Stars and Their Stripes

ELON MUSK, Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

The world’s richest man won’t be lonely now that Vivek Ramaswamy has got out of DOGE. The brightest star around the 47th president, Musk has his finger in too many pies, approving many of Donald Trump’s key appointments. DOGE is supposed to offer “advice and guidance from outside of Government” and make “changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency.” A government department outside the government? A contradiction in terms. Perhaps Musk alone can make it work, provided he lasts long enough, but his public spat with Team Trump over the Stargate AI project was an inauspicious start. Having donated $100 million to a Trump PAC, the Tesla, Space X and X owner has been shining too bright—and speaking up for the far-right across Europe. How long till the inevitable clash of egos with his nominal boss in the White House?

MARCO RUBIO, Secretary of State

Poor Marco Rubio might have been president had every other Republican candidate’s 2016 campaign not become a train wreck in Trump’s wake. The Florida Senator is still the first Latino Secretary of State, subject to Senate confirmation. Trump and he made up but Rubio would have liked congressional approval if a president wanted to withdraw the US from NATO. Not picked for vice president, Rubio as the face of US foreign policy is expected to moderate Trump’s reputation for unpredictability.

TOM HOMAN, Border Czar

Border czar is not a post. Just Trump’s catchy moniker for a job guaranteed to be the centre of the storm. Tom Homan, a former policeman and director of ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement), was the architect of the policy separating children from parents to deter illegal immigration. Trump’s Day 1 executive order declaring a border emergency is the beginning of what promises to be a sealing of the southern border, completing the wall. Illegal immigration has been the most consistent theme of Trump’s campaign and Homan’s task now is bigger than anything he has handled before.

PETE HEGSETH, Secretary of Defense

The most controversial of Trump’s picks for top jobs has found his Senate confirmation process difficult. An off-and-on Trump adviser in the president’s first term, Hegseth, a TV host and army veteran, is also a Christian nationalist and arch-conservative. He has been in trouble not only for his views on women but also for serious allegations of sexual assault, and less serious ones of financial mismanagement. At the Commander-in-Chief inaugural ball, Trump asserted Hegseth would “build the most powerful military”.

LINDA MCMAHON, Education Secretary

The 76-year-old former wrestler and WWE CEO is chair of the America First Policy Institute. As Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon is expected to play a leading role in Trump’s “revolution of common sense” by demolishing DEI and burying wokeism in school curricula and on university campuses. Rumour has it that she would have preferred another job but the wrestler in her is likely to relish the fight ahead.

CHRIS WRIGHT, Energy Secretary

This climate-change denier and CEO of Liberty Energy, a hydraulic fracturing company, is on record saying, “there is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.” Chris Wright will oversee Trump’s walk back from Paris and the response to what the White House has called a “national energy emergency”, overturning climate regulations and boosting oil and gas production. In other words, “Drill, baby, drill!”

ROBERT F KENNEDY Jr, Health and Human Services Secretary

A maverick to rival Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F Kennedy Jr wants to overhaul several public health agencies, a dozen-plus of which he will oversee. A vaccine sceptic vis-à-vis both Covid-19 and standard childhood doses, he doesn’t see the utility of studying infectious diseases either. His appointment has shocked Democrats and worried many Republicans, but RFK Jr is nothing if not an archetypal Trump pick. If he lasts in the job, the public health scene in the US won’t remain the same, for better or for worse.

Arms and Ears

TULSI GABBARD, Director of National Intelligence

The wildest card among Trump’s nominees, Tulsi Gabbard is the arch foe of the DC and Democratic (her former party) establishment which calls her a conspiracy theorist. Loved by the Russian media, she has been a friend of Vladimir Putin and the deposed Bashar al-Assad, and even a pusher of Kremlin propaganda. Little wonder, her confirmation process has seen even more trouble than Hegseth’s. A key instrument in Trump’s plans for the ‘swamp’, there is, however, no evidence that the nominee for Director of National Intelligence ever colluded with Moscow. A maverick of repute, she shares Trump’s hatred for the intelligence community, all 18 of whose agencies will have to report to her.

JOHN RATCLIFFE, CIA Director

A Trump veteran, Ratcliffe served as the 45th president’s Director of National Intelligence in 2020-21. He had declassified information from Russian espionage networks purportedly exposing Hillary Clinton’s plans to accuse Trump of collaborating with Russia as well as the cyberattacks Democrats had been targeted with in 2016.

KASH PATEL, FBI Director

Trump’s pick for FBI director can be a reformer or a wrecking ball. Not both. Kashyap ‘Kash’ Pramod Patel has been more vocal than the president himself in his distaste for the agency he has been nominated to lead. Another Trump 1.0 veteran, Patel had been instrumental in guiding the GOP-controlled House Intelligence Committee in investigating FBI’s investigation of Trump’s alleged links to Russia in 2016. A long-time advocate of overhauling FBI, Patel’s appointment was not surprising, not least since he has promised to hunt the president’s political enemies.

Power Ambassadors

STEVEN C WITKOFF, Special Envoy to the Middle East

The real estate magnate and Trump’s golf buddy is one of the heroes of the Gaza ceasefire deal that saw the Biden and Trump teams work closely together. Reportedly, it was Witkoff’s words in Benjamin Netanyahu’s ears that made the Israeli prime minister see the futility of resisting Trump, his best friend ever in the White House.

MIKE HUCKABEE, Ambassador to Israel

A former governor of Arkansas and former Southern Baptist pastor, Mike Huckabee used to fancy his chances of becoming president. Long ago. He comes from the evangelical tradition of unwavering support for Israel which he takes to the extent of urging Israel to annex the West Bank. He is also a critic of the Gaza ceasefire.

KEITH KELLOGG, Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia

Still untested and probably with a tougher job than Witkoff, this Trump 1.0 veteran is said to already have a plan for ending the Ukraine war.

ELISE STEFANIK, Ambassador to UN

The UN ambassador is important because of the foreign policy priorities the appointment indicates. Elise Stefanik, a staunch Trumpista and friend of Israel, signals a combative US at the UN.

Donald Trump Inauguration ceremonyDonaldTrump's teamElon MuskMarco RubioPete HegsethTom Homan