Trump’s cabinet and White House picks – so far

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 have displayed loyalty over those with deep experience.

Trump has tasked Howard Lutnick, a longtime friend and pick for commerce secretary, 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 offer of a role

  1. Howard Lutnick

    Role offered: commerce secretary

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    Trump nominated Howard Lutnick, co-chair of Trump’s transition team, to be his commerce secretary. Lutnick has uniformly praised the president-elect’s economic policies, including his use of tariffs, and has been praised by Elon Musk as someone who “will actually enact change”.

    In a statement, Trump said Lutnick would “lead our Tariff and Trade agenda”, and also have “direct responsibility” for the Office of the United States Trade Representative, which negotiates trade deals.

  2. Dr Mehmet Oz

    Role offered: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator

    Requires Senate confirmation? no

    Trump announced that he has tapped Dr Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator.

    “America is facing a healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again” Trump said in a statement.

    Trump added that Oz will work closely with Robert F Kennedy Jr, his pick for secretary of health and human services, to take on the “illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake”.

  3. Chris Wright

    Role offered: energy secretary

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    Trump announced Chris Wright, an oil and gas industry executive and a staunch defender of fossil fuel use, to lead the US Department of Energy.

    Wright, the founder and CEO of an oilfield services firm, has no political experience and is expected to support Trump’s plan to maximize production of oil and gas. Wright has denied the climate emergency, saying: “There is no climate crisis.”

    The Department of Energy handles US energy diplomacy, administers the Strategic Petroleum Reserve – which Trump has said he wants to replenish – and runs grant and loan programs to advance energy technologies. It also oversees the ageing US nuclear weapons complex, nuclear energy waste disposal and 17 national labs.

  4. Doug Collins

    Role offered: veterans affairs secretary

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    Trump named the former Georgia congressman Doug Collins as secretary of veterans affairs. Collins, a lawyer and veteran who served in Iraq, defended Trump in his first impeachment trial.

  5. Sean Duffy

    Role offered: secretary of transportation

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    Trump named Sean Duffy, a former Republican congressman and co-host on Fox Business, to serve as the secretary of transportation.

    “He will prioritize Excellence, Competence, Competitiveness and Beauty when rebuilding America’s highways, tunnels, bridges and airports,” Trump said in a statement. If confirmed, Duffy would oversee aviation, automotive, rail, transit and other transportation policies at the department with about a $110bn budget.

  6. Karoline Leavitt

    Role offered: White House press secretary

    Requires Senate confirmation? no

    Trump named Karoline Leavitt, a 27-year-old firebrand from his inner circle, as his White House press secretary. Leavitt, who will be the youngest person ever to hold the position, has been seen as a staunch and camera-ready advocate for Trump.

  7. Will Scharf

    Role offered: White House staff secretary

    Requires Senate confirmation? no

    Trump announced that he had picked one of his personal attorneys, Will Scharf, to serve as his White House staff secretary. Scharf is a former federal prosecutor who was a member of Trump’s legal team in his successful attempt to get broad immunity from prosecution from the supreme court.

  8. Bill McGinley

    Role offered: White House counsel

    Requires Senate confirmation? no

    Bill McGinley served as cabinet secretary during Trump’s first term and acted as legal counsel for the Republican National Committee during the election campaign.

  9. Sergio Gor

    Role offered: assistant to the president and director of personnel

    Requires Senate confirmation? no

    Trump appointed his top ally Sergio Gor as assistant to the president and director of the presidential personnel office. Gor previously led the pro-Trump Super Pac Right for America.

  10. Doug Burgum

    Role offered: interior secretary

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    Trump has announced Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, as his pick for secretary of the interior. “He’s going to head the Department of Interior, and it’s going to be fantastic,” Trump said on 14 November at a gala at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

    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.

  11. Steven Cheung

    Role offered: communications director

    Requires Senate confirmation? no

    Trump announced Steven Cheung, the principal spokesperson on his re-election campaign, as his communications director. Cheung was Trump’s primary vessel to mainstream media outlets, frequently defending the president-elect and remaining close to his side at campaign events and rallies.

    Cheung previously worked in communications for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

  12. Tulsi Gabbard

    Role offered: 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”.

  13. Matt Gaetz

    Role offered: 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.

  14. Pete Hegseth

    Role offered: 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.

  15. Tom Homan

    Role offered: ‘border czar’

    Requires Senate confirmation? no

    Trump has said Tom Homan will be the “border czar” 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 were re-elected he would “run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen”.

  16. Mike Huckabee

    Role offered: 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.

  17. Robert F Kennedy Jr

    Role offered: secretary of health and human services

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    Trump has named Robert F Kennedy Jr, the scion of the Democratic Kennedy family and failed independent presidential candidate, his secretary of health and human services. In a statement, Trump said Kennedy would protect Americans from “harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives” that have caused a health crisis.

    Previously, Trump has said he would let Kennedy “do what he wants” with women’s healthcare and “go wild” on food and medicines.

  18. Stephen Miller

    Role offered: 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.

  19. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy

    Roles offered: heads of Department of Government Efficiency

    Requires Senate confirmation? no

    Donald Trump continued to fill his administration by naming SpaceX and Tesla CEO 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”.

  20. Kristi Noem

    Role offered: homeland security secretary

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    Trump has selected South Dakota’s governor, Kristi Noem– a staunch ally who has little experience on the national security stage– to serve as the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. 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.

  21. John Ratcliffe

    Role offered: CIA director

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    John Ratcliffe is another loyalist chosen for a key administration 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.

  22. Marco Rubio

    Role offered: 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 rumored 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 that 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.

  23. Elise Stefanik

    Role offered: UN ambassador

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    Trump has selected the New York representative 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.

  24. Mike Waltz

    Role offered: 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.

  25. Susie Wiles

    Role offered: 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 organization and discipline that was frequently absent throughout Trump’s first term, marked by a series of changes in the chief of staff role.

  26. Steven Witkoff

    Role offered: Middle East envoy

    Requires Senate confirmation? no

    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.

  27. Lee Zeldin

    Role offered: Environmental Protection Agency administrator

    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.

Expected offer of a role

  1. Scott Bessent

    Potential role: unspecified

    A key economic adviser to Trump and ally of JD Vance, Scott Bessent, the manager of the 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.

  2. Ben Carson

    Potential role: secretary of housing and urban development

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    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.

  3. Richard Grenell

    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.

  4. Robert Lighthizer

    Potential role: trade or commerce secretary

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    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.

  5. Brooke Rollins

    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.

Not selected for Trump administration

  1. Tom Cotton

    Potential role: secretary of defense

    Requires Senate confirmation? yes

    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.

  2. Donald Trump Jr

    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.

Includes reporting by Reuters

Posted in Election News and Coverage