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The president-elect is aiming for loyalty as he builds his top team after mixed success first time around
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Donald Trump is putting the finishing touches to his second-term Cabinet as he prepares to return to the White House.
Here’s how the new Team Trump compares to the old guard — and what he has learnt from them.
Mike Pence was chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate in 2016 for two reasons: he was a reassuring figure with solid conservative credentials who could bring over the evangelical base and, to Mr Trump, he looked “straight out of central casting”.
The former Indiana governor – a one time radio host who called himself “Rush Limbaugh on decaf” – was almost invisible throughout his time in the White House with a boss who rarely shared the spotlight.
He became a target for rioters storming the Capitol on Jan 6 2021, who chanted “Hang Mike Pence” after he refused to follow Mr Trump’s demand not to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
JD Vance, a first-term Ohio senator, has had an unlikely and meteoric ascent since Mr Trump tapped him as his running mate in July.
A former marine who wrote a bestselling memoir about his “hillbilly” upbringing, Mr Vance was once a Trump critic who became a convert to the president-elect’s cause before winning an Ohio senate seat in 2022.
Mr Trump has selected a vice-president for term two who will prove more pliant than his first, with Mr Vance saying he would have refused to certify the results of the 2020 election results.
Reince Priebus was the ultimate party insider and loyalist — who found himself totally unequipped to handle Mr Trump’s chaotic White House.
The then president never quite trusted Mr Priebus after the former urged him to end his 2016 election campaign early, after Mr Trump’s comments about grabbing women by the “p—-” emerged in the press.
Mr Priebus finally resigned after being publicly accused by the White House communications director of leaking on national TV.
It was the shortest tenure in history of any permanent chief of staff.
Unlike Mr Priebus, Mr Trump is thought to trust Susie Wiles implicitly after resurrecting her political career to bring her onboard as campaign manager for his successful 2024 run.
It remains to be seen how she will navigate the personalities and egos of the new White House. Ms Wiles does not thrive on conflict, unlike other members of the administration, and has been called the “ice maiden” by Mr Trump.
But while previous chiefs of staff tried and failed to control the president, Ms Wiles has proved adept at managing her boss in their months together on the campaign trail.
She is thought to have been successful in encouraging Mr Trump not to insult Michelle Obama after the former first lady referred to him as a “small man”.
Rex Tillerson was an unlikely pick as secretary of state after spending his entire career at ExxonMobil, where he worked his way up from a civil engineer to become chief executive of the oil giant.
He was notable for keeping a low profile in office, and managed to isolate staff in the White House as well as in the State Department. Some 60 per cent of top-ranking diplomats left during his tenure, while new applications fell by half.
Mr Trump later suggested Mr Tillerson had been sacked because he was too soft on Iran – although he was also reported to have privately called his boss a “f—ing moron”.
In his almost 14 years in the Senate, Marco Rubio has been a fairly moderate Republican with hawkish instincts.
He is seen as particularly tough on Iran, recently suggesting he could seek to strengthen oil sanctions against Tehran, as well as being a strong supporter of Nato – unlike the president-elect.
However, the Florida senator opposed billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine earlier this year and is in favour of a negotiated settlement to end the war with Russia, claiming that Washington is “funding a stalemate”.
His time in the Senate should smooth his confirmation process, and he should prove more adept at working the government machine and keeping the White House onside than Mr Tillerson.
Jim Mattis was one of the group of hires for the first administration that Mr Trump liked to call “my generals”. He particularly enjoyed Mr Mattis’ nickname: “Mad Dog.”
He had retired in 2013 from Barack Obama’s administration amid claims that the White House saw him as too hawkish on Iran, and went on to leave the Trump administration when the then president overruled him to withdraw troops from Syria.
Mr Mattis eventually denounced Mr Trump as a threat to the Constitution for politicising the military and seeking to overturn the 2020 election result. Mr Trump, in turn, called him “the world’s most overrated general”.
Pete Hegseth’s nomination as defence secretary took most commentators by surprise, given his relative lack of progression in the military chain of command.
Former Fox News host Mr Hegseth, who reached the rank of major, is set to take over a department of some 3.4 million employees and a budget of close to a trillion dollars. His nomination has been rocked by allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017 – which he denies.
He shares Mr Trump’s isolationist views and opposition to “woke s—”, but the key factor in his favour may be the president-elect’s desire to avoid defiant authority figures like the “generals” of his first term.
John Kelly, a former four-star general, had a relatively harmonious relationship with Mr Trump as his first homeland security secretary.
Mr Kelly was tasked with implementing some of the most contentious policies of the first administration, including the so-called “Muslim ban”, the construction of a border wall and ramping up deportations of illegal immigrants.
He was later rewarded with replacing Reince Priebus as chief of staff – where his relationship with the then president fell apart spectacularly.
Mr Kelly would go on to brand his former boss a “fascist” who once admired the work of Adolf Hitler.
Kristi Noem was seen as a strong contender for the job of Mr Trump’s running mate until she admitted shooting dead a badly behaved dog in her memoir.
The South Dakota governor regularly joined the president-elect on the campaign trail, memorably perching on a stool awkwardly at a town hall while he spent 30 minutes dancing to his favourite campaign tunes.
