Everyone Trump Has Picked to Join His Second Administration

Trump’s most stunning, and troubling, nomination may be Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has been a Fox News anchor for years, which is probably when the president-elect is so familiar with him. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no government experience. He is a true MAGA loyalist, defending Trump at every turn to millions of Fox News viewers.

“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — our military will be great again, and America will never back down,” Trump wrote in announcing the pick, adding that he will “return our Military to meritocracy, lethality, accountability, and excellence.” Trump also listed how long Hegseth’s book spent on The New York Times bestseller list among his qualifications.

Hegseth has spoken often about dispensing with “social correctness” and toughening up the military, including by barring women from serving in combat roles and firing any high-ranking official “involved in the DEI, woke shit.” Hegseth was also an ardent defender of former Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, who was accused of committing war crimes overseas.

Hegseth could face a tough confirmation battle, even with Republicans controlling the Senate, given his lack of experience. Should Trump’s allies in the chamber push him through, the cable news pundit will take control of the Pentagon.

Elon Musk long teased that he would lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under a new Trump administration, a waste-cutting department ostensibly named after a years-old meme about a Shiba Inu.

Well, it’s happening. Trump announced that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will head the new department, which will “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” as Trump put it. The president-elect provided no details about DOGE’s budget, staffing, or what kind of power it will have to actually enact whatever cost-cutting measures Musk and Ramaswamy cook up. Trump said their work will conclude on July 4, 2026.

Musk responded to the news by posting a series of memes, including multiple renderings of himself as the bad guy who fires everyone from Office Space. Dogecoin, a junk cryptocurrency based on the meme and which Musk has pushed for years, shot up in value after the announcement, naturally. It’s far from the only potential conflict of interest inherent in the appointment, as Musk’s companies hold government contracts and are subject to regulation that he now may have the power to eliminate.

Trump tapped former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his attorney general just hours after his initial choice, embattled former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, removed his name from consideration. Bondi has long been a Trump loyalist, and served on his impeachment defense team in 2020. She’s a 2020 election denier, and seems to have no issue with the president-elect’s thirst for legal retribution against his enemies. She even praised Trump supporters chanting “Lock her up!” about Hillary Clinton while speaking at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans — Not anymore,” Trump wrote in announcing Bondi as his pick. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”

Gabbard is four-term congresswoman who ran as a Democrat in the 2020 presidential primary. She announced during Trump’s 2024 run that she was changing her party affiliation to Republican, and has since been a surrogate for the former and future president.

Gabbard has notably been extremely sympathetic to Russia and Vladimir Putin, and has blamed the Biden administration for the nation’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She has also spread conspiracy theories about Ukraine, suggesting the United States is developing biological weapons in Ukrainian laboratories. The conspiracy theory has also been pushed by Russia.

“I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength,” Trump wrote in announcing the pick.

Trump promised on the campaign trail to let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “go wild” with the nation’s health systems. It was unclear in what capacity he’d be given the reins, with some speculating that he could be given a White House role in order to avoid having to navigate Senate confirmation. That won’t be the case. The president-elect has selected Kennedy to head up the Department of Health and Human Services.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump wrote in a statement, adding that RFK Jr.’s HHS “will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country.”

When Trump considered elevating Kash Patel into a prominent national security role during his first term, some of his most prominent advisers — including former Attorney General Bill Barr and former CIA Director Gina Haspell — threatened to resign on the spot. Now, Patel, who has vowed to prosecute Trump’s political rivals and even go after journalists, may be handed the reins of the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country. 

In an administration being quickly filled by unquestioning loyalists, Patel manages to stand out as exceptionally sycophantic. In August, one Trump adviser described the president-elect’s relationship with Patel to The Atlantic as an understanding that “Kash is the one you say to, ‘Hey, I’m not telling you to go break into the DNC. But …’ ”

Patel was heavily involved in efforts to discredit the Justice Department’s investigation into ties between Trump’s campaign and Russian election influence schemes, has defended the QAnon conspiracy theory, and is hell bent on purging the federal government of “deep state” operatives he believes pose a barrier to Trump’s agenda.

