virginia's governorship had won the admiration of Trump's top advisers, Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller.
Cuccinelli made several trips to the White House before the Senate vote on criminal justice reform earlier this year and also met skeptical Republicans in Congress to pass the Kushner-endorsed First Step Act. He later described his passage as "historical," describing it as a step toward "redemption in the federal criminal justice system."
His record of being an immigration healer is broader, dating back to the time when he was legislator and Attorney General of the Old Dominion. The liberal drafting committee of the Washington Post has lamented his candidacy for the governorship, highlighting his opposition to citizenship, his authorization to prosecute employers who hire illegal immigrants and his support for efforts to prevent immigrants to receive unemployment benefits.
Cuccinelli lost this 2013 race, but his record earned him the dedication of other tough guys to illegal immigration. Supporters and critics point out that there is little ideological light between Cuccinelli and Miller, the alleged assistant responsible for Nielsen's purge at DHS.
Kushner and Miller have not supported any potential candidate. And Kobach, who is also in the running and who knows Trump personally, is just as much a hawk of immigration.
Cuccinelli's admirers include Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who recruited him during his 2016 presidential campaign and described him as a "patriot" in the RCP.
"Our failing immigration system and years of reluctance to secure our southern border have caused a security and humanitarian crisis. With his loyalty to the Constitution and his vast legal experience, Ken is well equipped to deal with this crisis and would be an outstanding secretary to Homeland Security, "Cruz said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has urged Republicans to avoid problematic appointments before the president calls them. According to Politico, the Kentucky Republican had named him by name.
Both are mid-term since at least 2014, when Cuccinelli joined the Conservative Senate Fund, a political action committee that supported a major challenge for McConnell.
Anyone who is elected to DHS, Trump's confidant and North Carolina representative Mark Meadows, told RCP: "Someone who will tackle the inherent obstacles to the safety of our communities" .
"There is a crisis at the border," he continued, "and it must be remedied in crisis mode."
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