After being elected as the 47th President of the United States Donald Trump is filling key posts in his second administration, putting an emphasis so far on aides and allies who were his strongest backers during the 2024 campaign

President-elect Mr. Trump has turned to a head-spinning mix of candidates, many of whom are his personal friends. Others are familiar faces on Fox News Channel or other conservative outlets. Some have extensive experience in the areas they’ve been chosen to lead, while others have seemingly none. Some seem chosen to shock and awe, some to reassure, and others to unleash chaos.

Here are some of the names who got important positions in Trump’s cabinet:

Department of Health and Human Services: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting him in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine, and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.

A longtime vaccine sceptic, Mr. Kennedy is an attorney who has built a loyal following over several decades of people who admire his lawsuits against major pesticide and pharmaceutical companies. He has pushed for tighter regulations around the ingredients in foods.

Attorney General: Matt Gaetz

Mr. Trump on Wednesday (November 13, 2024) nominated his loyalist Congressman Matt Gaetz as the Attorney General of the United States.

On the House Judiciary Committee, which performs oversight of DOJ, Mr. Gaetz played a key role in defeating the Russia Hoax, and exposing alarming and systemic government corruption and weaponisation, said the president-elect.

Homeland Security Secretary: Kristi Noem

Mr. Trump has chosen South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to serve as the next Homeland Security Secretary, two sources familiar with the decision said on Tuesday (November 12, 2024).

She rose to national prominence after refusing to impose a statewide mask mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic .Ms. Noem faced widespread backlash in April when she wrote in a memoir that she shot to death an “untrainable” dog that she “hated” on her family farm. Some Trump advisers said they believed Ms. Noem’s stock fell in the former President’s eyes after that, at a time when she was still a vice presidential contender.

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Secretary of State: Marco Rubio

Mr. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making the critic-turned-ally his choice for top diplomat.

Mr. 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.

Their relationship improved dramatically while Mr. Trump was in the White House. And as Mr. Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Mr. Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Mr. Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Mr. Trump’s plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations.

Department of Government Efficiency: Elon Musk

On Tuesday (November 12, 2024) Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy were made to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.

Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.

Mr. Musk gave millions of dollars to support Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and publicly appeared with him. Mr. Trump had said he would offer Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person, a role in his administration promoting government efficiency.

Director of National Intelligence: Tulsi Gabbard

Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Mr. Trump to be director of national intelligence, another example of Trump prizing loyalty over experience.

Ms. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party’s 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Mr. Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall, and she’s been accused of echoing Russian propaganda.

Ms. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions.

Vice-President: J.D. Vance

The 39-year-old Republican candidate for U.S. Vice President, hailing from a working class family in America’s Rust Belt, has emerged as an ideologue and champion of Donald Trump’s right-wing nationalist movement.

Mr. Vance argues that illegal immigrants are threatening the lives and livelihoods of the poorest Americans. He argues that new entrants into the community should be admitted on the terms of the current members — like the parents of Usha who immigrated from India. Mr. Vance is an opponent of abortion, and he will be questioned on this issue by the Democrats who hope to make it a key campaign issue. The VP candidate is a critic of U.S. aid to Ukraine, and aid in general though he strongly supports aid to Israel. He thinks the U.S. strategy should focus on Asia and China, and bother less about Europe and Russia.

Defense Secretary: Pete Hegseth

Mr. Hegseth, 44, a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend”, has been picked up as Defense Secretary. He developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Mr. 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.

Interior Secretary: Doug Burgum

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a wealthy former software company executive, is Mr. Trump’s pick for Interior Secretary.

Mr. Burgum, 68, has portrayed himself as a traditional, business-minded conservative. He ran against Mr. Trump for the Republican presidential nomination before quitting and becoming his loyal supporter, appearing at fundraisers and advocating for him on television.

White House chief of staff: Susie Wiles 

President-elect Donald Trump has named Susie Wiles, the manager of his victorious campaign, as his White House chief of staff, the first woman to ever hold the influential role.

Wiles is widely credited within and outside Trump’s inner circle for running what was, by far, his most disciplined and well-executed campaign, and was seen as the leading contender for the position. She largely avoided the spotlight, even refusing to take the mic to speak as Trump celebrated his victory early Wednesday morning.

Deputy Chief of Staff: Stephen Miller 

Stephen Miller has been selected as Deputy Chief of Staff. Mr. Miller, an immigration hardliner, was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Mr. Trump’s priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Mr. Trump’s first administration.

Mr. Miller has been a central figure in some of Mr. 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.

Ambassador to Israel: Mike Huckabee

Mr. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Mr. Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah.

“He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Mr. Trump said in a statement adding, “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.”

Mr. Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland.

Tom Homan: U.S. ‘border czar’

Mr. Trump said on Sunday (November 10, 2024) that Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will be in charge of the country’s borders in his new administration.

Mr. Homan will be “in charge of our nation’s borders (“The Border Czar”), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security,” Mr. Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Mr. Homan, who served in the Trump administration for a year and a half during his first term, is also a contender for secretary of homeland security.