Ratcliffe is a former U.S House representative from Texas who had a stint as the Director of National Intelligence during Trump’s first term. “From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBI’s abuse of Civil Liberties at the FISA Court, John Ratcliffe has always been a Warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American public,” Trump wrote in announcing Ratcliffe has his pick for director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

It’s more than a little concerning that the first qualifications Trump lists for his new CIA director are how he went after Democrats.

Trump has tapped puppy-killing South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security, the agency tasked with carrying out Trump’s extremist immigration agenda. Pending Senate confirmation, Noem will be in charge of everything from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP,) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, and the TSA. Her key qualifications seem to be an undying loyalty to Trump and staunch support for his immigration agenda.

Noem was reportedly on the short list for Trump’s vice presidential pick, but lost favor after bragging in her memoir about shooting and killing a pet puppy she found unmanageable. Maybe it was the inherent cruelty, maybe it was her justification that the puppy execution showed how she doesn’t “shy away from tough challenges” — but something about Noem led Trump to select her to oversee one of the dirtiest jobs in Trump’s presidential Cabinet.

Trump has tapped Ramaswamy — the former pharma entrepreneur who tried to win the 2024 Republican presidential primary before dropping and becoming Trump surrogate — to join Elon Musk at the top of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The new department will be tasked with cutting waste and unnecessary regulation within the government, although it’s unclear whether it will have any real staff, budget, or power to gut the federal workforce.

“Over the last 2 years, the Supreme Court has ruled that the administrative state is behaving in wildly unlawful ways,” Ramaswamy wrote after the announcement. “But slapping the bureaucracy on the wrist won’t solve the problem, the only right answer is a massive downsizing.”

Chris Wright, Trump’s pick to become head of the Department of Energy, is the head of an oil and gas company and a climate change denier. He is the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking company based in Denver. The company’s stock shot up after the announcement that Wright had been chosen.

“There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either,” Wright said in a video last year. “Calling carbon dioxide ‘pollution’ is like calling out water and oxygen, the other two irreplaceable molecules for life on earth,” he continued.

In 2019, Wright took a shot of fracking fluid alongside his employees, apparently to prove it’s not too toxic. The cocktail included bleach and soap.

“As Secretary of Energy, Chris will be a key leader, driving innovation, cutting red tape, and ushering in a new ‘Golden Age of American Prosperity and Global Peace,'” Trump posted on Truth Social.

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, an ultra-wealthy businessman, is Trump’s pick for Interior Secretary and “energy czar,” a new role that the president-elect created. Burgum is slated to head a National Energy Council, which would include all agencies of the federal government involved in energy. Trump said that the council would focus on investing in the private sector and foregoing regulation. It will also be Burgum’s job to undo incentives from Biden’s landmark climate regulation, the Inflation Reduction Act.

“We will ‘DRILL BABY DRILL,’ expand ALL forms of Energy production to grow our Economy, and create good-paying jobs,” Trump wrote.

At a Trump fundraiser in May, Burgum said the Trump administration would end Biden’s “attack” on fossil fuels.

Burgum ran against Trump in the presidential primary before becoming one of his most prominent surrogates and even a finalist to become his running mate. Trump ultimately chose J.D. Vance as his vice president, but is making sure to reward the governor’s loyalty with a plum Cabinet position.

Trump has named 27-year-old Karoline Leavitt, a longtime member of his communication team, to be White House press secretary. She was previously a spokesperson for his campaign and is currently a spokesperson for his transition. She also worked as assistant press secretary during the first Trump administration. She will be the youngest White House press secretary in U.S. history. 

“Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator. I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American People as we Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a statement.

Leavitt ran for Congress in New Hampshire in 2022. She won the Republican primary and then lost to incumbent Democrat Chris Pappas. 

