john sopinski and ming wong/the globe and mail, Source: graphic news;
Reuters; PICTURES: GETTY IMAGES; NEWSCOM;
U.S. CONGRESS; THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; REUTERS; SUPPLIED
john sopinski and ming wong/the globe and mail, Source: graphic news;
Reuters; PICTURES: GETTY IMAGES; NEWSCOM; U.S. CONGRESS;
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; REUTERS; SUPPLIED
Non cabinet
Cabinet
Sauer
Oz
Bove
Rollins
Weldon
Duffy
Zeldin
Blanche
Nesheiwat
Gabbard
Burgum
Makary
Patel
Ratcliffe
Wright
Kennedy
Bondi
Bhattacharya
Phelan
Noem
Homan
Collins
Hegseth
McMahon
Rubio
Huckabee
Stefanik
Turner
Carr
Kushner
Whitaker
Bessent
Vance
Chavez-DeRemer
Wiles
Hoekstra
Kellogg
Lutnick
Vought
Waltz
Ramaswamy
Blair
Musk
Miller
Greer
Scavino
McGinley
john sopinski and ming wong/the globe and mail, Source: graphic news;
Reuters; PICTURES: GETTY IMAGES; NEWSCOM; U.S. CONGRESS; THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; REUTERS; SUPPLIED
Presidents nominate (and the Senate has to approve) a team of people to lead executive departments. This cabinet, whose role is codified in law, works alongside a larger group of political appointees across government. Much as in his first term, Donald Trump has signalled that his circle of power will also include at least a few outside advisers. Learn below who’s in charge of what.
Table of contents | White House | Economy and public spending | Justice | Foreign policy | Health | Energy, environment and infrastructure | Other domestic policy
White House
Cabinet
Chief of Staff
Susie Wiles
Vice President
J.D. Vance
Non-cabinet
National
Security Adviser
Mike Waltz
Deputy Chief
of staff
James Blair
Deputy Chief
of staff
Stephen Miller
Deputy Chieif
of staff
Dan Scavino
WH Counsel
Bill McGinley
Cabinet
Chief of Staff
Susie Wiles
Vice President
J.D. Vance
Non-Cabinet
National
Security Adviser
Mike Waltz
Deputy Chief
of staff
James Blair
Deputy Chief
of staff
Stephen Miller
Deputy Chief
of staff
Dan Scavino
WH Counsel
Bill McGinley
Cabinet
Non-cabinet
National
Security Adviser
Mike Waltz
Deputy Chief
of staff
James Blair
Deputy Chief
of staff
Stephen Miller
Deputy Chief
of staff
Dan Scavino
WH Counsel
Bill McGinley
Vice President
J.D. Vance
Chief of Staff
Susie Wiles
As the administration’s nominal second-in-command, JD Vance hits the trifecta of Trumpian nationalism: protectionist on the economy, hawkish on immigration and isolationist on foreign policy, with a particular opposition to helping Ukraine fight off Russia’s invasion. Once a Never Trump Republican, the 40-year-old’s Damascene conversion has made him close to Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s keyboard-warrior eldest son, and the prospective heir to MAGA.
By contrast, the self-effacing Susie Wiles is a political veteran, having variously worked as a staffer, strategist and lobbyist since the 1980s. This year, the Floridian managed Mr. Trump’s winning campaign, in which she imposed discipline on the organization but let the candidate do as he wanted. She will be the first female White House chief of staff.
Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret and Florida congressman, is a China hawk who has declared the U.S. to be in a Cold War with Beijing. He will be charged with implementing Mr. Trump’s isolationist approach to national security, which de-emphasizes traditional alliances. He also has some thoughts on Canadian politics: earlier this year, Mr. Waltz tweeted that Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre “is going to send Trudeau packing in 2025 (finally.)”
A familiar face will be Stephen Miller. The long-serving Trump adviser wrote the famous “American carnage” inauguration speech in 2017 and authored much of the first term’s immigration policy, including the Title 42 order that allowed border guards to turn back asylum seekers without letting them file a claim. He will be central to Mr. Trump’s promised mass deportations and border crackdown. Similarly, Dan Scavino, who has been Mr. Trump’s director of social media since 2016 – and writes a lot of @realDonaldTrump’s content – will be back for another tour in the West Wing.
