Immediately following Donald Trump's historic reelection comeback victory, Team Trump has wasted nary a moment vetting and selecting strong leaders who will advance the unambiguous MAGA mandate.
This time around, and very much unlike his first 2016 Washington Rodeo, the president will know who best to trust and depend upon and to follow proven policies based upon previous support and performance.
So, here’s what we know so far.
Chief of Staff and Deputy for Policy
President-elect Trump’s pick of Susie Wiles as his chief of staff whom he referred to in his election night victory speech as the ‘iron maiden,” served as his 2024 campaign manager. A seasoned Republican strategist, she also worked on Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign and managed Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis’s winning 2018 gubernatorial bid.
Longtime Trump adviser Stephen Miller who worked with his 2016 campaign and then served as a senior adviser has been named deputy chief of staff for policy. Upon previously leaving the White House, Miller founded America First Legal, a nonprofit that legally challenged several Biden administration initiatives, immigration policies most particularly.
Homeland Security Secretary
With America’s illegal migrant invasion representing a top voter issue and winning election influence, Trump and his transition team are expected to name popular South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security. This represents a major change from the Biden-Harris administration's open border policies officiated by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Noem, a former U.S. congresswoman, has been a strong Trump supporter and campaign rally participant widely rumored to have been considered one of his leading running mate candidates before Trump ultimately chose Sen. J.D. Vance.
CIA Director
John Ratcliffe, who previously served as director of National Intelligence (DNI) where he oversaw 17 intelligence agencies in the final months of Trump’s first term, is being tapped to head the CIA.
Ratcliffe previously served as a Republican Texas representative in the U.S. Congress as a leading policymaker on national security issues, including as a member of House Intelligence and Judiciary committees and Cybersecurity chairman on the Homeland Security Committee.
National Security Adviser
Florida Republican Rep. Mike Waltz has been tapped to serve as national security adviser at a time of great global unrest and U.S. defense peril under weak and confused Biden foreign policies and actions with the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle serving as a spectacular example.
Waltz, a former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa is well informed about dangers facing our nation, having also served as a member of the House’s China Task Force along with the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, and Intelligence committees.
Secretary of Defense
In a big surprise to most political observers, President-elect Trump has chosen frequent Fox News host and commentator Pete Hegseth for a top-level cabinet position as Secretary of Defense.
A Princeton and Harvard graduate, Hegseth hasa long military record, having served in Afghanistan and Iraq, receiving two Bronze Stars. He is a strong veterans advocate, previously serving as Concerned Veterans for America CEO, and is a fierce critic of “woke” political Pentagon policies that are weakening U.S. defense capabilities.
United Nations Ambassador
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik can be expected to be approved by the Senate to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, having rapidly ascended through party ranks to serve as chair of the House Republican Conference, the fourth highest position in House GOP leadership.
Stefanik has been a staunch U.N. critic regarding many issues unfavorable to America and Israel, calling on the Biden administration to consider a “complete reassessment” of U.S. funding of the U.N. given the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to expel Israel from the General Assembly.
EPA Director
Thanks to the GOP Senate majority, we can also expect former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., to be confirmed as a pragmatic climate alarm cult outsider to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
Also expect the Zeldin appointment to curb runaway EPA rulemaking that attempts to put fossil fuel industries out of business, drive up energy costs and inflation, and push American consumers into electric vehicles that depend upon China for rare earth minerals used in their batteries.
New Dept. of Government Efficiency
Determined to meet his pledge to cut inflationary government spending, Trump has announced plans to create a new Department of Government Efficiency headed by entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
The agency’s stated purpose is to dismantle government bureaucracy and slash excess regulations.
Big Coming Attractions
Although not yet official, rumors are buzzing to expect Trump to nominate Fla. Sen. Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, to take the key Secretary of State role to implement his “America First” policies.
If Rubio takes the position, Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis would be authorized to choose his Senate replacement to serve until a potential 2026 election challenge.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly being floated around Mar-a-Lago as a good choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services. This or any other nominated position for JFK Jr. would certainly gain resounding Senate approval.
With lots more good news soon to come, stay tuned.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.