Trump announces more picks including US trade chief and health deputy

Donald Trump announced his selections for a series of positions in his administration Tuesday evening. The posts include the president-elect’s picks for deputy secretary of health and human services, US trade representative and head of the national economic council, among others.

Jamieson Greer, an attorney who served under Trump’s previous trade representative Robert Lighthizer, will serve as US trade representative. In his announcement, Trump said: “Jamieson played a key role during my First Term in imposing Tariffs on China and others to combat unfair Trade practices, and replacing the failed NAFTA deal with USMCA, therefore making it much better for American Workers.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Greer will be tasked with reining in the trade deficit and opening up “export markets everywhere”, among other things, Trump said.

Jim O’Neill will serve as deputy secretary of health and human services under Robert F Kennedy Jr. O’Neill served in the department under George W Bush, before going on to work in Silicon Valley, where he invested heavily in tech ventures alongside PayPal chief executive Peter Thiel. Thiel, who advised Trump’s first administration, encouraged the president-elect to nominate O’Neill to a high-level health role in the administration.

O’Neill has been vocally critical of the food and drug administration, saying in a 2014 speech that the FDA should approve drugs “after their sponsors have demonstrated safety, and let people start using them at their own risk” and “prove efficacy after they’ve been legalized”.

Trump named another high level health official, nominating Stanford academic and physician Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya was an outspoken critic of the US government’s Covid policies during the pandemic, and published the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020, which called for a return to life as normal for those who were not vulnerable to the virus.

The declaration – which came before the availability of Covid-19 vaccines – promoted “herd immunity”, the idea that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity through infection. The proposal was embraced by some in the first Trump administration, including Trump himself who mistakenly referred to “herd mentality” as a way of stopping the spread of the virus.

Bhattacharya sued the government afterward, alleging that it pressured social media platforms to censor his opinions. The supreme court sided with the Biden administration in that case.

“Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to a Gold Standard of Medical Research as they examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America’s biggest Health challenges, including our Crisis of Chronic Illness and Disease,” Trump wrote.

Kevin Hassett, a Stanford economist who served as chair of the council of economic advisers during Trump’s first administration, will lead the national economic council.

Hassett “played a crucial role in helping me to design and pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017”, Trump said in a statement. “Together, we will renew and improve our record Tax Cuts, and ensure that we have Fair Trade with Countries that have taken advantage of the United States in the past.”

Trump has named Vince Haley, who helped lead the speech-writing department during his first term, to be director of the domestic policy council, which drives implementation of the administration’s agenda. Trump adviser and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller applauded the announcement in a post on social media, saying Haley’s “talent, devotion, determination and deep philosophical commitment to the America First agenda is unmatched”.

John Phelan, who co-founded MSD Capital to manage the capital of Michael Dell, will be navy secretary. Phelan and his wife hosted a private fundraising dinner for Trump at their $38m home in Aspen, Colorado, in August.