Meet the new Trump administration staffers who will shape key US policies
Trump has started filling key White House roles, starting with Susie Wiles as his chief of staff.
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- President-elect Donald Trump has started to fill key White House positions.
- He started by naming Susie Wiles his chief of staff, making her the first woman to hold the role.
- Here's a running list of those Trump has tapped.
Now that President-elect Donald Trump has secured another four years in the White House, he's beginning to staff his administration. The former and future president refused to talk in detail about potential appointees during the campaign, leaving plenty of room for speculation about his eventual choices.
Here's a running list of Trump's staff picks, who will determine everything from his daily schedule to the ins and outs of finance, defense, and education.
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Susie Wiles is set to make history as the country's first female chief of staff to a president. A veteran Florida strategist who led Trump's political operation for nearly four years, Wiles is seen as loyal and supremely capable.
A grandmother who keeps a relatively low public profile, Wiles is Trump's only campaign manager to have lasted an entire election cycle, The New York Times reported. Not only did she help the president-elect expand his base and run a more professional campaign, but she also assisted lawyers on his various criminal and civil cases. She has a proven ability to manage Trump's unpredictable personality, which will be crucial as she takes on what some consider the second-most-powerful job in Washington, behind the presidency itself.
"Susie is tough, smart, innovative and is universally admired and respected," Trump said when announcing her role. Chris LaCivita, Trump's co-campaign manager, described her as "loyal and honest as the day is long."
Come January, Wiles will likely have to balance the demands of various big personalities, from Elon Musk to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump tore through four chiefs of staff during his first term, with one of them, Gen. John Kelly, describing it as the worst job he's ever had.
More traditional Republicans and MAGA diehards alike seem to think that Wiles, with her political sharpness and close ties to the Trump family, will be a more durable choice.
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Trump nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik of upstate New York to fill the role of UN ambassador, his first Cabinet pick. She is currently the fourth-ranking Republican in the House and was a loyal Trump surrogate during the campaign.
Stefanik, the 40-year-old chair of the House Republican Conference, cemented her status as a Trump ally during his 2019 impeachment hearings. She's a vocal supporter of Israel and took a leading role in the congressional hearings that led multiple top university presidents to resign over their handling of protests against the war in Gaza. However, she lacks significant foreign policy and national security experience, Maggie Haberman wrote in The New York Times.
"Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter," Trump said in a statement confirming the pick. In a statement to the New York Post, Stefanik said she was "deeply humbled" to accept the nomination.
Should the Senate confirm Stefanik, as it is likely to do, there will be a special election to fill her congressional seat.
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Trump has tapped Thomas Homan to serve as his administration's "border czar." Homan, 62, was a senior immigration official during Trump's first term and served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Homan will oversee the nation's borders, as well as maritime and aviation security. A former police officer and border patrol agent, he has extensive experience in immigration enforcement.
Trump made immigration enforcement a centerpiece of his campaign and has promised to pursue the country's largest mass deportation to date. Last month, Homan told "60 Minutes" that worksite raids to target unauthorized employees would pick back up under a Trump presidency.
The president-elect announced Homan's role on Truth Social: "I've known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders."
Homan's role does not need Senate confirmation.
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Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, 44, has been chosen to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. A four-term Republican congressman from Long Island, Zeldin has accepted the job.
"We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize 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," Zeldin wrote in a post on X accepting the job as head of the agency.
In a separate statement, Trump said he's known Zeldin for years and trusts he will "ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American business, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards."
In 2022, Zeldin ran for the governor of New York and put up an impressive fight. He has remained close with President-elect Trump and appeared at Mar-a-Lago multiple times during the 2024 campaign. Trump has promised to "drill, baby, drill" for fossil fuels and roll back parts of President Joe Biden's climate agenda.
