Last week, top officials in Donald Trump’s campaign issued a terse, surprisingly blunt rejoinder to two Washington think tanks that had been publicly promoting their spec work to both blueprint and staff a second Trump administration. “Let us be very specific here: Unless a message is coming directly from President Trump or an authorized member of his campaign team, no aspect of future presidential staffing or policy announcements should be deemed official,” Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement on Friday. “Let us be even more specific, and blunt: People publicly discussing potential administration jobs for themselves or their friends are, in fact, hurting President Trump … and themselves. These are an unwelcomed distraction.”

This sort of message discipline seemed unprecedented for Trump world, but it was also fairly necessary. As I reported back in October, a number of conservative groups have been eagerly laying the groundwork for Trump’s return: publishing policy papers, pre-vetting potential staff, developing ideological training programs, and drawing up shortlists for top agency appointments. (These lists, of course, inevitably seem to include the list-makers, themselves.) Leading the charge has been The Heritage Foundation and its allies, who are developing a “turnkey” operation for whichever Republican wins the primary, and the America First Policy Institute, essentially a well-funded sinecure for various Trump alumni. (“It’s basically the Trump administration in exile,” a conservative insider told me.)