“The president has a message that resonates with young people,” Leavitt told NPR in September. “If you want to live the American dream, be able to afford a home, have costs go down [for] gas, groceries, rent, and you want to be able to afford a family, then there’s only one option to vote for.”

Trump has nominated Project 2025 co-author Brendan Carr to be Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Carr has been a member of the FCC since Trump appointed him as general counsel and then commissioner in 2017. 

Carr wrote the chapter in Project 2025 about the FCC, saying that the agency should prioritize “reining in Big Tech, promoting national security, unleashing economic prosperity, and ensuring FCC accountability and good governance.” 

Carr also has a close relationship with Elon Musk, who stands to benefit from the appointment. The agency could play a role in Musk’s desire to undo content moderation on his website X, but it could also prove extremely lucrative for his satellite internet business, Starlink. In September, for example, Carr criticized Brazilian regulators for banning X and freezing Starlink assets. Brazil undid the freeze after the companies paid fines.

“We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,” Carr posted on X recently.

Carr also told NBC that they violated the “equal time rule” by having Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live shortly before the election. 

“This has all the appearances of, at least some leadership at NBC, at SNL, making clear that they wanted to weigh-in in favor of one candidate before the election,” Carr said at the time.

Trump tapped hedge fund honcho Scott Bessent as Secretary of the Treasury, which reportedly came as a relief to CEOs and Wall Street. The role was much-discussed ahead of Bessent’s appointment due to the control the Treasury Secretary wields over economic matters — and the role they could play in implementing the tariffs Trump has promised. Some have argued Bessent’s appointment means extreme tariffs are less likely, with Ryan Sweet of Oxford Economics telling Reuters that he’s “been on the side of less aggressive tariffs.” At the same time, Bessent wrote for Fox News in November that “we should not be afraid to use the power of tariffs to improve the livelihoods of American families and businesses.”

“Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists,” Trump wrote in announcing his pick to lead the treasury.

Sean Duffy is a former Real World cast member, Fox News personality, and U.S. House member from Wisconsin. Trump wants him to head up the Department of Transportation. “He will prioritize Excellence, Competence, Competitiveness and Beauty when rebuilding America’s highways, tunnels, bridges and airports,” the president-elect wrote in announcing the pick.

Trump also touted Duffy’s experience on the House Financial Services Committee, and noted how his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, is a “STAR” on Fox News herself.

Trump and Rubio famously feuded during the 2016 Republican primary, with the Florida senator mocking Trump’s hand size and Trump responding on the debate stage by defending his manhood. Rubio, like many other former Trump critics in Congress, has since come around, and is one among the most MAGA members of the Senate. Trump has now nominated him to become Secretary of State.

Rubio is a China hawk who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee. He’s also been very clear about his belief that Israel should have free rein to respond to whatever it deems necessary to take out Hamas, emphatically telling protesters that he doesn’t want a cease-fire, that he wants Israel to “destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on,” and that Hamas is solely to blame for deaths of the civilians Israel has killed in Gaza. Rubio also wrote a letter to current Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking him to “eradicate” anyone who “endorses” Hamas from the United States.

National security adviser under Trump hasn’t exactly been the most stable job. Michael Flynn was his first one, but he resigned after less than a month after admitting he lied about his foreign communications before Trump took office. Then came H.R. McMaster, whom Trump ultimately fired and has since trashed. Then came John Bolton. Ditto. Robert O’Brien, Trump’s final national security adviser, was rumored to be in contention to land the role to start of Trump’s second term, but he is reportedly giving the gig to Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.).

Waltz is a Trump loyalist and veteran who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, and House Intelligence Committee. He’s known as a China and Iran hawk, voted against military support for Ukraine, and is an ardent supporter of Israel. The New York Times also points out that he’s become a fixture on Fox News discussing foreign policy, which may be his most important qualification for Trump.

