Donald Trump, the former US president set to return to the White House in January for a second term, has begun making selections for his administration, opting for those who display loyalty over those with deep experience.
Trump has tasked Howard Lutnick, a longtime friend, with recruiting officials who will deliver, rather than dilute, his agenda. During his first term, several of Trump’s key appointees tried to convince Trump out of his more extreme plans.
Confirmed role: Attorney general
Requires senate confirmation? Yes
Trump nominated Matt Gaetz, a hard-right Republican congressman from Florida, for attorney general.
Gaetz, a Trump loyalist, was elected in 2016 to represent a red chunk of the Florida panhandle. Since his arrival in Washington, he’s developed a reputation as a far-right provocateur, courting controversy seemingly as a matter of course. In 2023, he led the charge to oust Kevin McCarthy as the Republican speaker.
Confirmed role: National intelligence director
Requires senate confirmation? Yes
Trump announced Tulsi Gabbard as his nominee for director of national intelligence. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman and Iraq war veteran, ran for president in 2020 and then left the party in 2022. She campaigned for and endorsed Trump in 2024. In a statement announcing her appointment in his administration, Trump praised Gabbard for fighting “for our country and the freedoms of all Americans”.
Confirmed role: Secretary of state
Requires senate confirmation? Yes
Trump named Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as his nominee for secretary of state. If confirmed, he would be the first Latino to serve as America’s top diplomat.
In a statement, Trump said Rubio would be “strong Advocate for our Nation” and “fearless Warrior”.
Rubio, a failed challenger to Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, was rumoured to be one of the leading contenders for Trump’s vice-presidential pick before JD Vance was announced. He also help Trump prepare for his 2020 debate with Joe Biden and has served as an informal foreign policy adviser.
Rubio is a top China hawk in the Senate. Most notably, he called on the treasury department in 2019 to launch a national security review of popular Chinese social media app TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly. As the top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, he demanded the Biden administration block all sales to Huawei earlier this year after the sanctioned Chinese tech company released a new laptop powered by an Intel AI processor chip.
Confirmed role: US ambassador to Israel
Requires senate confirmation? Yes
Trump announced Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, as his ambassador to Israel. A failed Trump challenger who ran against him for the Republican nomination in 2016, Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel.
In 2018, he said he dreamed of building a “holiday home” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Trump said in a statement on Tuesday that Huckabee “loves Israel, and the people of Israel” and will work to bring peace in the region.
Huckabee is the father of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as press secretary in Trump’s first administration and is the current Arkansas governor.
Confirmed role: Secretary of defense
Requires senate confirmation? Yes
Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he is nominating the Fox News host and army veteran Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary. Hegseth is an army national guard officer and former executive director of advocacy groups including Concerned Veterans for America and Vets For Freedom.
Confirmed role: “Border tsar”
Requires senate confirmation? No
Trump has said Tom Homan will be the “border tsar” in his administration, taking charge of the country’s “southern border, the northern border, all maritime, and aviation security”. Homan will be in charge of the promised mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. He served for a year and a half in Trump’s first administration as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).
Homan is both a Project 2025 author and Heritage Foundation fellow. At a panel in July, Homan said if Trump was re-elected he would “run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen”.
Confirmed role: White House counsel
Requires senate confirmation? No
William McGinley served as cabinet secretary during Trump’s first term and acted as legal counsel for the Republican National Committee during the election campaign.
Confirmed role: Deputy chief of staff for policy
Requires senate confirmation? No
Stephen Miller is an immigration hardliner who served as a senior policy adviser in the early part of Trump’s first term. He was the chief architect of the Muslim travel ban and is the founder of America First Legal, a group described by him as the right’s “long-awaited answer” to the American Civil Liberties Union. It is expected he will take on an expanded role in Trump’s second term and help carry out the former president’s mass deportation plan.
Confirmed role: Head of Department of Government Efficiency
Requires senate confirmation? No
Donald Trump continued to fill his administration by naming SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to head up a new “Department of Government Efficiency”. In a statement, Trump said that these appointments “will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people”.
Confirmed role: Homeland security secretary
Requires senate confirmation? Yes
Trump has selected South Dakota’s governor, Kristi Noem, to serve as the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, a staunch ally who has little experience on the national security stage. Noem was once under consideration for Trump’s vice-president – but saw her chances evaporate amid backlash to the revelation in her memoir that she shot to death an “untrainable” dog that she “hated” on her family farm. She is currently serving her second four-year term as governor.
In the role, Noem would oversee everything from border protection and immigration to disaster response and the US Secret Service.
Confirmed role: CIA director
Requires senate confirmation? Yes
John Ratcliffe is another loyalist to be chosen for a key role. He served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term after being confirmed by the Senate on his second try following concerns over his experience. In a statement, Trump praised the former Texas congressman’s role in the Hunter Biden laptop saga.
Confirmed role: UN ambassador
Requires senate confirmation? Yes
Trump has selected the New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik to be the ambassador to the UN. A Trump loyalist who was floated as possible pick for his vice-president, Stefanik is the highest-ranking woman in the Republican conference in the House of Representatives.
Confirmed role: National security adviser
Requires senate confirmation? No
A former US army green beret who now serves as a congressman for Florida, Michael Waltz has solidified his reputation as a leading advocate for a tougher stance on China within the House of Representatives. He played a leading role in sponsoring legislation aimed at reducing the US’s dependence on minerals sourced from China. Waltz is known to have a solid friendship with Trump and has also voiced support for US assistance to Ukraine, while concurrently pushing for greater oversight of American taxpayer funds allocated to support Kyiv’s defense efforts. Trump is reportedly due to choose him for national security adviser.
