President-elect Donald Trump is filling key posts in his second administration, and it’s shaping up a lot otherwise than his first. He’s prioritizing loyalists for prime jobs.
Trump was bruised and hampered by inside squabbles throughout his preliminary time period in workplace. Now he seems targeted on remaking the federal authorities in his personal picture. A few of his decisions might face troublesome affirmation battles even with Republicans answerable for the U.S. Senate.
Right here’s a have a look at whom he has chosen thus far.
Secretary of State: Marco Rubio
Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making the critic-turned-ally his alternative for prime diplomat.
Rubio, 53, is a famous hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump’s operating mate on the Republican ticket final summer season. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate International Relations Committee.
The announcement punctuates the onerous pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator as soon as known as a “con man” throughout his unsuccessful marketing campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Their relationship improved dramatically whereas Trump was within the White Home. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a 3rd time, Rubio cheered his proposals. As an example, Rubio, who greater than a decade in the past helped craft immigration laws that included a path to citizenship for folks within the U.S. illegally, now helps Trump’s plan to make use of the U.S. army for mass deportations.
Legal professional Common: Matt Gaetz
Trump mentioned Wednesday he’ll nominate Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to function his legal professional basic, naming a loyalist within the position of the nation’s prime prosecutor.
In deciding on Gaetz, 42, Trump handed over extra established attorneys whose names had been talked about as being contenders for the job.
“Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and Restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department,” Trump mentioned in a press release.
Gaetz resigned from Congress after Trump introduced him. The Home Ethics Committee has been investigating an allegation that Gaetz paid for intercourse with a 17-year-old, although that probe successfully ended when he resigned. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.
Director of Nationwide Intelligence: Tulsi Gabbard
Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of nationwide intelligence, one other instance of Trump prizing loyalty over expertise.
Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic Home member who unsuccessfully sought the celebration’s 2020 presidential nomination earlier than leaving the celebration in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned typically with him this fall, and she or he’s been accused of echoing Russian propaganda.
Gabbard, who has served within the Military Nationwide Guard for greater than twenty years, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the position as an outsider in comparison with her predecessor. The present director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following a number of years in a variety of prime nationwide safety and intelligence positions.
Protection Secretary: Pete Hegseth
Hegseth, 44, was a co-host of Fox Information Channel’s “Fox and Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the community since 2014. He developed a friendship with Trump, who made common appearances on the present.
Hegseth served within the Military Nationwide Guard from 2002 to 2021, deploying to Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2011. He has two Bronze Stars. Nevertheless, Hegseth lacks senior army and nationwide safety expertise. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the highest job throughout a sequence of world crises — starting from Russia’s struggle in Ukraine and the continued assaults within the Center East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries concerning the rising alliance between Russia and North Korea.
Hegseth can be the writer of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” revealed earlier this yr.
Commerce Secretary: Howard Lutnick
Lutnick heads up the brokerage and funding financial institution Cantor Fitzgerald and is a cryptocurrency fanatic. He’s co-chair of Trump’s transition operation, charged together with Linda McMahon, a former wrestling govt who beforehand led Trump’s Small Enterprise Administration, with serving to the president-elect construct a Cupboard for his second administration.
As commerce secretary, Lutnick would play a key position in finishing up Trump’s plans to lift and implement tariffs. He would oversee a sprawling Cupboard division whose oversight ranges from funding new laptop chip factories and imposing commerce restrictions to releasing financial knowledge and monitoring the climate.
Homeland Safety Secretary: Kristi Noem
Noem is a widely known conservative who used her two phrases as South Dakota’s governor to vault to a outstanding place in Republican politics.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem didn’t order restrictions that different states had issued and as an alternative declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of many first giant gatherings of the pandemic.
Extra lately, Noem confronted sharp criticism for telling a narrative in her memoir about capturing and killing her canine.
She is about to steer a division essential to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda in addition to different missions. Homeland Safety oversees pure catastrophe response, the U.S. Secret Service and Transportation Safety Administration brokers who work at airports.
