President-elect Donald Trump On Saturday, former Cabinet officials Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo were excluded from his new administration in a Truth Social article, opting for vengeance over unity in one of his first transition announcements.

By blocking them both – one a former rival in the presidential primary, the other a man with presidential ambitions who has criticized Trump in the past – the new president has remained true to his desire to prioritize loyalty above all when building his second administration.

“I will not invite former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump administration, now in formation,” Trump said. wrote. “I have greatly enjoyed and enjoyed working with them before, and I would like to thank them for their service to our country.”

Trump’s sentiments were a far cry from his attacks on Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, whom he called “birdbrain” throughout the Republican Party presidential primary and who downplayed her husband’s military service. Even after Haley supported Trump, he made efforts to sideline her. Haley had a last minute speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in July after initially saying she wouldn’t speak, and Trump appeared annoyed last month by calls to deploy Haley on the campaign trail despite Haley’s offers to do so.

“They keep talking about Nikki, Nikki,” Trump said Fox and friends. “I love Nikki. Nikki, I don’t think, should have done what she did, and it’s good that she did. But even in her own state – South Carolina, where she was governor – I beat her by a number. …And then they say, ‘Oh, when is Nikki coming back?’ Nikki is here. Nikki is already helping us.

Trump has remained quieter on Pompeo, who last year critical the Trump administration’s $6 trillion contribution to the national debt in an interview and urged the Republican Party to move away from “celebrity leaders” with “fragile egos” in a speech. (He later claimed he was not referring to Trump.)

Pompeo, the former secretary of state, later excluded a 2024 presidential bid, however, seemed poised to join a second Trump term. “If I have an opportunity to serve and I believe I can make a difference,” he said. said Fox News: “I will almost certainly say yes to this opportunity to try to act on behalf of the American people.”

Yet Trump’s allies have resisted their encroachments. Roger Stone, the incendiary figure who remained a close confidant of Trump, named Haley and Pompeo as the “most egregious examples of the type of person who should be excluded from the administration” in a blog post. job Friday. He claimed that Pompeo undermined Trump’s America First agenda while secretary of state and that Haley too often chose to criticize Trump rather than elevate him.