Confirmed role: Chief of staff
Requires senate confirmation? No
Trump has named Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff, the first woman to hold the influential role. She was previously the campaign manager for his victorious bid for re-election. Although her political views remain somewhat ambiguous, she is seen as having led a successful and streamlined presidential race. Supporters believe she could introduce a level of organisation and discipline that was frequently absent throughout Trump’s first term, marked by a series of changes in the chief of staff role.
Confirmed role: Middle East envoy
Steven Witkoff, a New York City-based real-estate executive and longtime friend of Trump, was chosen to serve as Middle East envoy.
In a statement announcing his pick, Trump said Witkoff would be a “voice for peace”. Witkoff has longstanding ties to Trump and the Trump organization, serving as a major donor and adviser. He testified as an expert witness in the New York attorney general’s case against the Trump family and its namesake business.
Confirmed role: Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Requires senate confirmation? Yes
Trump announced that the former New York congressman Lee Zeldin will be selected to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin told the New York Post that as EPA head, he will work to “restore American energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs” while cutting the “red tape” that is “holding back American workers”. Trump promised to ensure “fair and swift deregulatory decisions” to allow the US to “grow in a healthy and well-structured way”. Staffers at the EPA fear their mandate to fight air pollution and the climate crisis will be undercut by the incoming Republican administration.
Potential role: unspecified
A key economic adviser to Trump and ally of JD Vance, Scott Bessent, the manager of Key Square macro hedge fund, is seen as a possible cabinet contender. The Wall Street investor and a prominent Trump fundraiser has praised Trump’s use of tariffs as a negotiating tool.
Potential role: “Energy tsar”
The Financial Times reports that Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, is being considered for an “energy tsar” role. The role and its powers have yet to be finalised. However, Trump has called the climate crisis “one of the great scams of all time” and has promised to “drill, baby, drill”. It’s expected any climate or energy secretary would be tasked with rolling back environmental regulations.
In 2023, Burgum ran a short-lived campaign for the Republican nomination for president. He went on to become a highly visible, prolific Trump surrogate and advised Trump on energy policy.
Potential role: Secretary of housing and urban development
A retired neurosurgeon and former US housing secretary, Ben Carson has pushed for a national abortion ban – a posture at odds with most Americans and even Donald Trump himself. During his 2016 campaign he ran into controversy when he likened abortion to slavery and said he wanted to see the end of Roe v Wade. When the supreme court reversed its decision in the Dobbs case, he called it “a crucial correction”. Carson could be nominated by Trump as housing and urban development secretary.
Potential role: Unspecified
Richard Grenell, an ex-Fox News contributor who is among Trump’s closest foreign policy advisers, is probably in the running for top foreign policy and national security posts. A former US ambassador to Germany and vocal backer of Trump’s “America first” credo on the international stage in his first term, he has advocated for setting up an autonomous zone in eastern Ukraine to end the war there, a position Kyiv considers unacceptable.
Potential role: Unspecified
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the son of the assassinated Bobby Kennedy and nephew of JFK, whose independent campaign for president has at times reached as high as 10% of the vote, strongly believes he has a shot at a role in Trump’s cabinet after he backed the Republican. While senior members of Trump’s campaign have ruled out Kennedy getting a job in the Department of Health, Trump has said he would let him “do what he wants” with women’s healthcare, citing how Kennedy would be able to “go wild” on food and medicines.
Potential role: Trade or commerce secretary
Robert Lighthizer was Donald Trump’s most senior trade official. He is a firm believer in tariffs and was one of the leading figures in Trump’s trade war with China. Described by Trump as “the greatest United States trade representative in American history”, Lighthizer is almost certain to be back in the new cabinet. Though Bessent and the billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson probably have a better shot at becoming treasury secretary, Lighthizer has a few outside chances: he might be able to reprise his old role as US trade representative or become the new commerce secretary.
Potential role: Treasury secretary
The CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of Trump’s transition team has made no secret of his plan to stack the new White House with loyalists – and keep out anyone who threatens to derail his pledges. A bombastic New Yorker like Trump, Lutnick, 63, has uniformly praised the president-elect’s economic policies, including his use of tariffs.
He has at times given elaborate, unvarnished opinions about what policies will be enacted in Trump’s second term. Some Trump allies had privately complained that he too often presented himself as speaking on behalf of the campaign.
Potential role: Unspecified
A former domestic policy adviser in the White House, Brooke Rollins has a close personal relationship with Trump. Considered by many to be one of Trump’s more moderate advisers, she backed the former president’s first-term criminal justice reforms that lessened prison sentences for some relatively minor offenses.
Donald Trump Jr was active behind the scenes of his father’s re-election bid, reportedly advocating for his friend JD Vance as running mate. Trump Jr said he has decided to join a venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, which bills itself as an “anti-ESG” firm.
Trump’s eldest son has built a loyal following in the Maga universe via his Triggered podcast and has taken a role, along with his brother Eric Trump, in the transition process to establish a new administration.
Potential role: Secretary of defense
The far-right Republican senator from Arkansas emerged as a dark-horse contender to be Trump’s running mate in the final weeks of the vice-presidential selection process. In a notorious 2020 New York Times op-ed headlined “Send in the Troops”, Tom Cotton likened Black Lives Matter protests to a rebellion and urged the government to deploy the US military against demonstrators by invoking the Insurrection Act. He is well-liked among Trump donors and also seen as a contender for secretary of defense.
Cotton has said he won’t take a role.
Includes reporting by Reuters
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