The Silent Force Behind the Trump Transition

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

63% : If Trump wins in November, Rollins will immediately become one of the most powerful conservatives in the country, wielding outsized influence over the shape of Trump's agenda and the composition of his administration.
55% : In mid-June, Trump signed an executive order -- which Rollins helped draft -- incentivizing a slate of police reforms at the local and state levels.
50% : Kushner and Rollins eventually prevailed, with Trump signing a slate of bipartisan prison and sentencing reforms into law as the First Step Act in December 2018.
49% : Among the nationalist-populist wing of the GOP, Rollins and her allies at AFPI are viewed as the rump faction of the old Republican establishment, dedicated to preserving the pre-Trump political orthodoxy that prioritizes free trade, deregulation, business-friendly economic policies and an expansive role for the U.S. on the global stage.
48% : The document was designed to serve as a policy blueprint for Trump's next term, but after Trump lost the election, it became a kind of mission statement for Rollins' next project.
44% : But it does suggest that personal loyalty to Trump -- the glue that keeps the MAGA coalition together -- continues to paper over deeper ideological divides within the institutional GOP.
40% : Trump reportedly vented to his aides in October 2023, referring to the $23 million that AFPI had raised in 2022.
39% : But perhaps the best evidence that Rollins is angling for her next big act is the fact that, since Trump named his transition team in August, she has strategically avoided the spotlight, growing her influence behind the scenes while other groups have alienated Trump by publicly jockeying for influence.
37% : In Washington, the work earned her a reputation as a shrewd institution builder and a leading conservative voice on criminal justice reform -- a reputation that would eventually serve as her ticket to the Trump White House.
35% : On January 11, 2018, Rollins took a seat beside Trump in the White House's Roosevelt Room, where Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had convened a roundtable discussion on criminal justice reform.
34% : In a written statement, a spokesperson for AFPI declined to comment directly on whether she would accept the chief of staff position and emphasized Rollins' loyalty to Trump, writing, "In an administration where the weakly committed did not last, Brooke was on the team until the very end of term one."
32% : In private, meanwhile, Trump fumed about the sums of money that AFPI had been raising using the America First brand, believing that the fundraising efforts were taking money away from the campaign.
29% : Ahead of the November elections, a group of Trump's advisers had been urging Trump to distance himself from the First Step Act, arguing that the reform bill was "a total dud" politically.
28% : Rollins has reportedly discussed AFPI's plans with Trump, and at least two people affiliated with AFPI -- former Trump administration officials Michael Rigas and Doug Hoelscher -- are working directly with the transition.
27% : AFPI's roster of staffers and advisers also reflects Rollins' more pre-Trump leanings: Kudlow is a self-avowed proponent of free trade who has expressed skepticism about Trump's more aggressive trade and tariff policies, and Chad Wolf, executive director of AFPI and the former acting director of the Department of Homeland Security under Trump, is viewed by some conservatives as a less effective advocate for immigration restriction than hardline Trump aides like Stephen Miller.
25% : It was not a cushy or high-visibility post, but it gave Rollins a chance to operate behind the scenes on her signature issue, criminal justice reform.
21% : Rollins did, however, get more involved in one of TFPP's policy issues: criminal justice reform.
19% : But as the protests spread, and a serious divide opened up among senior White House officials about how Trump should respond, Rollins struck a more conciliatory tone, acknowledging the existence of "potentially systemic injustice issues" in the United States and calling on Americans to "rise above the division and the divide and come together."
18% : After blowback from conservatives scuttled the appointment of former Jeb Bush adviser Derek Lyons, Trump tapped Rollins as acting director instead.
16% : With Kushner's support, Rollins elevated criminal justice reform as a major issue within the Trump White House, putting her at odds with Trump's more hardline advisers.
14% : AFPI's under-the-radar strategy paid off: In July 2024, on the tail end of another brutal news cycle about Project 2025's extreme plans for a second Trump administration, Trump publicly denounced Heritage's project, prompting the resignation of its director, Paul Dans.

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