Trump’s pick to head the Department of Education is CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Linda McMahon, a woman who once watched her husband — WWE Founder Co-Founder Vince McMahon — have his head shaved by Trump during WrestleMania. 

Aside from a brief appointment as a member of the Connecticut Board of Education, during which time a Democratic state representative described her as lacking any “depth of knowledge regarding education,” McMahon has very little education experience.

Given Trump’s plans for the department, she doesn’t necessarily need it. The president-elect has made clear he would like to eliminate the Department of Education entirely. What McMahon does have is a lot of wrestling money, a large chunk of which she donated to Trump’s campaign. She was rewarded with a position as transition co-chair, and now potentially with a seat on Trump’s Cabinet. 

Not all is set in stone, however, McMahon’s nomination came just weeks after she and her husband were accused of covering up the sexual abuse of young teenagers who worked as “ring boys” for the WWE in the eighties.

Witkoff is a real estate investor, frequently golfs with Trump, and spoke at both the Republican National Convention and Trump’s mega-rally at Madison Square Garden a week before the election. The president-elect wrote that Witkoff “has made every project and community he has been involved with stronger and more prosperous” in announcing him as a special envoy to the Middle East, adding that he will “make us all proud.”

Trump’s choice for Solicitor General, Dean John Sauer, is the lawyer who argued before the Supreme Court that Trump should be immune from prosecution for acts he committed while president.. Sauer even argued that if the president assassinated a political rival, they would need to be impeached before they could be charged. As Solicitor General, Sauer would represent the federal government at the Supreme Court. 

Sauer was a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, as well as Solicitor General of Missouri. He is also a longtime abortion opponent.

Trump said in a statement that Sauer was “lead counsel representing me in the Supreme Court in Trump v. United States, winning a Historic Victory on Presidential Immunity, which was key to defeating the unConstitutional campaign of Lawfare against me and the entire MAGA movement.”

Trump tapped evangelical Christian Mike Huckabee to serve as his administration’s ambassador to Israel. The former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate, like Trump’s other foreign policy picks, is a hardline supporter of Israel. “Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump wrote in a statement announcing the pick. “He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”

It’s safe to say that Huckabee’s plan for peace will not include a two-state solution. CNN reported that he once said “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.” Huckabee has also said he would support Israel if it moved to annex the West Bank, which he has argued doesn’t exist. “There is no such thing as the West Bank — it’s Judea and Samaria. There is no such thing as settlements — they’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities,” he said in Israel. “There is no such thing as an occupation.”

Trump initially picked veteran Republican lawyer Bill McGinley to serve as White House counsel, calling him a “smart and tenacious lawyer who will help me advance our America First agenda while fighting for election integrity and against the weaponization of law enforcement.”

Trump backtracked weeks later, though, announcing that McGinley would be the counsel for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and the Dave Warrington will serve as White House counsel. Trump called Warrington a “Conservative leader” who “has represented me well as my personal attorney, and as General Counsel for my Presidential Campaign.”

Trump has selected the lawyer who represented him in multiple defense cases, including the New York case where a jury found the president-elect guilty of 34 felony counts, to be Deputy Attorney General. Blanche left the Wall Street law firm he had been working at to create his own practice and represent Trump in 2023. He also represented Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman.

“Todd is an excellent attorney who will be a crucial leader in the Justice Department, fixing what has been a broken System of Justice for far too long,” Trump said in a statement.

Russell Vought had a stint as the director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term, but he’s more recently become notorious for his work on Project 2025, the far-right suite of policy proposals the president-elect seems poised to implement once he retakes office. “Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People,” Trump wrote in announcing Vought.

Vought was the architect of Project 2025’s sections on executive power, particularly how to enhance it, and how Trump can get what he wants through unilateral executive actions. Trump repeatedly tried to distance himself from Project 2025 during the campaign, but he’s already tapped several conservatives who were intimately involved in it. The president-elect tapping Vought to once again manage the White House’s budget is the strongest indicator yet that he’s fully behind the extreme policy plan that looks to increase his power and restrict the rights of millions of Americans.

