WASHINGTON — The military leaders who came to the Oval Office to discuss the new F-47 stealth fighter jet had a few surprises in store.
At one point in their sit-down with President Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, the Meta chief executive, walked in unexpectedly. Worried that he didn’t have security clearance, officials asked the social media magnate to wait outside, two people familiar with the meeting said.
A young aide also came in during the meeting, showed the president something on her laptop computer and left. Trump’s cellphone rang a couple of times.
Expecting more privacy in the meeting with the commander in chief, some of the officials came away mystified and a bit unnerved. They quietly discussed among themselves whether the visitors and calls might have compromised sensitive information, with one asking whether they should be concerned about “spillage.”
Trump affectionately refers to the Oval Office as “Grand Central Terminal” because of all the comings and goings, a senior White House official said. One of the people familiar with the winter meeting about the plane used another term: “bizarro world.”
Various aides have tried over the years to impose a certain discipline in the Trump White House, with limited results. Trump likes to see whom he wants and call whom he chooses, and in the new term, he presides over a freewheeling West Wing that mirrors the man, current and former aides say.
Trump will interrupt an Oval Office meeting and spontaneously pick up the phone and call a friend or confidant, a senior administration official said.
Cabinet secretaries often mill around the building, popping in and out of offices with powerful advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief Stephen Miller.
“No one wants to miss the decision,” a person who has been to the White House for meetings said.
One meeting rolls into another. Cabinet members who’d planned 30-minute visits to the White House may end up staying for hours at the president’s invitation.
“If you’re in a meeting about [disaster] preparedness and the next meeting is about whatever, he’ll say, ‘Stick around,’” the senior administration official said.
If Trump’s methods are unorthodox, his supporters say, he is delivering results. He is on the cusp of passing a bill that would accomplish many of his domestic goals: cutting taxes and clamping down on illegal immigration. And he orchestrated a ceasefire between Iran and Israel that is holding for now, averting further escalation.
Yet Trump’s managerial style also poses risks, current and former officials say. Cabinet secretaries run complex agencies that need attention and leadership. Decamping to the West Wing can deprive the federal workforce of both. A staff’s careful effort to provide balanced viewpoints before the president sets policy can blow up if he’s also hearing from friends and associates sharing unvetted information. And, unlike Grand Central Station, the White House is a zone where secrets need to be protected.
NBC News spoke to more than a dozen past and current administration officials, lawmakers and Trump allies about the West Wing’s rhythms. What’s noteworthy is the informality, they said.
One former national security official said they were struck by how often they’d run into Vice President JD Vance standing outside the Oval Office near the Keurig coffee maker, drinking a cup or eating one of the cookies on offer. Vance’s office declined to comment.
A Republican senator invited over for a bill signing said Trump took him and others to see what the president called “the Monica Lewinsky Room,” scene of the trysts between Bill Clinton and a certain White House intern. There, in the space near the Oval Office, Trump keeps a supply of MAGA hats and shirts to give out to visitors. The senior White House official described the room as a “beautifully organized” gift shop of sorts.
“He does what he wants, and they [Trump aides] let him do it,” the senator said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Some visitors to the White House say they’ve been struck by the ubiquity of Trump Cabinet secretaries.
At least in the early phase of Trump’s last term, Cabinet members tended to stick to their home agencies, a former White House official said.
“They should be running their bureaucracies. They shouldn’t be hanging around the White House,” the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Now, Cabinet members are a routine presence in the West Wing. Trump likes it that way, the senior White House official said. Trump is the ultimate decision-maker, and that’s why they come, the person said, adding, “He wants them here, too.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has an office in the West Wing now that Trump has given him the dual role of national security adviser — the first person to simultaneously hold both jobs since Henry Kissinger did so in the Nixon administration.
Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, works out of the building next door and, with a broad portfolio that encompasses the economy and tariffs, is a regular visitor. So is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a key player in Trump’s tariff negotiations with other countries.
Indeed, some aides past and present describe Lutnick as a perennial guest: quick to arrive, not as quick to leave. Lutnick’s headquarters is less than a mile from the White House, but he “could be stationed in Maryland, and he would still be at the White House,” a second senior White House official said, who added that Lutnick spends his time there going in and out of meetings with Trump. The official said that was due in part to Lutnick’s oversight of trade and tariff issues at the center of the president’s agenda.
The Commerce Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Meta declined to comment.
Face time with the president can be a way for Cabinet members to retain influence, something that may not be lost on the people who serve at Trump’s pleasure. Turnover in Trump’s first term was high; this time, his Cabinet has stayed largely intact.
“If you’re a Cabinet member, there’s a fine line between too much time and not enough time” in Trump’s company, the senior administration official said. “Sometimes in Trump world, scarcity is a good thing. But too much scarcity and you get forgotten.”
In a prepared statement, the White House deputy chief of staff for communications, Taylor Budowich, said: “President Trump has assembled the greatest cabinet in American history—a group of talented individuals who embody the diverse coalition that delivered his historic election victory. [Wiles] has played an integral role in operationalizing his agenda through his administration and has ensured everyone is empowered with the tools to deliver on the president’s mandate.”
One habit that is carryover from Trump’s first term is his fondness for the cellphone.
Trump will pause a meeting to call old friends like Dana White, chief executive of Ultimate Fighting Championship, or Rupert Murdoch, the chairman emeritus of Fox, the senior administration official said.
“He’ll say: ‘Let’s call Rupert. Fox is killing me today,’” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk freely.
Lately, Trump has phoned Murdoch for his views on the conflict between Israel and Iran and, in particular, Washington’s involvement, according to two people with knowledge of the calls.
Overseeing the West Wing operation is Wiles, the fifth chief of staff Trump has had in his 4½ years in office. Trump affectionately calls her the “Ice Maiden.” Few of the chiefs have succeeded in controlling access to Trump or policing his calls to outside friends and advisers who might want to sway his thinking on an issue. But Wiles is credited with at least balancing Trump’s improvisational instincts with a semblance of order.
“She’s in virtually every meeting that matters,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally, who describes her as the best chief of staff Trump has had. “She sits there and takes notes and knows what the president wants to accomplish and does it.”
A White House official said Wiles, a former lobbyist, holds the view that while she may not know the answers, she’ll see to it that Trump hears all sides of an issue before he makes a decision.
Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, John Kelly, tried something similar in the first term. Kelly’s practice was to see to it that if someone came into the Oval Office to pitch an idea to Trump, a person representing an opposing view would also be on hand so the president heard both viewpoints.
Kelly was gone after about a year and a half, his effort to bring more structure to the West Wing having fizzled.
“I don’t think the president’s habits have changed much,” the Republican senator said. “He watches a lot of TV, and he lives on the telephone. He likes to be called. In fact, last time I was with him, he said, ‘Why don’t you call me anymore?’ and I’m thinking, ‘Because I don’t have anything to say and, No. 2, because you’re the president and you’re busy.’”