Trump picks billionaire Stephen Feinberg as deputy defense secretary, previously fired banker as Latin American envoy

President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday he would nominate billionaire investor Stephen Feinberg to serve as deputy secretary of defence.

Feinberg is the co-chief executive of Cerberus Capital Management LP, a private equity firm that has invested in defence contractors. He served on an intelligence advisory board during Trump’s 2017-2021 White House term.

Feinberg would serve as the No. 2 official at the Pentagon under Trump’s choice for defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host who faces questions about allegations of alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct. Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing.

Trump also nominated Elbridge Colby to serve as undersecretary of defence for policy, the No. 3 position at the Pentagon. Colby, known as a China hawk, served as a senior Pentagon official during Trump’s first term.

Mauricio Claver-Carone named special envoy

Trump on Sunday also said he would nominate Mauricio Claver-Carone, who was fired from a previous position for allegedly having an affair with a subordinate, to serve as his special envoy to Latin America.

Trump said Claver-Carone, who served in his administration during his first 2017-2021 White House term, would help address migration and drug-smuggling issues.

“Mauricio knows the region, and how to put America’s interests FIRST,” Trump said on social media.

Claver-Carone was fired in 2022 as head of the Inter-American Development Bank after an investigation found he had an intimate relationship with a staffer.

Investigators also found that Claver-Carone created a hostile environment at the bank. He denied having an affair.

Claver-Carone was the first American to serve as the head of the bank. In that role, he had tried to wrest power away from Argentina and Brazil, which have dominated its agenda in the past, and provide more of a role for smaller countries.

Former staffer Katie Miller named to Musk’s DOGE panel

Trump on Sunday named Katie Miller, who served in Trump’s first administration and is the wife of his incoming deputy chief of staff, as one of the first members of an advisory board to be led by billionaire allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy that aims to drastically slash government spending, federal regulations and the federal work force.

Miller, wife of Trump’s designated homeland security adviser Stephen Miller, will join Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an informal advisory body that Trump has said will enable his administration to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”

“Katie Miller will soon be joining DOGE! She has been a loyal supporter of mine for many years, and will bring her professional experience to Government Efficiency,” Trump posted in a message on his social media platform Truth Social.

Musk and Ramaswamy recently revealed plans to wipe out scores of federal regulations crafted by what they say is an anti-democratic, unaccountable bureaucracy, but have yet to announce members of the DOGE team. Musk has said he wants to slash the number of federal agencies from over 400 to 99.

Katie Miller had served in the first Trump administration as deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and as press secretary for former Vice President Mike Pence.

She is currently a spokesperson for the transition team for Trump’s designated Health and Human Services secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr.

With reports from Reuters