The lower-profile Bill McGinley, another former White House aide, returns in a key role for a boss apt to ignore rules and who has already signalled the desire to use the legal system to get revenge on his enemies. Similarly less known is James Blair, a Florida political consultant who helped run the campaign’s ground game.
Economy and public spending
Treasury
Scott Bessent
Labour
Lori Chavez-DeRemer
Management
and Budget
Russell Vought
Commerce
Howard Lutnick
Trade
Jamieson Greer
Department of
Government Efficiency
Elon Musk
Department of
Government Efficiency
Vivek Ramaswamy
Treasury
Scott Bessent
Labour
Lori Chavez-DeRemer
Management
and Budget
Russell Vought
Commerce
Howard Lutnick
Trade
Jamieson Greer
Department of
Government Efficiency
Elon Musk
Department of
Government Efficiency
Vivek Ramaswamy
Treasury
Scott Bessent
Labour
Lori Chavez-DeRemer
Management
and Budget
Russell Vought
Commerce
Howard Lutnick
Trade
Jamieson Greer
Department of
Government Efficiency
Elon Musk
Department of
Government Efficiency
Vivek Ramaswamy
For Canadians, two key figures will be Howard Lutnick and Jamieson Greer. Mr. Lutnick, a Wall Street CEO and major Trump campaign donor, will be in charge of implementing Mr. Trump’s sweeping protectionist trade policy, including tariffs on all goods entering the U.S. The Sorbonne-educated, French-speaking Mr. Greer, meanwhile, is a steel industry lawyer who served as chief of staff to United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer during Mr. Trump’s previous term, working on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. He will now be charged with Mr. Trump’s promised renegotiation of that pact.
The other major economic duo will be Scott Bessent and Russell Vought. While Mr. Bessent, a hedge fund manager who once worked for George Soros and fundraised for Al Gore, might raise eyebrows in this administration, Mr. Vought certainly won’t. He held the same job in Mr. Trump’s first White House and, out of office, helped develop MAGA policy ideas via thinktank the Center for Renewing America and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
The pick who seems the most at odds with Mr. Trump’s agenda, and certainly with that of his party, is Lori Chavez-DeRemer. A Republican member of Congress from Oregon, she has backed legislation making it easier to form unions and putting restrictions on “right-to-work” laws, favours expunging cannabis-related criminal convictions and pushed back on 2020 election denial.
Outside the administration, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will be leading the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, named after Mr. Musk’s favourite cryptocurrency. The group will be charged with drafting cost-cutting ideas. Mr. Musk spent US$200-million helping Mr. Trump win and has subsequently camped out at Mar-a-Lago to give the president-elect input on his cabinet. Ohio businessman Mr. Ramaswamy, meanwhile, rocketed to fame in the Republican presidential primaries by seeking to out-Trump Mr. Trump with promises such as building a wall on the Canadian border.
Justice and law enforcement
CIA Director
John Ratcliffe
Director of National
Intelligence
Tulsi Gabbard
Attorney General
Pam Bondi
FBI
Kash Patel
Deputy Atty. General
Todd Blanche
Assoc. Deputy
Attorney General
Emil Bove
Solicitor General
D. John Sauer
CIA Director
John Ratcliffe
Attorney General
Pam Bondi
Director of National
Intelligence
Tulsi Gabbard
Deputy Atty. General
Todd Blanche
Assoc. Deputy
Attorney General
Emil Bove
FBI
Kash Patel
Solicitor General
D. John Sauer
CIA Director
John Ratcliffe
Deputy Atty. General
Todd Blanche
Assoc. Deputy
Attorney General
Emil Bove
FBI
Kash Patel
Attorney General
Pam Bondi
Director of National
Intelligence
Tulsi Gabbard
Solicitor General
D. John Sauer
During the election campaign, Mr. Trump threatened to prosecute everyone from Joe Biden to Jack Smith to Google. Potentially leading these efforts will be a quartet of loyalists at the Department of Justice. Pam Bondi is a former Florida attorney-general who rose to fame for fighting in court against Obamacare and same-sex marriage, and later backed Mr. Trump’s false claims of 2020 election fraud. Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, meanwhile, are former federal prosecutors who ran Mr. Trump’s defence team for his Manhattan hush-money criminal trial.
Kash Patel, a former prosecutor and political staffer, has vowed that a future Trump administration will get vengeance on government “conspirators,” as well as journalists who debunked Mr. Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election. “We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” he said last year on Steve Bannon’s podcast.
