The former US president Donald Trump, due to return to the White House in January, has not yet engaged in formal discussions regarding his new cabinet. Nevertheless, amid his plane journeys, television appearances and rallies, speculation and rumours have swirled around several figures who could find roles in his administration.
Confirmed offers of a role
Susie Wiles
Confirmed role: Chief of staff
Trump has named Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff, the first woman to hold the influential role. She was previously the campaign manager for his successful bid for re-election. Although her political views remain somewhat ambiguous, she is seen as having led a successful and streamlined presidential race. Supporters believe she could introduce a level of organisation and discipline that was frequently absent throughout Trump’s first term, marked by a series of changes in the chief of staff role.
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Expected cabinet picks
Elon Musk
Potential role: unspecified
Elon Musk, who turned into a fully fledged cheerleader for Trump and who holds billions in federal contracts, has reportedly sought a role in a second Trump administration in charge of the regulators that oversee him. Trump has appeared to rule out a cabinet role for Musk, but has said he wants the tech billionaire to have some sort of an unspecified role in his administration. The world’s wealthiest person has proposed the establishment of a Department of Government Efficiency.
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Robert F Kennedy Jr
Potential role: unspecified
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the son of the assassinated Bobby Kennedy and nephew of JFK, whose independent campaign for president has at times reached as high as 10% of the vote, strongly believes he has a shot at a role in Trump’s cabinet after he backed the Republican. While senior members of Trump’s campaign have ruled out Kennedy getting a job in the Department of Health, Trump has said he would let him “do what he wants” with women’s healthcare if he makes it to the White House, citing how Kennedy would be able to “go wild” on food and medicines.
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Doug Burgum
Potential role: ‘energy tsar’
The Financial Times reports that Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, is being considered for an “energy tsar” role. The role and its powers have yet to be finalised. However, Trump has called the climate crisis “one of the great scams of all time” and has promised to “drill, baby, drill”. It’s expected any climate or energy secretary would be tasked with rolling back environmental regulations.
In 2023, Burgum ran a short-lived campaign for the Republican nomination for president. He went on to become a highly visible, prolific Trump surrogate and advised Trump on energy policy.
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Mike Pompeo
Potential role: secretary of defence
Mike Pompeo, a former CIA director and secretary of state and devoted ally of Trump, chose not to challenge his ex-boss for the Republican nomination. The staunch supporter of Israel and a sworn enemy of Iran is widely considered a key contender for a top role in the new administration, possible as secretary of defence.
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Richard Grenell
Potential role: secretary of state
Richard Grenell, an ex-Fox News contributor who is among Trump’s closest foreign policy advisers, is probably in the running for secretary of state or other top foreign policy and national security posts. A former US ambassador to Germany and vocal backer of Trump’s America First credo on the international stage in his first term, he has advocated for setting up an autonomous zone in eastern Ukraine to end the war there, a position Kyiv considers unacceptable.
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Tom Cotton
Potential role: secretary of defence
The far-right Republican senator from Arkansas emerged as a dark-horse contender to be Trump’s running mate in the final weeks of the vice-presidential selection process. In a notorious 2020 New York Times op-ed headlined Send In the Troops, Tom Cotton, likened Black Lives Matter protests to a rebellion and urged the government to deploy the US military against demonstrators by invoking the Insurrection Act. He is well liked among Trump donors and also seen as a contender for secretary of defence.
Cotton has said he won’t take a role.
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Ben Carson
Potential role: secretary of housing and urban development
A retired neurosurgeon and former US housing secretary, Ben Carson has pushed for a national abortion ban – a posture at odds with most Americans and even Donald Trump himself. During his 2016 run he ran into controversy when he likened abortion to slavery and said he wanted to see the end of Roe v Wade. When the supreme court reversed its decision in the Dobbs case, he called it “a crucial correction”. Carson could be nominated by Trump as housing and urban development secretary.
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Scott Bessent
Potential role: unspecified
A key economic adviser to Trump and ally of JD Vance, Scott Bessent, the manager of Key Square macro hedge fund, is seen as a possible cabinet contender. The Wall Street investor and a prominent Trump fundraiser has praised Trump’s use of tariffs as a negotiating tool.
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Mike Waltz
Potential role: secretary of defence, or secretary of state
A former US army green beret, who now serves as a congressman for Florida, Michael Waltz has solidified his reputation as a leading advocate for a tougher stance on China within the House of Representatives. He played a leading role in sponsoring legislation aimed at reducing the US’s dependence on minerals sourced from China. Waltz is known to have a solid friendship with Trump and has also voiced support for US assistance to Ukraine, while concurrently pushing for greater oversight of American taxpayer funds allocated to support Kyiv’s defence efforts. He has been tipped in the US media as a contender for either defence secretary or secretary of state.
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Robert Lighthizer
Potential role: trade or commerce secretary
Robert Lighthizer is Donald Trump’s most senior trade official. He is a firm believer in tariffs and was one of the leading figures in Trump’s trade war with China. Described by Trump as “the greatest United States trade representative in American history”, Lighthizer is almost certain to be back in the new cabinet. Though Scott Bessent and the billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson probably have a better shot at becoming treasury secretary, Lighthizer has a few outside chances: he might be able to reprise his old role as US trade representative or become the new commerce secretary.
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Brooke Rollins
Potential role: unspecified
A former domestic policy adviser in the White House, Brooke Rollins has a close personal relationship with Trump. Considered by many to be one of Trump’s more moderate advisers, she backed the former president’s first-term criminal justice reforms that lessened prison sentences for some relatively minor offences.
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Donald Trump Jr
Potential role: unspecified
Although he has been less prominent on the campaign trail than in previous election cycles, the 47th president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, was active behind the scenes and advocated for his friend JD Vance as running mate. He has built a loyal following in the Maga universe via his Triggered podcast and has taken a role along with his brother Eric Trump in the transition process to establish a new administration. The formal co-chairs of the transition are the Cantor Fitzgerald chief executive, Howard Lutnick, and Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.
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Stephen Miller
Potential role: unspecified
A senior policy adviser in the early part of Trump’s first term who was the chief architect of the Muslim travel ban, Stephen Miller is expected to be back in the White House for a second Trump term that the president-elect has said will bring the largest mass deportation in US history. The anti-immigration extremist is also the founder of America First Legal, a group described by him as the right’s “long-awaited answer” to the American Civil Liberties Union, and is already helping drive plans for the second Trump term.
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Includes reporting by Reuters
