- D. Trump appoints key positions in White House offices
- Experienced politicians return to office
- D. Trump aims to announce all his Cabinet-level pics by Thanksgiving: the list so far
D. Trump appoints key positions in White House offices
Elected president Donald Trump has been choosing his team for a few weeks now. Ever since the beginning of the November election, he has given out many seats to important positions. Now, the re-elected president appoints three key positions in White House offices[1].
Three important names include two who served D. Trump during his first term. James Braid will return to the White House as the deputy assistant to the president and director of the Office of Legislative Affairs. He already worked on legislative affairs at the Office of Management and Budget during the first term of Trump's presidency.
Later, he served as the lead policy staffer for Vice President-elect JD Vance in the Senate. Braid has been chief of staff for multiple Congress members and has taken on various other senior policy roles on Capitol Hill. He has experience in these fields since 2015.
Another returning face is Alex Latcham. He returns to the White House as the deputy assistant to the president and director of the Office of Public Liaison. He was a special assistant to the president and deputy political director during the previous Trump presidency.
For the past eight years, Latcham has served as D. Trump's senior deputy political director for his campaign ad for the Republican National Committee. Matt Brasseaux was the third person appointed to the White House. He will become a deputy assistant to the president and director of the Office of Public Affairs.
Braseaux previously worked as a deputy political director during the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee in 2024. He has also been a regional political director for the Republican National Committee and campaign manager for Joe Lobardo in Nevada.
Experienced politicians return to office
In addition to these three people, D. Trump continuously announces new people joining his team next year. Before the statement was issued on Monday, last week was big on such announcements, too. Friday, he announced that former firebrand Trump administration aide Sebastian Gorka would return to the White House, too[2].
Gorka will join the White House National Security Council as a deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism. President Trump praised Gorka for advocating for the America First Agenda and the MAGA movement.
S. Gorka was seen as a strong deputy national security adviser contender. His expertise on counterterrorism in conservative media circles and experience in the Trump White House as a strategist and deputy assistant to the president in 2017 makes him a great candidate.
Also, it was reported that D. Trump invited Russell Vought to run the White House budget office once again. Trump praised R. Vought: "Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self-Government to the People. We will restore fiscal sanity to our Nation and unleash the American People to new levels of Prosperity and Ingenuity."
However, it is unclear how his role could mesh with the government staffing and funding cuts that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy already envisioned. R. Vought is and essential figure, being one of the authors of the wide-ranging conservative policy blueprint Project 2025[3].
D. Trump aims to announce all his Cabinet-level pics by Thanksgiving: the list so far
D. Trump urges to announce all his pics for the Cabinet 2025 by the end of this week. He appointed most positions, and many have triggered questions, controversies, and criticism. Trump stirred up most of the questions and concerns with his announcement about Musk and Ramaswamy.
Trump said they would lead an effort to cut the government spending and federal employees. The re-elected president put the two in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency. However, Congress has not established this method as a federal department or provided funding for it.
One of Donald Trump's first picks for the Secretary of the Treasury was Hedge Fund CEO Scott Bessent. Trump deeply respected the founder of Connecticut-based hedge fund Key Square Group. The president also described him as "the world's foremost international investor and geopolitical and economic Strategist."
D. Trump has already chosen these people for the critical Cabinet posts and top White House and administration jobs:
- White House chief of staff: Susie Wiles
- Secretary of State: Marco Rubio
- Attorney general: Pam Bondi (after Matt Gaetz withdrew)
- Deputy attorney general: Todd Blanche
- HHS secretary: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought
- U.N. ambassador: Elise Stefanik
- "Border czar": Tom Homan
- Defense Secretary: Pete Hegseth
- Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Doug Collins
- National security adviser: Michael Waltz
- Interior Secretary: Doug Burgum
- Secretary of Energy: Chris Wright
- Secretary of Transportation: Sean Duffy
- Secretary of Commerce: Howard Lutnick
- Secretary of Education: Linda McMahon
- Secretary of the Treasury: Scott Bessent
- Secretary of Labor: Lori Chavez-DeRemer
- White House counsel: William McGinley
- U.S. Ambassador to NATO: Matthew Whitaker
- Secretary of Homeland Security: Kristi Noem
- HUD secretary: Scott Turner
- CIA director: John Ratcliffe
- Director of National Intelligence: Tulsi Gabbard
- EPA administrator: Lee Zeldin
- Solicitor general: Dean John Sauer
- FDA commissioner: Marty Makary
- Secretary of Agriculture: Brooke Rollins
- CDC Director: David Weldon
- FCC chairman: Brendan Carr
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator: Dr. Mehmet Oz
- Surgeon general: Dr. Janette Nesheiwat
- U.S. Ambassador to Israel: Mike Huckabee
- U.S. ambassador to Canada: Pete Hoekstra
- U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York: Jay Clayton
- Department of Government Efficiency: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy
- Deputy chief of staff: Dan Scavino
- Deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser: Stephen Miller
- Deputy chief of staff for Legislative, political and Public Affairs: James Blair
- Deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel: Taylor Budowich
- Presidential Personnel Office head: Sergio Gor
- White House Communications Director: Steven Cheung
- White House press secretary: Karoline Leavitt.
Some positions still require confirmation from the Senate, like Secretary of State, Labor, Agriculture, Attorney General, and so on. However, positions not requiring any confirmation can already prepare for the role. Those include White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, White House Counsel Bill McGinley, Communications Director Steve Cheung, Press Secretary Will Scharf, Director of Presidential Personnel Sergio Gor, and Co-commissioners of Government Efficiency Elon Musk na Vivek Ramaswamy.
