Trump 2.0: Who has US president-elect picked for his new administration?

3 weeks ago 7

United States President-elect Donald Trump has wasted little time in choosing officials to take up key roles in his incoming administration.

Just days after his resounding election victory on November 5, Trump has named a handful of advisers and political allies to serve in various posts, including White House chief of staff.

Trump’s early appointments have also touched on key portfolios – such as immigration – that the Republican made a focal point of his 2024 re-election campaign.

Here’s a look at who he has chosen so far:

Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff

Wiles was a senior adviser in Trump’s 2024 election campaign and a trusted member of his team.

Seen by many as the architect of his political comeback, the 67-year-old worked on former President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign.

Wiles also has a background in Florida politics: She helped Ron DeSantis win his first race for the state’s governor before she aided Trump to defeat DeSantis in the 2024 Republican primary.

“Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history,” Trump said in a statement on November 7 announcing he had chosen her as his chief of staff.

“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again.”

Amy Koch, a Republican strategist, told Al Jazeera that Wiles is also someone who is “loyal” to the president-elect, which is “something he’s looking for” in his cabinet picks.

“She ran a campaign where he was able to sort of tamp down – sometimes – some of [Trump’s] rhetoric. She was able to direct his energies,” Koch said.

Tom Homan, ‘border czar’

Trump named Homan, 62, as his “border czar” in a post on his Truth Social website late on Sunday, saying that “there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders”.

The president-elect also said that Homan – who served in Trump’s first administration as the former head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – would be in charge of carrying out “all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to the Country of Origin”.

Trump has promised to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in US history – a pledge that has drawn widespread concern from migrant and asylum seeker rights advocates.

Homan has insisted that such a massive undertaking would be humane although he suggested at a July conference in Washington, DC, that he would be willing to “run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen”.

Homan also has been widely criticised for defending Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border.

In an interview with CBS News programme 60 Minutes in late October, shortly before Trump won the election, Homan was asked if there was a way to carry out mass deportations without separating families.

He replied: “Of course there is. Families can be deported together.”

Elise Stefanik, US ambassador to the United Nations

Stefanik, 40, has been one of Trump’s staunchest defenders in the US Congress.

She has served as a Republican congresswoman for 10 years and took over as House Republican Conference chair in 2021 after the party removed Liz Cheney for criticising Trump over his false 2020 election fraud claims.

Stefanik was a central figure in a recent push in Congress to address claims of anti-Semitism on US university campuses – something critics say was actually an effort to clamp down on criticism of Israel as it waged war on the Gaza Strip.

If confirmed, Stefanik will be going to the UN at a time of heightened anxiety over the incoming Trump administration’s stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine, and as Israel’s war on Gaza and Lebanon continues to fuel fears of wider unrest in the Middle East.

Reporting from Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna noted that Stefanik “is known as a very strong opponent of the United Nations”.

“She is an avowed supporter of Israel. That is going to cause some ructions within the world body and certainly test US relations with its international partners,” he said.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that Stefanik “will be an incredible Ambassador to the United Nations, delivering Peace through Strength and America First National Security policies!”

Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy

While Trump has not formally announced Miller’s appointment, Vice President-elect JD Vance appeared to confirm the move in a post on X.

“This is another fantastic pick by the president,” Vance wrote about Miller being named to the post.

Miller, 39, is a hardline, anti-immigration Trump adviser who helped craft some of the former president’s most high-profile policies during his first term, such as the separation of migrant families.

A former aide to Mike Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president from 2017 to 2021, previously described the Trump administration’s use of a public health measure to effectively seal the US’s southern border with Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic as “a Stephen Miller special”.

Under the policy, known as Title 42, thousands of migrants and asylum seekers were turned away to dangerous Mexican border towns where they faced widespread violence, including rape, murder and kidnappings.

Miller has championed Trump’s 2024 pledge to carry out mass deportations.

He also frequently uses extreme rhetoric to attack migrants, telling a Trump campaign rally in New York last month that “America is for Americans and Americans only”.

Lee Zeldin, head of Environmental Protection Agency

Zeldin does not have any environmental experience but he has been a loyal supporter of the president-elect.

A former US congressman from New York, the 44-year-old has pledged to support Trump’s plan to deregulate approvals of energy extraction and cut down on regulatory red tape.

In a post on X, Zeldin said it was an honour to take up the post.

“We will restore US energy dominance, revitalise our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI,” he wrote. “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”

During his campaign, Trump criticised the Biden government’s support for electric vehicles and restrictions on oil and gas drilling. He also often used the phrase “drill baby drill” to describe his new administration’s approach to petroleum exploration.

Zeldin “will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance, that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way”, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.

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