Donald Trump has made the first hires of his incoming administration, naming a chief of staff, a border tsar, a national security advisor, a US ambassador to the United Nations and an environmental protection agency head.
The president-elect may also be on the verge of appointing his top diplomat, the secretary of state, ahead of his return to the White House on 20 January 2025.
Susie Wiles, who headed his campaign, becomes the first female chief of staff, while Tom Homan, who served in the first Trump term, will play a critical role on the border and immigration.
A president is responsible for about 4,000 political appointments – a process that can take months.
Here is a closer look at those posts already filled, and the names in the mix for the top jobs.
Secretary of state
The US secretary of state is the president’s main adviser on foreign affairs, and acts as America’s top diplomat when representing the country overseas.
Media reports suggest that Florida Senator Marco Rubio – who was most recently under consideration to be Trump’s vice-president – is the frontrunner.
Rubio, 53, takes a hawkish view of China. He opposed Trump in the 2016 Republican primary but has since mended fences. He is a senior member of the Senate foreign relations committee and vice-chairman of the chamber’s select intelligence panel.
A dark horse for the nomination, however, is Richard Grenell, a loyalist who served as ambassador to Germany, special envoy to the Balkans and acting national intelligence chief. Grenell, 58, was heavily involved in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and even sat in on his private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in September.
National security adviser – Mike Waltz
Florida congressman Michael Waltz has been selected by President-elect Donald Trump as the next national security adviser.
In a statement on Tuesday announcing Waltz’s appointment, Trump said the congressman is a “nationally recognized leader in national security,” noting that he is the first Green Beret – or member of the US Army Special Forces – to be elected to Congress and had previously served in the US Army for 27 years.
Trump hailed Waltz as “an expert on threats posed by China, Russia, Iran and global terrorism” and “a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda”.
The national security adviser counsels the president on various threats to the US and Waltz would likely have to help navigate the US position on the wars in Israel, and in Ukraine and Russia.
It is considered an influential role and does not require Senate confirmation.
Homeland security – Kristi Noem
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has been nominated for the key role of overseeing US security, covering its borders, cyber-threats, terrorism and emergency response.
The agency has a $62bn (£48bn) budget and employs thousands of people.
She will work closely with Tom Homan, named border tsar, and Stephen Miller, who is in charge of policy, to deliver on Trump’s immigration pledges.
Noem was passed over to be Trump’s running mate after she told how she killed her pet dog.
Border tsar – Tom Homan
This is a critical job because it includes responsibility for Trump’s mass deportations of millions of undocumented migrants, which was a central campaign pledge.
Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, calling Homan a “stalwart” on border control.
The former police officer was acting director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in Trump’s first term and he has advocated a zero-tolerance stance on the issue.
“Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels coming back,” he said in July. “And I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen.”
United Nations ambassador – Elise Stefanik
New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has been tapped to serve as the US ambassador to the United Nations.
Stefanik has made national headlines with her sharp questioning in congressional committees, first at Trump’s 2019 impeachment hearings and again this year quizzing college leaders about anti-semitism on campus.
“Elise is an incredibly strong, tough and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement to the New York Post.
Certain political appointments in the US – including the UN ambassador job – require the approval of the US Senate. But Trump has demanded that the next Senate leader let him make appointments without traditional confirmation votes.
Head of Environmental Protection Agency – Lee Zeldin
Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman, has agreed to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, both he and Trump said. The Senate will still need to confirm his appointment.
He will be in charge of tackling America’s climate policy in this role.
“We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI,” Zeldin said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”
Zeldin has long been a Trump ally – and is one of 126 Republican members of Congress who signed onto a brief to the Supreme Court that contested the 2020 election results.
While serving in congress from 2015 to 2023, Zeldin voted against expanding a number of environmental policies. He has already said he plans to “roll back regulations” from day one.
He has not earned high marks from environmental groups for his voting record on environmental issues.
Chief of staff – Susie Wiles
Susie Wiles and campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita were the masterminds behind Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris.
In his victory speech, Trump called her “the ice maiden” – a reference to her composure – and said she liked to stay in the background. Wiles was the first appointment in Trump’s top team.
The chief of staff is often a president’s top aide, overseeing daily operations in the West Wing and managing the boss’s staff.
Wiles, 67, has worked in Republican politics for decades, from Ronald Reagan’s successful 1980 presidential campaign to electing Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis as governors of Florida.
Republicans have said she commands respect and has an ability to corral the big egos of those in Trump’s orbit, which could enable her to impose a sense of order that none of his four previous chiefs of staff could.
