Donald Trump will start the method of selecting a cupboard and choosing different high-ranking administration officers within the coming weeks following his presidential election victory.
Listed below are the highest contenders for among the key posts overseeing protection, intelligence, diplomacy, commerce, immigration and financial policymaking. Some are in competition for a spread of posts.
Scott Bessent, potential treasury secretary
Bessent, a key financial adviser to Trump, is extensively seen as a prime candidate for treasury secretary. A longtime hedge fund investor who taught at Yale College for a number of years, Bessent has a heat relationship with the president-elect.
Whereas Bessent has lengthy favored the laissez-faire insurance policies that had been fashionable within the pre-Trump Republican Get together, he has additionally spoken extremely of Trump’s use of tariffs as a negotiating device. He has praised the president-elect’s financial philosophy, which rests on a skepticism of each rules and worldwide commerce.
John Paulson, potential treasury secretary
Paulson, a billionaire hedge fund supervisor and main Trump donor, is one other prime contender for treasury secretary. The longtime financier has informed associates he would have an interest within the job.
A longtime proponent of tax cuts and deregulation, Paulson’s profile is broadly much like that of different potential members of Trump’s financial workforce. He has publicly supported focused tariffs as a device to make sure U.S. nationwide safety and fight unfair commerce practices overseas.
One high-profile fundraiser hosted by Paulson in April raked in over $50 million for the previous president.
Larry Kudlow, potential treasury secretary
FOX Enterprise Community character Larry Kudlow, who served as director of the Nationwide Financial Council for a lot of Trump’s first time period, has an out of doors shot at changing into his treasury secretary and would seemingly have a chance to take a separate economics-focused place if he’s .
Whereas he’s privately skeptical of broad tariffs, there’s publicly little daylight between the insurance policies Kudlow advocates and people of the president-elect.
Robert Lighthizer, potential treasury secretary
A loyalist who served as Trump’s US commerce consultant for primarily the then-president’s complete time period, Lighthizer will virtually definitely be invited again. Although Bessent and Paulson seemingly have a greater shot at changing into treasury secretary, Lighthizer has an out of doors likelihood, and he would possibly be capable of reprise his previous function if he’s .
Like Trump, Lighthizer is a commerce skeptic and a agency believer in tariffs. He was one of many main figures in Trump’s commerce warfare with China and the renegotiation of the North American Free Commerce Settlement, or NAFTA, with Mexico and Canada throughout Trump’s first time period.
Howard Lutnick, potential treasury secretary
The co-chair of Trump’s transition effort and the longtime chief government of economic providers agency Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick is within the working for treasury secretary.
A bombastic New Yorker like Trump, Lutnick has uniformly praised the president-elect’s financial insurance policies, together with his use of tariffs.
He has at instances given elaborate, unvarnished opinions about what insurance policies might be enacted in Trump’s second time period. Some Trump allies had privately complained that he too typically introduced himself as talking on behalf of the marketing campaign.
Richard Grenell, potential nationwide safety adviser
Grenell is amongst Trump’s closest international coverage advisers. Through the president-elect’s first four-year time period, he served as appearing director of nationwide intelligence and US ambassador to Germany. When Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in September, Grenell sat in on the non-public assembly.
Grenell’s non-public dealings with international leaders and often-caustic character have made him the middle of a number of controversies, a reality which may make one other Senate affirmation course of a problem, relying on the composition of the higher chamber. Nevertheless, he’s thought-about a prime contender for nationwide safety adviser, which doesn’t require Senate affirmation, and a Senate-confirmed put up isn’t out of the query.
Among the many insurance policies he has advocated for is organising an autonomous zone in jap Ukraine to finish the warfare there, a place Kyiv considers unacceptable.
Robert O’Brien, potential secretary of state
O’Brien, Trump’s fourth and closing nationwide safety adviser throughout his first time period, maintains a detailed relationship with Trump, and the 2 typically converse on nationwide safety issues.
He’s seemingly within the working for secretary of state or different prime international coverage and nationwide safety posts. He has maintained shut contacts with international leaders since Trump left workplace, having met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel in Might.
His views are considerably extra hawkish than a few of Trump’s advisers. He has, for example, been extra supportive of army help for Ukraine than lots of his Republican contemporaries, and he’s a proponent of banning TikTok in the US.
Invoice Hagerty, potential secretary of state
A US senator from Tennessee who labored on Trump’s 2016 transition effort, Hagerty is taken into account a prime contender for secretary of state. He has maintained strong relations with primarily all factions of the Republican Get together, and will seemingly be confirmed with ease within the Senate.
He served as US ambassador to Japan within the first Trump administration at a time when the president touted his heat relationship with then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Hagerty’s insurance policies are broadly in keeping with these of Trump. Earlier within the yr, he voted towards a significant army help bundle for Ukraine.
Marco Rubio, potential secretary of state
Rubio, a US senator from Florida and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, can be a prime secretary of state contender whose insurance policies hew carefully to these of Trump. Like Hagerty, he was a contender to be Trump’s 2024 working mate.
Rubio has lengthy been concerned in international affairs within the Senate, notably because it pertains to Latin America, and he has strong relationships all through the get together.
Mike Waltz, potential protection secretary
A former Military Inexperienced Beret who’s presently a US congressman from Florida, Waltz has established himself as one of many foremost China hawks within the Home of Representatives. Among the many varied China-related payments he has co-sponsored are measures designed to reduce U.S. reliance on important minerals mined in China.
Waltz is on talking phrases with Trump and is extensively thought-about to be a critical contender for secretary of protection.
Mike Pompeo, potential protection secretary
Pompeo, who served as CIA director and secretary of state throughout Trump’s first time period, is taken into account a prime contender for secretary of protection however may land in varied slots involving nationwide safety, intelligence or diplomacy.
