Washington DC:

US President-elect Trump has set up the stage for a fiery “day one” in the Oval Office, with the promise of pardoning January 6 Capitol riot prisoners, sealing America’s southern border and rolling back protections for transgender students. To ensure the swift implementation of his radical changes, the incoming president has nominated individuals who are not only loyal to him, but bring their own ideas about how to enact the Republican’s agenda. 

We look at some of Donald Trump’s most notable pledges and his cabinet picks entrusted to deliver those promises. 

1- Mass Deportation Of Undocumented Migrants: One of the biggest pledges of Trump’s campaign was the largest mass deportations of undocumented migrants in US history. He also promised to complete the construction of the wall at the border with Mexico that was started during his first term as US president. 

To oversee his immigration promises, Trump has picked border hardliners Kristi Noem as the Homeland Security Secretary and Tom Homan as his Border tsar.

A four-term congresswoman who became governor of South Dakota in 2018, Noem is a vocal critic of President Joe Biden’s border policies. She was the first governor to send members of her state’s national guard to Texas to help with border enforcement. 

On the other hand, Homan is a former police officer who was acting director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Trump’s first term. He was an early advocate of separating children from their parents or caregivers who crossed the border without documentation, which became one of Trump’s more controversial immigration policies during his first presidential term.

2- Moves On Economy, Tax And Tariffs: Trump’s campaign had promised to “end inflation” by imposing new tariffs of at least 10 per cent on most foreign goods. He also pledged sweeping tax cuts. 

To ensure the implementation of his economic agenda, Trump nominated Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary and Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary.

Lutnick was the co-chair of Trump’s transition team and has backed the President-elect’s economic plans, including wide-ranging tariffs. He has also advocated for deregulation of cryptocurrencies and the elimination of income tax.

Meanwhile, Bessent is a Wall Street financier who once worked for liberal billionaire George Soros. He supports Trump’s calls for new tariffs on imports, and like Lutnick, has suggested that the US government sees tariffs primarily as a negotiating tool and not as a permanent source of US revenue.

3- Cost Cuts And Dismantle Bureaucracy: Donald Trump has pledged to restructure federal agencies and ‘dismantle’ bureaucracy by announcing a new entity called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He picked billionaire executive Elon Musk and tech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the entity.

Though not a federal department, Trump said DOGE will “provide advice and guidance” from outside the executive branch and work closely with the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to propose cuts. 

As part of his new role, Musk has suggested a possible $2tn in spending cuts and vowed to send “shockwaves” through the government. Ramaswamy has also backed the idea of dramatically shrinking the size of the federal government, streamlining agencies and cutting costs.

4- Abolish Climate Regulations: Trump has promised to cut regulations, especially in a way that helps the American car industry. He pledged to increase production of US fossil fuels on day one in favour of renewable energy sources such as wind power.

Much of this work will be overseen by North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Trump’s new energy czar and pick for Interior Secretary, along with Chris Wright, a Colorado-based natural gas fracking CEO and Trump’s pick for Energy Secretary. 

Both are staunch fossil fuel advocates, but each has also worked with clean energy.

5-Foreign Policy Change With Ending Russia-Ukraine War And China Tariffs: During his election campaign, Trump criticised the tens of billions of dollars spent by the US administration on supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia. He pledged to end the conflict “within 24 hours” through a negotiated deal. He also pledged to levy a 60 per cent tariff on all goods from China. 

To oversee his foreign policy and national security, Trump has picked Marco Rubio and Secretary of State, Michael Waltz as National security advisers and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.

Rubio, who represented Florida since 2011, is part of the Senate intelligence and foreign relations committees and is known for his hard-line positions on Iran and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as well as China.

Waltz too, like Rubio, has talked tough on China. As chair of a House subcommittee, he argued that the US should prepare more for conflict in the Pacific.

A military veteran who served with a medical unit in Iraq, Gabbard has routinely opposed American foreign policy. A former Democrat, she blamed NATO for the Russia-Ukraine war and echoed a Kremlin claim that there were US-funded biolabs in Ukraine. As Trump’s intel tsar, her role will be critical for US-backed wars.

6-Affordable Care Act Repeal: Donald Trump aimed to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and propose its replacement with a system that would lower premiums and expand health savings accounts. 

Trump picked a longtime lawyer and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F Kennedy Jr as Health and Human Services. Despite having no medical qualifications, he would have broad remit over US federal health agencies – including those that oversee approval of vaccines, whose use he wants to review.

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday (November 19, 2024) tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Mr. Trump has promised to dismantle. He also selected Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former television talk show host and heart surgeon, to head the agency that oversees health insurance programs for millions of older, poor and disabled Americans, and named Wall Street executive Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department.

Ms. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Mr. Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut.

Ms. McMahon served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she has expressed support for charter schools and school choice.

“Linda will use her decades of Leadership experience, and deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.

In nominating Ms. McMahon, Mr. Trump is rewarding a loyal backer of his movement who, along with Mr. Lutnick, has also helped lead his transition team. She was with him Tuesday as he attended a launch of SpaceX’s Starship craft in Texas.

After her time in the Trump administration, Ms. McMahon became the chair of the board of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank created by Trump supporters and former officials who have been preparing for his return to government. Ms. McMahon has also been chair of the pro-Trump America First Action SuperPAC.

She is married to Vince McMahon, who stepped down as World Wrestling Entertainment’s CEO in 2022 amid a company investigation into allegations that he engaged in sexual battery and trafficking. He also resigned as executive chairman of the board of TKO Group Holdings this January, though he has denied the allegations.

If confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, Linda McMahon will be asked to bring the nation’s schools and universities in line with Mr. Trump’s vision of education. Mr. Trump has made sweeping promises centred on removing what he sees as “left-wing indoctrination” in America’s schools.

Mr. Trump has vowed to cut federal money for “any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.” He has promised to fight university diversity initiatives, saying he will open civil rights investigations and fine colleges “up to the entire amount of their endowment.”

Mr. Oz, who ran a failed 2022 bid to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, has been an outspoken supporter of Mr. Trump and in recent days expressed support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination for the nation’s top health agency, the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”

As the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mr. Oz would report to Mr. Kennedy.

“Americans need better research on healthy lifestyle choices from unbiased scientists, and @robertfkennedyjr can help as HHS secretary,” Mr. Oz said in an Instagram post last week.

If confirmed by the Senate, Oz would be responsible for the programs — Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act — that more than half the country relies on for health insurance.

Medicaid provides nearly-free health care coverage to millions of the poorest children and adults in the U.S., while Medicare gives older Americans and the disabled access to health insurance. The Affordable Care Act is the Obama-era program that offers health insurance plans to millions of Americans who do not qualify for government-assisted health insurance, but do not get insurance through their employer.

Mr. Trump has said he wants to overhaul the Affordable Care Act but has said he only has “concepts of a plan” for how that redesign would operate. During his first term in office, he tried unsuccessfully to scrap the program altogether. Last month, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson promised that health care reform would be a big part of Mr. Trump’s second term agenda.

During his campaign for senate, Mr. Oz promised to expand Medicare Advantage, the privately run version of Medicare that has become increasingly popular but also a source of widespread fraud.

TV personality Oprah Winfrey helped launch Mr. Oz into fandom and fortune. After years of appearing on her show as a health expert, Mr. Oz landed a talk show of his own that aired for 13 seasons. Mr. Oz has been accused of hawking dubious medical treatments and products on his defunct TV show. And during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he pressured government officials to make hydroxychloroquine widely available, despite unresolved questions about its safety and effectiveness.

He estimated his net worth to be between $100 million and $315 million, according to a federal financial disclosure he filed in 2022.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the chamber’s president pro tempore, said Tuesday in a statement that Mr. Oz, who has described himself as “strongly pro-life,” was unqualified for the position.

“Dr. Oz has zero qualifications, pushes alarming pseudoscience, & holds extreme anti-abortion views,” she said in a post on X. “CMS is a critical agency & we need serious leaders to protect Americans’ health care and bring down costs — not TV hosts whose main qualification is their loyalty to Mr. Trump.”

Mr. Lutnick, meanwhile, will have a key role in carrying out Mr. Trump’s plan to raise and enforce tariffs as commerce secretary, Mr. Trump said. Mr. Lutnick is a cryptocurrency enthusiast and head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.

Mr. Trump made the announcement on his social media platform, Truth Social. He said Mr. Lutnick “will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative.”

The nomination would put Mr. Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial.

An advocate for imposing wide-ranging tariffs, Mr. Lutnick told CNBC in September that “tariffs are an amazing tool for the President to use — we need to protect the American worker.” Mr. Trump on the campaign trail proposed a 60% tariff on goods from China — and a tariff of up to 20% on everything else the United States imports.

Mainstream economists are generally skeptical of tariffs, considering them a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.

Mr. Lutnick had been considered for treasury secretary, a role that has been at the centre of high-profile jockeying within the Trump world. At the same time, the treasury position is closely watched in financial circles, where a disruptive nominee could have immediate negative consequences on the stock market, which Mr. Trump watches closely.

Mr. Lutnick joined Cantor Fitzgerald in 1983 and rose through the ranks to be appointed president and CEO in 1991. He also chairs financial technology company BGC Group Inc. and the commercial real estate services firm Newmark Group Inc.

Mr. Lutnick has donated to both Democrats and Republicans in the past, and once appeared on Mr. Trump’s NBC reality show, “The Apprentice.” He has become a part of the President-elect’s inner circle, and has shared the stage with Mr. Trump at events in the closing days of his campaign, including a rally at Madison Square Garden.

An advocate for imposing wide-ranging tariffs, Howard Lutnick told CNBC in September that “tariffs are an amazing tool for the president to use—we need to protect the American worker”. File
| Photo Credit: AP

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he’d have a key role in carrying out Mr. Trump’s plans to raise and enforce tariffs.

Also Read: Trump’s treasury pick could give an indication of what he plans to do about tariffs

Mr. Lutnick is a co-chair of Mr. Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Mr. Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration.

The nomination would put Mr. Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data, and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial.

An advocate for imposing wide-ranging tariffs, Mr. Lutnick told CNBC in September that “tariffs are an amazing tool for the President to use — we need to protect the American worker”. Mr. Trump on the campaign trail proposed a 60% tariff on goods from China — and a tariff of up to 20% on everything else the U.S. imports.

Mainstream economists are generally sceptical of tariffs, considering them a mostly inefficient way for governments to raise money and promote prosperity.

Mr. Lutnick had been considered for Treasury Secretary, a role that has been at the centre of high-profile jockeying within the Mr. Trump world. At the same time, the Treasury position is closely watched in financial circles, where a disruptive nominee could have immediate negative consequences on the stock market, which Trump watches closely.

The news also comes after billionaire Elon Musk and others in Mr. Trump’s orbit called on Mr. Trump to dump previous frontrunner for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, in favour of Lutnick. Elon Musk said in his post that “Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas Howard Lutnick will actually enact change.”