CIA Director: John Ratcliffe
Ratcliffe, a former U.S. Home member from Texas, was director of nationwide intelligence through the remaining yr and a half of Trump’s first time period, main the U.S. authorities’s spy businesses through the coronavirus pandemic.
If confirmed, Ratcliffe can have held the very best intelligence positions within the U.S.
Well being and Human Providers Secretary: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy ran for president as a Democrat, then as an impartial, and then endorsed Trump. He’s the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated throughout his personal presidential marketing campaign.
The nomination alarmed people who find themselves involved about his file of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines. For instance, he has lengthy superior the debunked concept that vaccines trigger autism.
Transportation Secretary: Sean Duffy
Duffy is a former Home member from Wisconsin who was one among Trump’s most seen defenders on cable information. Duffy served within the Home for almost 9 years, sitting on the Monetary Providers Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance coverage and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV profession and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Enterprise.
Earlier than getting into politics, Duffy was a actuality TV star on MTV, the place he met his spouse, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They’ve 9 kids.
Veterans Affairs Secretary: Doug Collins
Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump throughout his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. help for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to research Joe Biden in 2019 through the Democratic presidential nomination, however he was acquitted by the Senate.
Collins has additionally served within the armed forces himself and is presently a chaplain in the USA Air Power Reserve Command.
Inside Secretary: Doug Burgum
The governor of North Dakota, as soon as little-known outdoors his state, is a former Republican presidential major contender who endorsed Trump after which spent months touring to drum up assist for Trump after dropping out of the race.
Burgum was a severe contender to be Trump’s vice presidential alternative this summer season. The 2-term governor was seen as a potential decide due to his govt expertise and enterprise savvy. Burgum additionally has shut ties to deep-pocketed power trade CEOs.
Trump initially introduced his alternative of Burgum whereas addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago membership in Florida. His formal announcement the next day mentioned he wished Burgum to be Inside secretary and chairman of a brand new Nationwide Vitality Council. Burgun may even have a seat on the Nationwide Safety Council, which might be a primary for the Inside secretary.
Vitality Secretary: Chris Wright
A marketing campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Vitality, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and fuel improvement, together with fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to attain U.S. “energy dominance” within the world market.
Wright additionally has been one of many trade’s loudest voices in opposition to efforts to struggle local weather change. He mentioned the local weather motion all over the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Vitality Division is accountable for advancing power, environmental and nuclear safety of the USA.
Wright additionally gained assist from influential conservatives, together with oil and fuel tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, govt chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Assets, a significant shale oil firm, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who performed a key position on power points in Trump’s first time period.
Schooling Secretary: Linda McMahon
McMahon, a billionaire skilled wrestling mogul, can be making a return look in a second Trump administration. She led the Small Enterprise Administration from 2017 to 2019 throughout Trump’s preliminary time period and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She served on the Connecticut Board of Schooling for a yr beginning in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Coronary heart College in Connecticut. She has expressed assist for constitution colleges and faculty alternative.
Environmental Safety Company Administrator: Lee Zeldin
Zeldin doesn’t seem to have any expertise in environmental points, however is a longtime supporter of the previous president. The 44-year-old former U.S. Home member from New York wrote on X, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.”
“We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added.
Throughout his marketing campaign, Trump typically attacked the Biden administration’s promotion of electrical autos, and incorrectly referred to a tax credit score for EV purchases as a authorities mandate. Trump additionally typically advised his audiences through the marketing campaign that his administration would “drill, baby, drill,” referring to his assist for expanded petroleum exploration.
Chief of Employees: Susie Wiles
Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential marketing campaign and its de facto supervisor.
She has a background in Florida politics, serving to Ron DeSantis win his first race for Florida governor. Six years later, she was key to Trump’s defeat of him within the 2024 Republican major.
Wiles’ rent was Trump’s first main resolution as president-elect and one which may very well be a defining check of his incoming administration contemplating her shut relationship with him. Wiles is alleged to have earned Trump’s belief partly by guiding what was essentially the most disciplined of Trump’s three presidential campaigns.