Mr. Trump made cracking down on illegal immigration the central element of his campaign, promising mass deportations

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency: John Ratcliffe

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday (November 12, 2024) that he had picked former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Mr. Ratcliffe, a close ally of Mr. Trump, served as director of national intelligence at the end of his first term.

Mr. Ratcliffe was confirmed as the nation’s top spy in May 2020, eight months before Mr. Trump left office. A former member of the House of Representatives and U.S. attorney for Texas, he received no support from Senate Democrats during his confirmation.

(With inputs from agencies)

File picture of Elon Musk with Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday (November 12, 2024) Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.

Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.

Mr. Trump said their work would conclude by July 4, 2026, adding that a smaller and more efficient government would be a “gift” to the country on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The appointments reward two Trump supporters from the private sector.

Mr. Musk leads electric car company Tesla, social media platform X and rocket company SpaceX, while Mr. Ramaswamy is the founder of a pharmaceutical company who ran for the Republican presidential nomination against Mr. Trump and then threw his support behind the former president after dropping out.

Mr. Musk gave millions of dollars to support Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and publicly appeared with him. Mr. Trump had said he would offer Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person, a role in his administration promoting government efficiency.

The acronym of the new department — DOGE — coincides with the name of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin that Musk promotes.

“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!” Mr. Musk said, according to Mr. Trump’s statement, which called the new government initiative “potentially ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time,” referring to the U.S. plan to build the atomic bomb that helped end World War Two.

File picture of Donald Trump and Senator Marco Rubio in Raleigh, North Carolina
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Donald Trump is expected to tap U.S. Senator Marco Rubio to be his Secretary of State, sources said on Monday (November 11, 2024), putting the Florida-born politician on track to be the first Latino to serve as America’s top diplomat once the Republican president-elect takes office in January.

Mr. Rubio was arguably the most hawkish option on Mr. Trump’s shortlist for Secretary of State, and he has in years past advocated for a muscular foreign policy with respect to America’s geopolitical foes, including China, Iran and Cuba.

Over the last several years he has softened some of his stances to align more closely with Mr. Trump’s views. The president-elect accuses past U.S. presidents of leading America into costly and futile wars and has pushed for a more restrained foreign policy.

While the famously mercurial Mr. Trump could always change his mind at the last minute, he appeared to have settled on his pick as of Monday, according to the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Representatives for Mr. Trump and Mr. Rubio did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Global wars

The new administration will confront a world more volatile and dangerous than it was when Mr. Trump took office in 2017, with wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East and China aligning itself more closely with U.S. foes Russia and Iran.

The Ukraine crisis will be high on Mr. Rubio’s agenda.

Mr. Rubio, 53, has said in recent interviews that Ukraine needs to seek a negotiated settlement with Russia rather than focus on regaining all territory that Russia has taken in the last decade. He was also one of 15 Republican senators to vote against a $95 billion military aid package for Ukraine, passed in April.

While Mr. Rubio was far from the most isolationist option, his likely selection nonetheless underlines a broad shift in Republican foreign policy views under Mr. Trump.

Once the party of hawks who advocated military intervention and a muscular foreign policy, most of Mr. Trump’s allies now preach restraint, particularly in Europe, where many Republicans complain U.S. allies are not paying their fair share on defence.

“I’m not on Russia’s side — but unfortunately the reality of it is that the way the war in Ukraine is going to end is with a negotiated settlement,” Mr. Rubio told NBC in September.

Significance of selecting Rubio

Mr. Rubio’s selection holds domestic as well as international significance.

Mr. Trump beat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election in part by winning over large numbers of Latinos, who had voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in previous election cycles but have become an increasingly diverse demographic in a political sense, with more and more Latinos voting Republican.

By selecting Mr. Rubio for a key policy role, Mr. Trump may help consolidate electoral gains among Latinos and make clear that they have a place at the highest levels of his administration.

Mr. Rubio was one of three final contenders for Mr. Trump’s vice-presidential pick. The president-elect ultimately chose U.S. Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, a hard-right figure who is known for his isolationist foreign policy positions.

China, Cuba hawk

Some of Mr. Trump’s supporters will be skeptical of his decision to tap Mr. Rubio, who until recently held muscular foreign policy positions that contradict those of Trump.

During Mr. Trump’s 2017-2021 term, for instance, Mr. Rubio co-sponsored legislation that would make it harder for Mr. Trump to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, by requiring two-thirds of the Senate to ratify withdrawal.

Mr. Trump has railed for years against NATO member countries that failed to meet agreed military spending targets and warned during the campaign that he would not only refuse to defend nations “delinquent” on funding but would also encourage Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to them.

Mr. Rubio is a top China hawk in the Senate.

Most notably, he called on the Treasury Department in 2019 to launch a national security review of popular Chinese social media app TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly, prompting an investigation and troubled divestment order.

As the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, he has also kept up the heat on the Biden administration, demanding it block all sales to Huawei earlier this year after the sanctioned Chinese tech company released a new laptop powered by an Intel AI processor chip.

Mr. Rubio, whose grandfather fled Cuba in 1962, is also an outspoken opponent of normalising relations with the Cuban government, a position Mr. Trump shares.

The head of the House subcommittee overseeing Latin American affairs, he is also a frequent and fierce critic of Nicolas Maduro’s government in Venezuela.