Another Trump lawyer in line for an important job is D. John Sauer. The former Missouri solicitor-general lead the successful effort to get the Supreme Court to grant Mr. Trump limited presidential immunity. Mr. Sauer is best known for a moment in that case in which he contended that a U.S. president should hypothetically be allowed to order the assassination of a political rival.
To run the country’s intelligence apparatus, Mr. Trump made one of his most contentious picks. Tulsi Gabbard, a former Hawaii Democratic member of Congress, has blamed Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on NATO, claimed Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad did not gas his own people and sued Hillary Clinton for calling her a “Russian asset.”
John Ratcliffe, who was director of national intelligence in the last Trump administration, was also accused of propagating Russian disinformation. If the pair get confirmed, they will be key to fulfilling a Trump campaign pledge of purging intelligence and law enforcement agents whom he accuses of unfairly investigating him.
Foreign policy
Homeland Security
Kristi Noem
Defence
Pete Hegseth
Secr of State
Marco Rubio
UN Ambassador
Elise Stefanik
Navy
John Phelan
Ambassador to NATO
Matthew Whitaker
Border czar
Tom Homan
Israel Ambassador
Mike Huckabee
Envoy to Ukraine/Russia
Keith Kellogg
Ambassador to Canada
Pete Hoekstra
Ambassador to France
Charles Kushner
Defence
Pete Hegseth
Secr of State
Marco Rubio
Homeland Security
Kristi Noem
UN Ambassador
Elise Stefanik
Israel Ambassador
Mike Huckabee
Navy
John Phelan
Border czar
Tom Homan
Ambassador to NATO
Matthew Whitaker
Envoy to Ukraine/Russia
Keith Kellogg
Ambassador to France
Charles Kushner
Ambassador to Canada
Pete Hoekstra
Israel Ambassador
Mike Huckabee
Ambassador to NATO
Matthew Whitaker
Navy
John Phelan
Border czar
Tom Homan
Defence
Pete Hegseth
Homeland Security
Kristi Noem
Ambassador to France
Charles Kushner
Ambassador to Canada
Pete Hoekstra
Envoy to Ukraine/Russia
Keith Kellogg
Secretary of State
Marco Rubio
UN Ambassador
Elise Stefanik
Arguably the most conventional cabinet pick is Marco Rubio, the Florida senator and long-time member of that body’s foreign affairs and intelligence committees. Once a hawkish Reaganite, his views have recently fallen more in line with Mr. Trump’s, such as on stopping aid to Ukraine. Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, is a Fox News host and military combat veteran who wants to fire “woke” generals. His confirmation faces a rough road over a dearth of management experience and a sexual assault accusation, which he denies. Also potentially facing a difficult path is John Phelan, a Florida banker and Trump fundraiser tapped for a top military role despite having no military experience.
In charge of implementing Mr. Trump’s highest-profile promise – rounding up and deporting all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. – will be Kristi Noem and Tom Homan. Ms. Noem, the Governor of South Dakota, has described migration as an “invasion.” Mr. Homan, who started as a border patrol agent and worked his way up to head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has vowed to clamp down at the borders with both Mexico and Canada.
In charge of carrying out Mr. Trump’s promise to increase U.S. support to Israel will be two of the country’s staunchest backers, Elise Stefanik and Mike Huckabee. Ms. Stefanik famously triggered the resignations of two Ivy League university presidents after grilling them at a congressional hearing over their response to pro-Palestinian campus protests. Mr. Huckabee has said “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian” and that Israeli control over Palestinian territories is not an occupation.
Also on the diplomatic front, Matthew Whitaker will be assigned to enforce Mr. Trump’s demand that NATO countries spend more on defence – where Canada is the leading laggard, not vowing to meet its 2-per-cent-of-GDP target until 2032. He will have some help from Pete Hoekstra, a former Michigan member of Congress. Keith Kellogg, meanwhile, will have to figure out how to achieve the immediate end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that Mr. Trump has promised, something almost certain to entail Kyiv giving up territory to Moscow. Another high-profile ambassadorial appointment is Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of Mr. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka. A developer and disbarred former lawyer, Mr. Kushner was convicted for tax evasion and making illegal campaign contributions.
Health
Health and
Human Services
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Centers for Medicare/
Medicaid Services
Mehmet Oz
CDC
Dave Weldon
Surgeon General
Janette Nesheiwat
FDA Commissioner
Martin Makary
N.I.H.
