Fresh off his victory in the 2024 election, Donald Trump has already started making his picks for key members of his new administration. It’s a largely different lineup than the one he had at the end of his last term, but there are a couple familiar names.
Trump has not yet named anyone to cabinet posts, but he’s already calling on the Republican-controlled Senate to change existing rules and let him appoint nominees without a Senate vote. In a post on Truth Social and X, Trump referenced the race for Senate Majority Leader, saying “Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.”
And while there’s plenty of speculation about what role high-profile names like Elon Musk and Robert Kennedy Jr. might play in his administration, Trump has made it clear that others, including Mike Pompeo, his former U.S. Secretary of State and CIA chief, and Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as his U.N. ambassador (and political opponent in 2024), will not be invited to serve.
Here’s a look at who Trump has selected so far.
Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff
Wiles is set to be the first female chief of staff in White House history. She’s not a name that’s especially well-known outside of Washington, D.C., but she’s one of the most powerful political operatives in the Republican party and was credited with helping Trump get reelected, despite the events of January 6 and his civil and criminal convictions.
The 67-year-old political strategist has been in politics for more than 40 years, much of it in Florida, but tends to keep a behind-the-scenes profile. She’s the daughter of the late NFL sportscaster Pat Summerall; worked for President Ronald Reagan during his campaign, White House years and post-presidency; and has known Trump since 2015. She also is credited with the election of Ron DeSantis as governor of Florida. The two eventually had a falling out, however, and DeSantis pushed her out of his political operation in 2019 and convinced Trump to do the same. (Trump brought her back to his campaign soon after his loss in 2020.) When DeSantis withdrew from the 2024 presidential campaign, Wiles made a rare social media post reading “Bye bye.”
Respected by both Democrats and Republicans, she is expected to have more control than her predecessors over who gets into the Oval Office to see Trump. “She is brilliant, tough, strategic,” Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D) wrote Thursday on X. “She will serve the country well.”
Tom Homan, Border Czar
The former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homan won’t need Senate confirmation for the “border czar” role, which oversees security at the southern and northern U.S. borders, as well as “all Maritime and Aviation Security,” per Trump. Homan will be the point person in Trump’s vow of mass deportations.
He’s a former police officer and border patrol agent, who worked under six presidents over 30 years in law enforcement. And he was one of the architects of the controversial family separation policy in Trump’s first administration that saw 5,500 children of immigrants separated from their parents in 2018 (of which 1,400 children have yet to be reunited with their parents). Homan resigned soon after the fallout and became a commentator on Fox News and contributed to Project 2025.
Stephen Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
Miller is the most familiar name of Trump’s announcements so far. An immigration hardliner, he worked with Trump’s first administration in a variety of roles including director of speechwriting, crafting some of the most hardline addresses, and senior advisor. He was a chief architect, along with Homan, of the family separation policy—and as White House spokesman, regularly made unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
Since departing the White House, he has been president of America First Legal, an organization of former Trump advisers. This role, also, does not require Senate confirmation, since it’s not a Cabinet position.
Elise Stefanik, United Nations ambassador
As House Republican conference chair, Stefanik has been a long-time critic of the UN, so her appointment to the body could send a message to world leaders. She is a firm defender of Israel and has accused the UN of antisemitism for its criticism of the country’s attacks in the Gaza Strip. She also was opposed to the latest assistance package for Ukraine, voting against it in April.
Stefanik was elected to the House of Representatives in 2014 by voters in upstate New York and is a former aide to George W. Bush. She initially was a moderate but has moved further to the right, becoming a vocal defender of Trump. She argued for his defense on social media and Fox News during his first impeachment trial, and refused to certify the 2020 election results after the January 6 attack on the Capital. She currently serves on the House Armed Services Committee as well as the House Intelligence Committee.
Trump and his transition team—which is being led by Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, former CEO of WWE (and wife of Vince McMahon)—are expected to make more announcements in the coming days, but the campaign has not given a firm timeline on when it expects to do so.