Trump’s second term: Who has the president-elect selected for his cabinet, advisers?

President-elect Donald Trump continues to craft his cabinet and panel of advisers for his second term in the White House.

On Thursday, Trump announced several more members of his cabinet and panel of advisers -- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead Health and Human Services, Todd Blanche for Deputy Attorney General, former Rep. Doug Collins for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Interior.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Secretary of Health and Human Services

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination came as no surprise, as Trump had said that he would be the son of former Attorney General and 1968 presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy.

The Associated Press said Kennedy Jr. is “one of the world’s most influential spreaders of fear and distrust around vaccines” but will lead the department that regulates vaccines if confirmed.

He claims he is not anti-vaxx but said that he wants them to go through vigorous testing and still believes that vaccines cause autism, telling podcast listeners to “resist” CDC guidelines on childhood vaccines. He also said during the campaign that Trump would make moves to remove fluoride from drinking water, CBS News reported. But Trump said at the time that he hadn’t spoken to Kennedy Jr., adding “it sounds OK to me. You know it’s possible.”

Kennedy Jr. is an attorney and calls himself an environmentalist, winning Time’s “Hero of the Planet” award, according to his biography on his website “Make America Healthy Again.” He was a lifelong Democrat but left the party in 2023 when he ran as an independent for president.

Todd Blanche - Deputy Attorney General

Trump selected Todd Blanche as the Deputy Attorney General, the No. 2 person at the Department of Justice, The New York Times reported.

Blanche will be in charge of the day-to-day running of the DOJ and will advise the attorney general, CNN reported.

Blanche is a former prosecutor in Manhattan and was a lawyer on many indictments against the now-president-elect, including Trump’s conviction on 34 counts in the hush money case involving former porn star Stormy Daniels, the newspaper reported.

Trump wrote, “Todd is an excellent attorney who will be a crucial leader in the Justice Department, fixing what has been a broken System of Justice for far too long,” citing Blanche’s experience as a supervising federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office and previous clerkships.

He left federal service, to move to private practice about 10 years ago, CNN reported. He left the practice where he was a partner when he started working on Trump’s legal team.

With Blanche, Trump put up the names of Emil Bove as principal associated deputy attorney general and John Sauer as solicitor general. Both men were also part of Trump’s criminal defense team, CNN reported.

Former Rep. Doug Collins - Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Doug Collins represented Georgia in Congress and has been tapped to help former members of the military as the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the VA.

Trump wrote, “We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need,” CNN reported.

The VA oversees health coverage, home loans, education benefits and even funerals for former members of the military, according to CNN.

Collins was a military chaplain two different times, first in the 1980s in the Navy then again after the 9/11 attacks when he joined the Air Force Reserve, the AP reported.

He served at Balad Air Force Base in Iraq in 2008 and is still a colonel in the Air Force Reserve.

Collins is also a lawyer.

He served in the Georgia State House in 2007, serving three terms and serving in Congress representing the 9th district starting in 2012. He served as vice chair of the House Republican Conference, the fifth most powerful position in the GOP.

Collins was the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, defending Trump during the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

This isn’t the first time Trump has pushed to have Collins gain more power, telling Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to appoint Collins to replace Sen. Johnny Isakson who stepped down due to health problems. Kemp ended up appointing Kelly Loeffler, but Collins ran for the seat in a special election, the AP reported. Sen. Raphael Warnock ended up winning the seat and currently holds it.

Gov. Doug Burgum - Secretary of the Department of the Interior

Trump selected North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as the secretary of the Department of the Interior. Burgum has worked with fossil fuel companies and was the connection between oil executives and Trump’s reelection campaign. The move comes as Trump campaigned on the platform of “Drill, Baby, Drill” and the opening of federal lands and water to drill for oil and gas, The New York Times reported.

Trump said that drilling on public land would cut the cost of energy in half.

The Department of the Interior is in charge of 500 million acres of lands and coastal waters including national parks and wildlife refuges and works with 574 federally recognized tribes of Native Americans.

Burgum ran for president in a short campaign, ending it in 2023 and putting all of his support behind Trump. He was also on the shortlist as Trump’s running mate.

Burgum has a bachelor’s degree from North Dakota State University and a master’s in business administration from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

He was the head of Great Plains Software which was sold to Microsoft for $1.1 billion. He’s also run real estate and venture capital companies, the AP reported.

Burgum has run North Dakota as a businessman would, cutting income tax, cutting regulations and making changes to animal agriculture laws.

The AP said he led his state through the COVID-19 pandemic, droughts, storms and protests of the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz - Attorney General

Trump shocked many with the nomination of now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz as the new Attorney General.

