Trump’s nominees have been called unqualified, partisan, and even threats to national security. But a significant and unnoticed thread unites the team that Trump is assembling around himself—their age, or rather, their youth.

Hegseth is 44. Matt Gaetz is 42. Tulsi Gabbard is 43. Vice President-elect J. D. Vance is 40, as is Trump’s proposed U.N. Ambassador Elise Stefanik. Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, is 44. Vivek Ramaswamy, who will work with Elon Musk in non-official, nongovernmental effort nevertheless named the Department of Governmental Efficiency, is 39. Other major appointees are slightly older: proposed Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem is 52, and Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio is 53, as is Musk. But it’s clear that Trump’s Cabinet-level staff skews young. In this respect it marks a departure from the Cabinet that Trump picked in 2016, when he chose an older, more conventionally qualified team. The average age of his picks for Defense, State, and Justice eight years ago was 67; the average age for those same roles today is 46.