President-elect Donald Trump is naming cabinet members and adding other key positions to his administration.
These team members will have a direct impact on implementing Trump’s policies in his second term.
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to announce his intention to nominate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for secretary of state, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter, ABC News reported Monday night.
Rubio, 53, has served in the Senate since 2011. He is currently the vice-chair of the Senate Select Committee on Foreign Intelligence and also sits on the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Relations.
Donald Trump is expected to announce his intention to nominate U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for secretary of state, according to multiple sources.
Several long-serving State Department officials tell ABC News they respect Rubio’s extensive foreign policy experience and view him as unlikely to overly politicize the secretary of state role.
Rubio was also said to be favored for the role by Trump’s chief of staff and veteran Florida political operative Susie Wiles, potentially helping the lawmaker edge out loyalists from the first Trump administration like former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.
Here’s a look at the president-elect’s other appointees so far.
Susie Wiles
Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, veteran Florida political strategist Susie Wiles, moves from a largely behind-the-scenes role of campaign co-chair to the high-profile position of the president’s closest adviser and counsel.
A chief of staff serves as the president’s confidant, helping to execute an agenda and balancing competing political and policy priorities. They also tend to serve as a gatekeeper, helping determine whom the president spends their time and to whom they speak – an effort under which Trump chafed inside the White House.
The daughter of NFL player and sportscaster Pat Summerall, Wiles worked in the Washington office of New York Rep. Jack Kemp in the 1970s. Following that were stints on Ronald Reagan’s campaign and in his White House as a scheduler.
Wiles then headed to Florida, where she advised two Jacksonville mayors and worked for Rep. Tillie Fowler. After that came statewide campaigns in rough and tumble Florida politics, with Wiles being credited with helping businessman Rick Scott win the governor’s office.
After briefly managing Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign, she ran Trump’s 2016 effort in Florida, when his win in the state helped him clinch the White House.
Two years later, Wiles helped get Ron DeSantis elected as Florida’s governor. But the two would develop a rift that eventually led to DeSantis to urge Trump’s 2020 campaign to cuts its ties with the strategist, when she was again running the then-president’s state campaign.
Wiles ultimately went on to lead Trump’s primary campaign against DeSantis and trounced the Florida governor.
Joining up with Trump’s third campaign in its nascent days, Wiles is one of the few top officials to survive an entire Trump campaign and was part of the team that put together a far more professional operation for his third White House bid – even if the former president routinely broke through those guardrails anyway
She largely avoided the spotlight, even refusing to take the mic to speak as Trump celebrated his victory early Wednesday morning.
In his first administration, Trump went through four chiefs of staff – including one who served in an acting capacity for a year – in a period of record-setting personnel churn.
Stephen Miller
Trump is naming longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration.
Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, dating back to his first campaign for the White House. He was a senior adviser in Trump’s first term and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration, including Trump’s move to separate thousands of immigrant families as a deterrence program in 2018.
Miller has also helped craft many of Trump’s hard-line speeches, and was often the public face of those policies during Trump’s first term in office and during his campaigns.
Since leaving the White House, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization of former Trump advisers fashioned as a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union, challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as freedom of speech and religion and national security.
He was also a frequent presence during Trump’s campaign this year, traveling aboard his plane and often speaking ahead of Trump during the pre-shows at his rallies.
Tom Homan
Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan is going to be the “border czar” in the Trump administration, Trump announced on Truth Social.
Homan, a staunch Trump supporter, will be in charge of the mass deportations that have been promised by Trump throughout his 2024 campaign.
“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders,” Trump wrote in his post on Sunday evening.
MORE | Former ICE Director Tom Homan to join Trump administration as ‘border czar’
“Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin. Congratulations to Tom. I have no doubt he will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job,” Trump added.
Homan oversaw ICE during the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” enforcement that separated parents from their children at the border.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) estimates there are anywhere from 500 to 1,000 families who have not been reunited.
Rep. Mike Waltz
Trump has officially announced his appointment of Florida Rep. Mike Waltz as his national security adviser.
The national security adviser is appointed by the president without confirmation by the Senate.
Waltz is a former Green Beret and China hawk who emerged as a key surrogate for Trump, criticizing the Biden-Harris foreign policy record during the campaign.
The Florida Republican sits on the Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees.
He has supported aid to Ukraine in the past but has demanded “conditions,” including increased spending from European allies, additional oversight of funds and pairing the aid with border security measures.
Waltz, who has visited Ukraine, was a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s policy towards Ukraine, criticizing the White House and allies for not providing Ukraine with more lethal aid — such as MiG fighter planes — earlier in the conflict.
Before running for elected office, Waltz served in various national security policy roles in the Bush administration, Pentagon and White House.
Trump had four different national security advisers during his first term, outside of those who served very briefly: Michael Flynn, H.R. McMaster, John Bolton and Robert O’Brien.
Rep. Lee Zeldin
President-elect Trump has selected former Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as EPA administrator, the second New Yorker to be selected to the cabinet.
Zeldin, who left Congress in 2023, was a surprising pick for the role. His public appearances both in his own campaigns and on behalf of Trump often had him speaking about issues like the military, national security, antisemitism, U.S.-Israel relations, immigration and crime.
He was among the Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election results. While in Congress, he did not serve on committees with oversight of environmental policy.
In 2016 he pushed to change the designation of about 150 square miles of federal waters in Long Island Sound to state jurisdiction for New York and Rhode Island. He wanted to open the area to striped bass fishing, which is allowed in state waters but banned in the federal area.
Rep. Elise Stefanik
President-elect Donald Trump selected Rep. Elise Stefanik to be his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, multiple Trump officials confirmed to ABC News.
Republican Rep. Stefanik won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing New York last Tuesday.
MORE | Trump chooses Rep. Elise Stefanik of NY to serve as US ambassador to United Nations
Stefanik built up a national profile as an unwavering ally of President-elect Trump and as a sharp-tongued partisan critic.
First elected to Congress in 2014 at age 30, she eventually shed her early reputation as a moderate Republican and rose to become the highest-ranking woman in the House Republican leadership.
Stefanik represents a largely rural northern New York district that includes some of the most sparsely populated parts of the state.
Mike Huckabee
President Elect Donald Trump has announced former Gov. of Arkansas Mike Huckabee as the United States Ambassador to Israel.
“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Trump said in a statement. “He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!”
The role, which will need to be confirmed by the Senate, will be a key appointment as tensions remain high in the Middle East.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
ABC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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