Gaetz filed his resignation shortly after Trump’s announcement. Gaetz was not among the short list of those Trump was supposedly considering, The Associated Press reported.

Trump, writing on Truth Social, said Gaetz would “root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the Department to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution.”

Gaetz calls himself “an outspoken conservative firebrand” in his House biography. He said he “has been a prominent voice for uncovering corruption within the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation” and was “fighting to advance former President Trump’s America First agenda”

Gaetz was the impetus that led to the upheaval of the House of Representatives when he moved to remove then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the leadership role. McCarthy then backed a primary challenger who failed to unseat Gaetz, by paying for commercials that accused Gaetz of paying for sex with a 17-year-old. Gaetz had been under a House ethics investigation but the investigation basically ended when Gaetz resigned Wednesday evening, the AP reported. Gaetz was also investigated for alleged sex trafficking by the Department of Justice, the same department Trump tapped him to lead, but charges were not filed. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.

Gaetz graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary sciences. He holds a Juris Doctorate from William & Mary Law School, his official biography said.

Trump officially named Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as his nominee for Secretary of State and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as the director of National Intelligence on Wednesday.

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard - National Intelligence Director

Gabbard had reprinted Hawaii as a Democrat from 2013 to 2021, Fox News reported. She ran for president as a Democrat, but left the party in 2022, switching to the Republican party and campaigning for the president-elect. She is a veteran of the Army Reserve, CNN reported. She also is the co-chair of Trump’s transition team.

“As a former Candidate for the Democrat Presidential Nomination, she has broad support in both Parties - She is now a proud Republican!” Trump said, according to The Associated Press. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength. Tulsi will make us all proud!”

Fox News reported she had been interested in the Secretary of Defense position but Trump has put forth Pete Hegseth for the job.

Gabbard, according to the AP, has not worked directly with the intelligence community but had served on the Homeland Security Committee in the House.

Sen. Marco Rubio - Secretary of State

The nomination came as no surprise for many. Several people familiar with Trump’s decision-making said on Monday that Rubio would be tapped to be the country’s top diplomat, The New York Times reported.

Rubio was first elected to the Senate in 2010 and ran against Trump in the 2016 election and had to bow out, then he was on the shortlist, along with Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem for Vice President.

The senator is currently the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, The Associated Press reported.

He has pushed to take a stronger stance against China. He is also a hard liner on Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, the Times reported.

If confirmed, Rubio would be the first Latino Secretary of State, USA Today reported.

Trump made several staffing announcements on Wednesday including Noem and John Ratcliffe as the CIA director, The New York Times reported.

He also selected Pete Hegseth to be the Defense Secretary, The Associated Press reported.

Pete Hegseth - Secretary of Defense

Hegseth is a Fox News Channel host and former member of the military, the AP reported.

He has not served in a senior military role and does not have national security experience.

Hegseth is a Princeton graduate and was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard. He has served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.

He also has a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, according to the AP.

He has wanted to make the military more lethal and does not agree with letting women serve in combat.

“Everything about men and women serving together makes the situation more complicated, and complication in combat, means casualties are worse,” Hegseth said recently. “I’m straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles — it hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”

Still, he called diversity in the military a strength but because men, no matter their race, can perform similarly. He claims the same cannot be said for women, the AP reported.

“We’ve changed the standards in putting them (women) there, which means you’ve changed the capability of that unit,” Hegseth said. Women have been allowed to serve in combat roles since 2016 and some have become Green Berets and Army Rangers. They also have passed the test from Naval Special Warfare and can serve as combatant-craft crewmen that transport Navy SEALs.

John Ratcliffe - CIA Director

Trump selected his former Director of National Intelligence Ratcliffe to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Ratcliffe is a former congressman from Texas who was a member of the former President’s advisory team during Trump’s first impeachment, the AP reported.

He called the proceedings, which were started over a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “This is the thinnest, fastest and weakest impeachment our country has ever seen.”

From 2020 to 2021 worked with Trump as the primary intelligence adviser, Forbes reported.

He allowed the release of unverified information about Russia and its influence in the 2016 election, with critics saying that Ratcliffe used national intelligence to help in Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, CNN reported.

Trump wrote on Truth Social as part of the announcement of his nomination, “From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBI’s abuse of Civil Liberties at the FISA Court, John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American Public.”

He is currently the co-chair of the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute, CNN reported.

Gov. Kristi Noem - Homeland Security Secretary

Trump nominated South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

The AP said the agency “will be integral to his vow to secure the border and carry out a massive deportation operation,” a mission she has written about on social media.