Wiles was in a position to assist hold Trump on observe as few others have, not by criticizing his impulses, however by successful his respect by demonstrating his success after taking her recommendation.
Nationwide Safety Adviser: Mike Waltz
Waltz is a three-term Republican congressman from east-central Florida. A former Military Inexperienced Beret, he served a number of excursions in Afghanistan and in addition labored within the Pentagon as a coverage adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates had been protection chiefs.
He’s thought-about hawkish on China, and known as for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing as a result of its involvement within the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur inhabitants.
Border Czar: Tom Homan
Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s prime precedence of finishing up the most important deportation operation within the nation’s historical past.
He led the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Trump’s first administration and mentioned at a convention over the summer season that he can be keen to “run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.”
Democrats have criticized Homan for defending Trump’s “zero tolerance” coverage on border crossings throughout his first administration, which led to the separation of hundreds of fogeys and youngsters in search of asylum on the border.
Deputy Chief of Employees for Coverage: Stephen Miller
Miller, an immigration hardliner, was a vocal spokesperson through the presidential marketing campaign for Trump’s precedence of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser throughout Trump’s first administration.
Miller has been a central determine in a few of Trump’s coverage selections, notably his transfer to separate hundreds of immigrant households. Trump argued all through the marketing campaign that the nation’s financial, nationwide safety and social priorities may very well be met by deporting people who find themselves in the USA illegally.
Deputy Chief of Employees: Dan Scavino
Scavino was an adviser in all three of the president-elect’s campaigns, and the transition staff referred to him as one among “Trump’s longest serving and most trusted aides.” He can be deputy chief of workers and assistant to the president. He beforehand ran Trump’s social media profile within the White Home throughout his first administration.
Deputy Chief of Employees: James Blair
Blair was political director for Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign and for the Republican Nationwide Committee. He can be deputy chief of workers for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump’s financial messaging throughout his successful White Home comeback marketing campaign.
Deputy Chief of Employees: Taylor Budowich
Budowich is a veteran Trump marketing campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Nice Once more, Inc., a brilliant PAC that supported Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign. He can be deputy chief of workers for communications and personnel and assistant to the president.
White Home Press Secretary: Karoline Leavitt
Leavitt, 27, was Trump’s marketing campaign press secretary and presently a spokesperson for his transition. She can be the youngest White Home press secretary in historical past.
Leavitt labored within the White Home press workplace throughout Trump’s first time period.
In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, successful a 10-way Republican major earlier than shedding to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas.
White Home Counsel: William McGinley
McGinley was White Home Cupboard secretary throughout Trump’s first administration, and was outdoors authorized counsel for the Republican Nationwide Committee’s election integrity effort through the 2024 marketing campaign.
Particular envoy to the Center East: Steven Witkoff
The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect’s golf accomplice and was {golfing} with him at Trump’s membership in West Palm Seaside, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the previous president was the goal of a second tried assassination.
Trump additionally named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee.
Ambassador to Israel: Mike Huckabee
Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his meant nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. overseas coverage extra carefully with Israel’s pursuits because it wages wars in opposition to the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah.
Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a well-liked determine amongst evangelical Christian conservatives, a lot of whom assist Israel as a result of Previous Testomony writings that Jews are God’s chosen folks and that Israel is their rightful homeland.
Huckabee has rejected a Palestinian homeland in territory occupied by Israel, calling for a so-called “one-state solution.”
Ambassador to the United Nations: Elise Stefanik
Stefanik is a U.S. consultant from New York and one among Trump’s staunchest defenders going again to his first impeachment.
Elected to the Home in 2014, Stefanik was chosen by her GOP Home colleagues as Home Republican Convention chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was faraway from the publish after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he gained the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that position ever since because the third-ranking member of Home management.
Stefanik’s questioning of college presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped result in two of these presidents resigning, additional elevating her nationwide profile.
Facilities for Medicaid and Medicare Providers: Dr. Mehmet Oz
Oz, 64, is a former coronary heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime tv speak present. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate because the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz’s bid for elected workplace.
