Washington | President-elect Donald Trump is filling key posts in his second administration, and it's shaping up much differently than his first. He's prioritising loyalists for top jobs.
Trump was bruised and hampered by internal squabbles during his initial term in office. Now he appears focused on remaking the federal government in his own image. Some of his choices could face difficult confirmation battles even with Republicans in control of the US Senate.
Here's a look at whom he has selected so far.
Cabinet nominees
SECRETARY OF STATE: Marco Rubio
Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making the critic-turned-ally his choice for top diplomat.
Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
ATTORNEY GENERAL: Matt Gaetz
Trump said Wednesday he will nominate Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as his attorney general, naming a loyalist in the role of the nation's top prosecutor.
DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Tulsi Gabbard Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, another example of Trump prizing loyalty over experience.
Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022.
She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall, and she's been accused of echoing Russian propaganda.
DEFENCE SECRETARY: Pete Hegseth
Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel's “Fox and Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014. He developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show.
Hegseth served in the Army National Guard from 2002 to 2021, deploying to Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2011. He has two Bronze Stars. However, Hegseth lacks senior military and national security experience.
HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Kristi Noem Noem is a well-known conservative used her two terms leading South Dakota to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business”.
CIA DIRECTOR: John Ratcliffe
Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the US government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic.
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Robert F. Kennedy Jr Kennedy ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump. He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign.
The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines. For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism.
VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY: Doug Collins Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centred on US assistance for Ukraine.
Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate.
INTERIOR SECRETARY: Doug Burgum
The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months travelling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race.
Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump's vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs.
Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day.
In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation.
“There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: Lee Zeldin Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former US House member from New York wrote on X, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalise our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added.
White House staff
CHIEF OF STAFF: Susie Wiles
Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager.
She has a background in Florida politics, helping Ron DeSantis win his first race for Florida governor. Six years later, she was key to Trump's defeat of him in the 2024 Republican primary.
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Mike Waltz
Waltz is a three-term Republican congressman from east-central Florida. A former Army Green Beret, he served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs.
He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a US boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population.
BORDER CZAR: Tom Homan
Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump's top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation's history.
He served under Trump in his first administration leading US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border once Trump won the election.
Homan said at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to “run the biggest deportation operation this country's ever seen”.
DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR POLICY: Stephen Miller Miller, an immigration hardliner, was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration.
Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally.
Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security.
DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: Dan Scavino
Scavino was an adviser to all three of the president-elect's campaigns, and the transition team referred to him as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides". He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president.
He previously ran Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee's investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: James Blair
Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president.
Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago.
DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: Taylor Budowich
Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president.
WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: William McGinley
McGinley was White House Cabinet secretary during Trump's first administration, and was outside legal counsel for the Republican National Committee's election integrity effort during the 2024 campaign.
Ambassadors and envoys
SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST: Steven Witkoff The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination.
Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy”, Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud."
AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: Mike Huckabee
Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align US foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah.
AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Elise Stefanik Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment.
Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticising Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership.