Whereas he flirted with a Republican main problem towards Trump, Pompeo by no means pulled the set off, and he’s now again on pleasant phrases with the president-elect after a interval of awkwardness. He stands out as probably the fiercest defender of Ukraine amongst Trump’s shut allies, a place that places him at odds with most high-ranking figures in his potential boss’s camp.
Tom Cotton, potential protection secretary
A Harvard School and Harvard Legislation College-educated Military officer-turned-U.S. senator from Arkansas, Cotton is well-liked amongst Trump donors and is a critical contender for secretary of protection. Like Hagerty, he emerged as a dark-horse contender to be Trump’s working mate within the closing weeks of the vice presidential choice course of in June and July.
Cotton represents the shrunken hawkish wing of the Republican Get together, having persistently supported army help for Ukraine.
Keith Kellogg, potential candidate for nationwide safety posts
A retired lieutenant basic who served as chief of workers to the Nationwide Safety Council below Trump, Kellogg has Trump’s ear and is a contender for a number of nationwide security-related positions, although it’s unclear exactly the place he would land.
Through the marketing campaign, he introduced Trump with a plan to finish the warfare in Ukraine, which concerned forcing each events to the negotiating desk and ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine for the foreseeable future, amongst different measures.
Tom Homan, potential homeland safety secretary
Homan, who served because the appearing director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a yr and a half throughout Trump’s first time period, is a contender for secretary of homeland safety. Trump made cracking down on unlawful immigration the central ingredient of his marketing campaign, promising mass deportations.
Trump ceaselessly praised Homan in the course of the marketing campaign, and Homan typically hit the path to rally supporters. Throughout Trump’s first time period, Homan was a number one advocate of the administration’s controversial youngster separation coverage, throughout which kids of immigrants who had entered the nation illegally had been detained individually from their mother and father.
Chad Wolf, potential homeland safety secretary
Wolf, who served as Trump’s appearing secretary of homeland safety for roughly 14 months throughout his first presidency, might have a shot at heading again to DHS.
Wolf loyally carried out Trump’s hardline immigration insurance policies, and he deployed federal brokers to Portland, Oregon, to manage protests in the course of the riots that adopted the homicide of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer.
He might have some strikes towards him. He resigned on Jan. 11, 2021, simply days after the Jan. 6 assault on the US Capitol.
Trump has expressed misgivings about bringing again those that resigned within the closing days of his time period. Wolf, nonetheless, cited the authorized controversy round his appointment as DHS secretary — quite than the Capitol assault — when he stepped down. A number of judges dominated that his appointment by Trump, which successfully circumvented the Senate, was unlawful.
Mark Inexperienced, potential homeland safety secretary
A former Military flight surgeon and the present chair of the Home Homeland Safety Committee, Inexperienced is taken into account by some Trump allies in Washington as a contender for the highest job at DHS. His supporters describe him as a Trump loyalist and immigration hardliner who additionally has important legislative expertise.
Inexperienced was nominated by Trump throughout his first time period to function secretary of the Military, however he withdrew his title as previous statements, which had been extensively seen as transphobic and Islamophobic, drew extra scrutiny.
John Ratcliffe, potential legal professional basic
A former congressman and prosecutor who served as director of nationwide intelligence throughout Trump’s final yr in workplace, Ratcliffe is seen as a possible legal professional basic, although he may additionally take a separate nationwide safety or intelligence place.
The president-elect’s allies view Ratcliffe as a hardcore Trump loyalist who may seemingly win Senate affirmation. Nonetheless, throughout his time as director of nationwide intelligence, Ratcliffe typically contradicted the assessments of profession civil servants, drawing criticism from Democrats who mentioned he politicized the function.
Mike Lee, potential legal professional basic
A U.S. senator from Utah, Lee is extensively seen as one other prime candidate for legal professional basic. Although the previous prosecutor declined to vote for Trump in the course of the 2016 election, he later grew to become an unwavering ally, and he has turn out to be one thing of an mental hero amongst some factions of Trumpworld.
Lee was a key determine in makes an attempt by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, and has unfold unfounded conspiracy theories concerning the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.
Susie Wiles, potential chief of workers
One in all Trump’s two co-campaign managers, Wiles is seen because the odds-on favourite to be Trump’s White Home chief of workers.
Whereas the specifics of her political opinions are considerably unclear, she is credited with working a profitable and environment friendly marketing campaign. Supporters hope she would instill a way of order and self-discipline that was typically missing throughout Trump’s first time period, when he cycled by means of various chiefs of workers.
Brooke Rollins, potential chief of workers
The previous appearing director of Trump’s Home Coverage Council, Rollins can be a contender for chief of workers.
Trump has a detailed private relationship with Rollins, and infrequently compliments her in non-public settings.
She was typically thought-about considered one of Trump’s extra average advisers whereas in workplace. Amongst different insurance policies she supported throughout Trump’s first time period had been prison justice reforms that lessened jail sentences for some comparatively minor offenses.
Kash Patel, potential candidate for nationwide safety posts
A former Republican Home staffer who served in varied high-ranking workers roles within the protection and intelligence communities throughout Trump’s first time period, Patel has ceaselessly appeared on the marketing campaign path to rally help for the candidate.
Some Trump allies wish to see Patel, thought-about the final word Trump loyalist, appointed CIA director. Any place requiring Senate affirmation could also be a problem, nonetheless.
Patel has leaned into controversy all through his profession. In an interview with Trump ally Steve Bannon final yr, he promised to “come after” politicians and journalists perceived to be enemies of the president-elect. Throughout Trump’s first time period, Patel drew animosity from some extra skilled nationwide safety officers, who noticed him as unstable and too wanting to please the then-president. – Rappler.com