Attorney general
No personnel decision may be more critical to the trajectory of Trump’s second term than his appointee to lead the Department of Justice.
After uneven relationships with both Jeff Sessions and William Barr, the attorneys general during his first term, Trump is widely expected to pick a loyalist who will wield its prosecutorial power in the manner of an “attack dog”.
Among the names being floated for the cabinet post are:
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Aileen Cannon, the Trump-nominated federal judge who threw out his classified documents case
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ex- justice department lawyer Jeffrey Clark, who is alleged to have aided Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has been both indicted and impeached like Trump
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Matthew Whitaker, the man who took over for three months as acting attorney general after Sessions stepped down at Trump’s request
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Mike Davis, a right-wing activist who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and has issued bombastic threats against Trump critics and journalists
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Mark Paoletta, who served in Trump’s budget office and argues there is no legal requirement for a president to stay out of justice department decisions
Intelligence/national security posts
Trump has chosen his former director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, to serve as Central Intelligence Agency director.
Trump said in his statement that the ex-Texas congressman “has always been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American Public”.
There are other yet-to-be-appointed key positions running intelligence agencies, including the FBI and director of national intelligence.
Trump has said he would fire FBI Director Chris Wray, who he nominated in 2017, but has since fallen out with. Jeffrey Jensen, a former Trump-appointed US attorney, has been under consideration to replace Wray.
Defence secretary – Pete Hegseth
Pete Hegseth has been nominated to be the next defence secretary in the new Trump administration.
The army veteran is also a Fox News host and former head of two advocacy groups for military veterans. He previously ran unsuccessfully for a Senate seat in Minnesota.
“Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First,” Trump wrote in a statement. “With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down.”
His appointment is one of the most highly anticipated in Trump’s cabinet as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza rage on.
“Nobody fights harder for the Troops and Pete will be a courageous and patriotic champion of our ‘Peace through Strength’ policy,” Trump said.
Treasury secretary
Trump is reportedly considering Robert Lighthizer, a free trade sceptic who led the tariff war with China as the US trade representative, as his chief financial officer.
But at least four others may be under consideration for the role, including Scott Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager who has become a major fundraiser and economic adviser to the president-elect; John Paulson, another megadonor from the hedge fund world; former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Jay Clayton; and Fox Business Network financial commentator Larry Kudlow, who ran Trump’s national economic council during his first term.
Commerce secretary
The woman co-chairing Trump’s transition team, Linda McMahon, is tipped as a key contender to represent US businesses and job creation in his cabinet – after previously serving as small business administrator during his first term.
Others who could fill this vacancy include Brooke Rollins; Robert Lighthizer; and Kelly Loeffler, a wealthy businesswoman who briefly served in the US Senate.
Energy secretary
Doug Burgum is also a contender to lead the energy department, where he would implement Trump’s pledges to “drill, baby, drill” and overhaul US energy policy.
A software entrepreneur who sold his small company to Microsoft in 2001, Burgum briefly ran in the 2024 Republican primary before dropping out, endorsing Trump and quickly impressing him with his low-drama persona and sizeable wealth.
Former energy secretary Dan Brouillette is also reportedly in the running.
Press secretary
Karoline Leavitt, 27, who impressed Trump as his campaign’s national press secretary, has already served as an assistant White House press secretary and may be a shoo-in to be the administration’s spokesperson.
Robert F Kennedy Jr
RFK Jr, as he is known, is an environmental lawyer by trade, a vaccine sceptic by fame and the nephew of former President John F Kennedy.
He is on a shortlist to run the health and human services department, multiple people close to the president-elect’s campaign told CBS.
Despite having no medical qualifications to his name, Kennedy, 70, is expected to become a kind of “public health tsar” in the Trump administration.
There has been speculation about his inability to pass a background check for security clearance due to past controversies, including dumping a bear carcass in New York’s Central Park.
Elon Musk
The world’s richest man poured millions of dollars into re-electing Trump and critics say he will now have the power to shape the regulations that affect his companies Tesla, SpaceX and X.
Both he and Trump have focused on the idea of him leading a new “Department of Government Efficiency”, where he would cut costs and streamline what he calls a “massive, suffocating federal bureaucracy”.
The would-be agency’s acronym – DOGE – is a playful reference to a “meme-coin” cryptocurrency Musk has previously promoted.
But Musk, 53, could also play a role in global diplomacy. He participated in Trump’s first call with Ukraine’s Zelensky on Wednesday.