“President Trump will deport the most dangerous illegal aliens first — the murderers, rapists, and other criminals that Harris and Biden let into the country. They do not belong here, and we will not let them back in,” she wrote on X after the Nov. 5 election.

He has also called the southern border with Mexico a “war zone,” the AP reported.

Noem was the first female governor of South Dakota in 2018 and was reelected in 2022. She had previously held the state’s at-large House of Representatives seat.

As governor, she worked with Trump’s 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and pushed back against the federal restrictions set during the COVID-19 pandemic. She had been on the short list to be Trump’s running mate, but he chose Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance instead.

Noem was at the center of controversy when she wrote in one of her two memoirs that she shot and killed her 14-month-old hunting dog Cricket.

She explained that Cricket had been taken out with her other hunting dogs in hopes of calming her down. When they stopped at a friend’s house on the way home from the trip, Cricket got out of Noem’s truck and attacked the family’s chickens, killing some. Cricket then “whipped around to bite me,” Noem wrote.

She said, “At that moment I realized I had to put her down,” then shot and killed her. She said it showed that she could make tough choices, however, animal lovers did not see it that way, the AP reported.

Rep. Mike Waltz - National Security Adviser

Trump has asked Rep. Mike Waltz from Florida to be the National Security Adviser.

The president-elect posted to Truth Social, confirming the reports that cited unnamed sources.

Waltz is a Green Beret and retired Colonel in the National Guard who served in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa and will be the first Green Beret to be the National Security Adviser.

He was born in Boynton Beach, Florida, and was raised in Jacksonville by a single mother. After graduating from Virginia Military Institute, he served 27 years in the Army and the National Guard. He was awarded four Bronze Stars, two of which were for valor.

CNN reported it will be Waltz’s job to deal with international issues such as the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas conflicts. He served in President George W. Bush’s White House as a policy staffer, according to Waltz’s official biography. He also worked at the Pentagon as a defense policy director for Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates.

CNN speculated that Waltz will be similar to former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Lee Zeldin - EPA

Trump nominated Lee Zeldin as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Zeldin is a former member of the House of Representatives from New York, but according to The Associated Press does not have experience in environmental issues. He is also a former military intelligence officer, USA Today reported. He ran for governor in 2022 but was beaten by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Zeldin wrote on X after the announcement, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.”

Trump said Zeldin has a “very strong legal background” and “a true fighter for America First policies,” USA Today reported.

“He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet,” Trump added.

Stephen Miller - Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy

Trump named Stephen Miller as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy on Monday.

Miller was one of Trump’s senior advisers during his first administration but pushed for more restrictive immigration policies CNN, which was the first to report Miller’s nomination, said.

The AP confirmed Miller’s new role while Vice President-elect J.D. Vance posted congratulations to Miller on X.

Miller pushed for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants during the first administration, saying that it would be a 10-fold increase, or more than one million deportations every year, CNN reported.

When Trump’s first term ended, Miller became president of America First Legal, a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union, PBS said. Before he worked for the Trump administration, Miller had been a senior aide for several lawmakers and Congressional committees, the America First Legal said in Miller’s biography.

Miller’s family was considered liberal, but he became conservative after he read the National Rifle Association former CEO Wayne LaPierre’s “Guns, Crimes and Freedom” book. Miller’s family evolved into conservative views, according to a US News and World Report 2016 article.

Rep. Elise Stefanik - U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.

Trump named Rep. Elise Stefanik (R - N.Y.) to the role of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Stefanik, 40, is the House Republican Conference Chair and at one point was discussed as Trump’s running mate until he chose Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, The AP reported.

The New York Times reported Stefanik accepted the nomination.

She is from upstate New York and graduated from Harvard. She worked with the Domestic Policy Council and the chief of staff’s office during Pres. George W. Bush’s administration.

Stefanik was only 30 when she was elected to Congress in 2014, making her the youngest woman lawmaker elected. She is also the youngest woman to be a leader in the House of Representatives, the AP reported. When she first took office, she was considered a moderate but morphed into a MAGA ally for the former president, endorsing him before he had launched his reelection bid and frequently campaigned for him.

The Congresswoman defended Trump during both of his impeachment trials and criminal indictments. She went as far as to file an ethics complaint against the judge who oversaw his civil fraud case, the AP reported.

Tom Homan - Border Czar

Trump named his former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tom Homan, as his border czar. The president-elect made the announcement on Truth Social.

The position does not require Senate confirmation, the AP reported.

Trump campaigned on deporting people who are in the country illegally.

“It’s going to be a well-targeted, planned operation conducted by the men of ICE. The men and women of ICE do this daily. They’re good at it,” Homan said, the AP reported. “When we go out there, we’re going to know who we’re looking for. We most likely know where they’re going to be, and it’s going to be done in a humane manner.”