Trump has tapped former cardiothoracic surgeon turned daytime TV snake oil salesman Dr. Mehmet Oz has been tapped to serve as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — a position that would put Oz in charge of over 160 million people’s health care. 

Oz has been attempting to make his way into politics for some time now. In the 2020 midterms, he lost his bid to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate to Democratic Sen. John Fetterman. 

Much like his potential fellow cabinet member, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Oz has an affinity for quack science. One 2014 study found that at least half the medical advice he dished out on the long running Dr. Oz Show was bogus. Lowlights included falsely claiming there were high levels of arsenic in apple juice, peddling ‘miracle cures’ for cancer, and even being investigated by Congress for promoting phony weight loss products.

In 2021, former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) earned himself the worst lifetime record on environmental policy in the entire New York congressional delegation from the League of Conservation Voters, which offered a litany of pro-environment legislation Zeldin voted against.

Zeldin is now taking over the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Zeldin isn’t going to prioritize combating the climate crisis, preserving and protecting America’s natural habitats, or any of the other responsibilities one might expect the head of the EPA to take on. Instead, he’ll be tasked with “unleashing America’s energy potential,” as Trump often puts it, through deregulation, catering to the fossil fuel industry, and moving away from green-energy initiatives. “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI,” Zeldin wrote on X. “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”

Trump added in a statement of his own that Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards.”

The “highest environmental standards” is subjective, though — to say the least. Zeldin has scoffed at taking climate change seriously, supporting Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accords. He voted against the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and its bounty of clean-energy initiatives, and has opposed efforts to transition away from gas-powered cars, pushed to reverse New York’s ban on fracking, and supported the construction of new natural gas pipelines.

It goes without saying that Zeldin’s tenure atop the EPA will be bad for the environment. Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said it anyway in a statement released after Trump’s announcement. “Naming an unqualified, anti-American worker who opposes efforts to safeguard our clean air and water lays bare Donald Trump’s intentions to, once again, sell our health, our communities, our jobs, and our future out to corporate polluters,” Jealous wrote. “Our lives, our livelihoods, and our collective future cannot afford Lee Zeldin — or anyone who seeks to carry out a mission antithetical to the EPA’s mission.

Trump tapped Rollins as acting director of the Domestic Policy Council during his first term in office, but more notably she has served as the CEO of the conservative think tank America First Policy Institute. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 got all the media attention, but the AFPI also drafted a suite of executive orders for Trump to sign when he retakes office.

“Brooke’s commitment to support the American Farmer, defense of American Food Self-Sufficiency, and the restoration of Agriculture-dependent American Small Towns is second to none,” Trump wrote in announcing the pick. Rollins doesn’t have much experience in agriculture outside of graduating from Texas A&M with a degree in agricultural development, but she is certainly loyal to Trump.

Whitaker is a Trump loyalist who briefly served as acting attorney general during the president-elect’s first administration. Trump has tapped him to as the ambassador to the NATO, the North American-European military alliance Trump has long been trashing.

“He will put AMERICA FIRST,” Trump wrote in his statement announcing Whitaker — who doesn’t appear to have any foreign policy experience and has been tied to a scammy toilet company — as the next U.S. ambassador to NATO.

Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs is Doug Collins, a former Republican representative from Georgia. As the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Collins defended Trump during the investigation into whether Russia influenced the 2016 presidential election, and later wrote a book about Trump’s impeachment. Collins is a chaplain and colonel in the Air Force reserve, having joined after the September 11 attacks. 

“We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform,” said Trump, who has a history of making disparaging remarks about the military. Some veterans’ groups worry that Trump will move to privatize their health care. Collins recently said that if veterans “want to go back to their own doctors, then so be it.”