Jay Bhattacharya
Health and
Human Services
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
CDC
Dave Weldon
FDA Commissioner
Martin Makary
Surgeon General
Janette Nesheiwat
Centers for Medicare/
Medicaid Services
Mehmet Oz
N.I.H.
Jay Bhattacharya
Health and
Human Services
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
N.I.H.
Jay Bhattacharya
FDA Commissioner
Martin Makary
Surgeon General
Janette Nesheiwat
CDC
Dave Weldon
Centers for Medicare/
Medicaid Services
Mehmet Oz
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist and promoter of COVID-19 conspiracy theories, is Mr. Trump’s pick to oversee the public health agencies he has long criticized.
If confirmed, he can expect to find backup among several fellow nominees. Dave Weldon, a doctor and former Florida member of Congress, once promoted the falsehood that vaccines are linked to autism. Fox News personality Janette Nesheiwat has said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives too many vaccines to children. Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya was an advocate for achieving COVID-19 herd immunity through widespread infection. Martin Makary, a surgeon and medical professor, meanwhile, supported stay-at-home orders but opposed vaccine mandates.
After Mr. Kennedy, the highest-profile nominee in this area is Mehmet Oz, the surgeon-turned-television-doctor. He has previously attracted criticism for promoting homeopathy and other pseudoscience.
Energy, environment and infrastructure
Transportation
Sean Duffy
Agriculture
Brooke Rollins
EPA Administrator
Lee Zeldin
Interior
Doug Burgum
Energy
Chris Wright
Transportation
Sean Duffy
Agriculture
Brooke Rollins
Interior
Doug Burgum
EPA Administrator
Lee Zeldin
Energy
Chris Wright
Transportation
Sean Duffy
Agriculture
Brooke Rollins
Interior
Doug Burgum
Energy
Chris Wright
EPA Administrator
Lee Zeldin
After Joe Biden put the fight against climate change at the centre of his Inflation Reduction Act, Mr. Trump is vowing a return to “drill, baby, drill.” The main component of this policy is an effort to increase oil and gas production by opening up public lands.
Leading the push will be Chris Wright, CEO of Denver-based fracking company Liberty Energy, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. Mr. Wright has said “there is no climate crisis” and opposed efforts to combat climate change.
To that end Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman, is expected to dial back the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules capping emissions and preventing polluting. Sean Duffy, by contrast, will be in the position of reinforcing one of Mr. Biden’s other legacies. The Fox News personality will be charged with continuing the disbursement of federal infrastructure money, one policy area on which Mr. Trump and Democrats have some common ground.
Brooke Rollins, a White House policy adviser during Mr. Trump’s first term, will be in charge of a department working with the rural residents who are likely to be hard hit if Mr. Trump triggers a global trade war, given the amount of agricultural products the U.S. exports.
Other domestic policy
Housing and Urban
Development
Scott Turner
Veterans Affairs
Doug Collins
Education
Linda McMahon
Fedral Communications
Commission
Brendan Carr
Education
Linda McMahon
Housing and Urban
Development
Scott Turner
Veterans Affairs
Doug Collins
Fedral Communications
Commission
Brendan Carr
Education
Linda McMahon
Housing and Urban
Development
Scott Turner
Veterans Affairs
Doug Collins
Fedral Communications
Commission
Brendan Carr
Wrestling magnate Linda McMahon has been tapped to deliver a piledriver to the department of education. Mr. Trump wants to abolish the agency, a long-held Republican promise. Whether he can actually do this remains to be seen, as it would almost certainly require 60 votes in the Senate – seven more than his party has.
Another agency Mr. Trump hopes to shake up is the Federal Communications Commission. He has threatened to take away the broadcast licenses of television stations for airing negative stories about him. Brendan Carr has vowed to expand the agency’s remit to fight Facebook, Google, Apple and other tech companies he accuses of suppressing conservative political opinions.
Former NFL player Scott Turner has been tasked with running the department that oversees affordable housing at a time when the problem is reaching crisis levels. A pastor who ran literacy programs, he previously served in government heading a program to encourage business investment in underserved communities.
Former Georgia congressman and Trump legal adviser Doug Collins, a chaplain in the military reserves, will be assigned to streamline the department that serves the country’s military veterans and cut red tape.
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