Homan was named ICE acting director in 2017. Before that, he was a police officer, Border Patrol agent and a special agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, The New York Times reported.

Susie Wiles - Chief of Staff

Trump named Florida political strategist Susie Wiles as White House Chief of Staff days after he secured his reelection bid.

She is the first woman to serve in the role.

The daughter of NFL player and sportscaster Pat Summerall, Wiles worked in the Washington, D.C. office of Rep. Jack Kemp (R - NY) in the 1970s. She also worked on President Ronald Reagan’s campaign and was a scheduler at the White House, The AP reported.

She worked for two Jacksonville Mayors, Rep. Tillie Flower and eventually helped Gov. Rick Scott and Gov. Ron DeSantis win their elections.

Wiles led Trump’s campaign in Florida in 2016 and left DeSantis’ campaign for Trump when the two faced off in this year’s campaign.

Trump actually hired her for his campaign in 2022 after the events of Jan. 6 and his loss in 2020, changing his previous campaign into what Politico called “a particularly professional operation, despite Trump’s own tendencies to embrace chaos.” She told Trump to back off the claims of losing the 2020 election and to encourage voting by mail.

The AP reported that Trump used Wiles’ and others’ knowledge of DeSantis to push him out of the race. She rarely posted to social media but wrote “Bye, bye” to respond to a post highlighting DeSantis’ campaign clearing his schedule before he dropped out of the race.

Wiles stayed behind the scenes even refusing to speak when Trump declared victory on Wednesday, the AP reported.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called Wiles a “strong, intelligent woman” when Trump announced her selection as chief of staff, after billionaire Mark Cuban said that the president-elect didn’t have “strong intelligent women” surrounding him before Election Day.

She said she has seen a different side of the president-elect.

“I will tell you this: The Donald Trump that I have come to know does not behave that way, and the lens that I look at him through, I don’t see any of that. I see strengths, I see smarts, I see a work ethic that is unparalleled,” Wiles told the Tampa Bay Times in 2016. “I blanch sometimes. But, again, it’s not the Donald Trump that I have come to know.”

Politico said Wiles will be the most powerful woman in Washington.

She will be tasked to be Trump’s right-hand person, a gatekeeper of sorts who determines who the president will speak with and when. She will also help make sure his plans are followed while also balancing politics and policy. Trump said Wiles is “tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected,” Politico reported.

Who makes up the cabinet?

The White House said that currently there are 15 executive departments whose heads are among the members of the cabinet as well as the Chief of Staff, the Vice President and other advisors.

The positions are as follows and includes the person Trump has nominated for the position, or in the case of the Vice President, who won the election. This will be updated as he names his advisers.

1. Vice President - J.D. Vance
2. Chief of Staff - Susie Wiles
3. Secretary of Agriculture
4. Secretary of Commerce
5. Secretary of Defense - Pete Hegseth
6. Secretary of Education
7. Secretary of Energy
8. Secretary of Health and Human Services - Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
9. Secretary of Homeland Security - Kristi Noem
10. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
11. Secretary of the Interior - Gov. Doug Burgum
12. Secretary of Labor
13. Secretary of State - Sen. Marco Rubio
14. Secretary of Transportation
15. Secretary of the Treasury
16. Secretary of Veterans Affairs - Rep. Doug Collins
17. Attorney General - Former Rep. Matt Gaetz

The following positions were also in President Joe Biden’s cabinet. Trump may or may not have similar cabinet-level positions in his second administration. Those positions Trump has filled are in bold.

1. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations - Rep. Elise Stefanik
2. Director of National Intelligence - Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
3. U.S. Trade Representative
4. Environmental Protection Agency administrator - Lee Zeldin
5. Office of Management and Budget director
6. Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
7. Office of Science and Technology Policy director
8. Small Business Administration administrator
9. Central Intelligence Agency director - John Ratcliffe

Other key positions Trump has filled in his new administration:

1. Border Czar - Thomas Homan
2. National Security Adviser - Rep. Mike Waltz
3. Ambassador to Israel - former Gov. Mike Huckabee
4. Department of Government Efficiency - Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy
5. Deputy Chief of Staff and assistant to the president - Dan Scavino
6. White House Counsel - William Joseph McGinley
7. Deputy Attorney General - Todd Blanche

During Trump’s first administration, he included cabinet-level positions for the EPA, OMB, Trade Representative, CIA, National Intelligence and the SBA.

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Donald Trump cabinet nominees President-elect Donald Trump speaks during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 06, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Trump has started to name those who he would like to see in his cabinet and other advisors for his second term. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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