“We’ll fight tirelessly to streamline and cut regulations in the VA, root out corruption, and ensure every veteran receives the benefits they’ve earned,” Collins posted on X. “Together, we’ll make the VA work for those who fought for us. Time to deliver for our veterans and give them the world-class care they deserve.”

Stephen Miller was a key Trump adviser during the president-elect’s first term in office, especially on immigration. He spent his four-year interim from the White House crafting plans to further carry out the draconian immigration policy, and he has become a key member of the Trump braintrust building out legal and logistical strategies to round up and deport millions of undocumented migrants with little to no due process. 

His appointment to a major policy role in Trump’s second term is a clear affirmation of the priority the incoming administration is placing on its immigration platform. Miller’s influence will extend far beyond immigration policy alone.

Stefanik, a U.S. House representative from New York, has been one of Trump’s most fervent supporters in Congress. She was rewarded for it when the president-elect announced her nomination for ambassador to the United Nations. “She will be an incredible Ambassador to the United Nations, delivering Peace through Strength and America First National Security policies!” Trump wrote.

Stefanik is also likely to put Israel first. She has been a staunch advocate for the nation as it has bombarded Gaza, leading the congressional crusade against university presidents who she feels didn’t do enough to crack down on pro-Palestine protests, and attacking the U.N. as “antisemitic” for not being more deferential to Israel as it laid waste to Gaza.

Trump hasn’t seemed like he’s a huge fan of labor unions. He was anti-union throughout his first term in office, and this August he and Elon Musk shared a laugh about firing workers who go on strike, prompting criticism from labor leaders. So it was a little surprising when the president-elect tapped union-supporter Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) to lead the Department of Labor. The pick hasn’t sat well with business-minded conservatives, with The Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board calling it “regrettable” and bashing Chavez-DeRemer for backing “union giveaways” and drawing support from organized labor.

Longtime border hawk Tom Homan — who was a driving force behind the first Trump administration’s family-separation policy — was one the fist appointments the president-elect made following his victory, a sign that his campaign promise of mass deportations and a crackdown on immigration remains a priority. 

Homan will be “in charge of our Nation’s Borders (‘The Border Czar’)” and be “in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing the news. Homan previously served as the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation enforcement under President Barack Obama — where he set records for undocumented immigrant removals — and as acting director of ICE under Trump. Homan has suggested family separation will not be an issue in Trump’s second term — as the administration can simply deport entire families together. 

Trump campaign co-chair Susie Wiles has been rewarded for her success reelecting Trump with one of the most powerful positions in the executive branch: White House chief of staff.

Wiles, an effective if publicity shy political operative, is the first woman to ever hold the position. She will have a direct hand in shaping the tone and makeup of Trump’s second administration, and a direct line of communication to the man she helped elect. Trump has an abysmal track record retaining his chiefs of staff, however, especially those who seek to curb his impulsiveness. Wiles may find herself walking a shaky tightrope to keep his favor, but she’s in his good graces for now.

Turner is a pastor, motivational speaker, and former NFL defensive back who led the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. He will now be in charge of the nation’s housing, particular as it pertains to low-income Americans. Trump noted in his announcement that Turner helped lead an effort that “Transformed our Country’s distressed communities” through his work in Trump’s first administration, which aided then-HUD Director Ben Carson.

Trump’s pick for White House Communications Director, Steven Cheung, is known for being antagonistic in a way that mirrors the president-elect’s own rhetoric. The two have worked together throughout Trump’s political career; Cheung was spokesperson for his 2024 campaign and also worked for his 2020 and 2016 campaigns. Before that, Cheung worked as head of communications for Ultimate Fighting Championship. 

Cheung defended Trump when the president-elect said that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a white supremacist concept that echoes Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric. 

“That’s a normal phrase that is used in everyday life — in books, television, movies, and in news articles. For anyone to think that is racist or xenophobic is living in an alternate reality consumed with non-sensical outrage,” he said. 

“There will be nobody like @realDonaldTrump. The journey is just beginning,” Cheung posted on X on Election Day.