The president-elect wants to enact mass deportations and does not want a homeland security chief who pushes back. Ms Noem, who once plastered Mr Trump’s face on a model of Mount Rushmore, seems to fit the bill.
Mr Trump never forgave Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the FBI investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The then-president spent months attacking his own attorney general, labelling him “very weak”, and “disgraceful”, and mocking his decisions on social media.
It was widely seen as a public humiliation campaign to shame Mr Sessions into resigning.
Mr Trump went on to sack him after the mid-term elections and eventually replaced him with Bill Barr.
Unlike Mr Sessions, who had spent decades in the Senate and decades more in Alabama politics, Matt Gaetz is the ultimate outsider who owes Mr Trump his political career.
Other presidents would have wavered in their support for the former congressman, who has been accused of – and denied – a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old schoolgirl. Mr Trump doubled down.
If he had managed to install him at the top of the justice department, Mr Trump would have had an ally with no other options who would do whatever he wanted.
However, Mr Gaetz withdrew his name eight days after being nominated, saying he wanted to avoid a “needlessly protracted Washington scuffle”.
Mr Trump then nominated Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, for the role.
The president-elect said that Ms Bondi would “refocus” the justice department on fighting crime and prevent it being “weaponised” against Republicans.
Ms Bondi was the first woman to become Florida attorney general, in which position she opposed same-sex marriage and unsuccessfully tried to undo Obamacare, which guarantees health insurance coverage.
As UN ambassador, Nikki Haley had to use her diplomatic skills to navigate the pitfalls of the Trump White House – and barely put a foot wrong in doing so.
She struck a tougher tone on Russia than Mr Trump although he kept her onside throughout the term, saying in 2018: “We don’t trust Russia. We don’t trust Putin.” A week earlier, the US president had said at a summit that he trusted the Russian leader over US intelligence agencies.
Mr Trump had previously suggested Ms Haley could return to the White House, but was said to have been angered by the challenge she mounted for the Republican presidential nomination this year.
Elise Stefanik was once a Trump critic and considered a moderate Republican, but has since moved wholeheartedly into the president-elect’s camp.
As well as being a loyal backer of Mr Trump, she is a strong supporter of Israel and claims to have backed “every single” measure to aid the country during her nine years in Congress.
There are signs that Ms Stefanik will not subtly distance herself from her new boss like Ms Haley.
Asked by CNN if she still supported Ukraine’s admission to Nato, she replied in a statement that she “fully supports President Trump’s peace through strength policy”.
Sean Spicer had spent decades in Republican politics before becoming Mr Trump’s first press secretary.
He set out to prove his loyalty to the new president days into the role.
He claimed, despite photographic evidence and to general incredulity, that the crowds that had gathered for Mr Trump when he was sworn in were the largest seen for any president.
Mr Spicer was widely ridiculed for the claim, among others, and was memorably parodied as a snarling, hyper aggressive spin doctor on Saturday Night Live. He resigned amid reports that Mr Trump has become dissatisfied with his performance, saying afterwards: “I had become the story too often”.
Karoline Leavitt will become the youngest White House press secretary when she takes up the post in January at the age of just 27.
Unlike Mr Spicer, who was one of several imports into the administration from the RNC, Ms Leavitt has been with Mr Trump almost her whole career since entering the White House on a college internship, before going on to join his campaign officially.
Ms Leavitt has proven adept at handling the president-elect and his occasionally outlandish claims, which will stand her in good stead for the post.
Sean Spicer was never chosen by Trump to become the White House’s communications director, but stepped in at short notice after Jason Miller dropped out.
Mr Miller’s appointment had been announced just days before, until allegations of an affair with a fellow campaign staffer with whom he later fathered a child became public.
Mr Spicer stepped away from the White House altogether after telling Mr Trump that he vehemently disagreed with the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci to replace him. “The Mooch” lasted just 10 days in the role.
Steven Cheung, a former UFC spokesman, is a partisan political brawler who brings with him experience from the first Trump administration where he was an assistant communications director.
Mr Cheung seems better suited to the world of political combat than Mr Spicer, and his return signals the new Trump White House will be just as aggressive as the 2024 Trump campaign.
He is known for his bare-knuckle briefings, regularly accusing Mr Trump’s critics of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome”.
Earlier this year, he labelled Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, a “cuck”.
By any stretch of the imagination, Elon Musk should have enough on his plate. He is the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX among several other companies, and is a serial user of X, formerly known as Twitter – which he owns.
To add to those responsibilities, Mr Trump has appointed him to head up a new commission known as the Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Some of Mr Trump’s former hires from the world of business have struggled to get to grips with running a department – like Rex Tillerson. But Mr Musk believes himself the exception and claims he can slash $2 trillion from the federal budget.
Mr Musk will head up DOGE with Vivek Ramaswamy, a former biotech entrepreneur who ran against Mr Trump for the Republican nomination this year.
Unlike figures like Ms Haley, who turned their fire on the president-elect, Mr Ramaswamy paid tribute to him as “the greatest president of my lifetime” even as he sought to replace the Republican at the top of the ticket.
He dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucus in January and quickly established himself as a useful surrogate figure in the Trump campaign.
Mr Trump will have not just one but two immigration hawks to spearhead his mass deportation plans with the appointment of Tom Homan as his border tsar.
Mr Homan, a former acting head of immigration enforcement, knows exactly what levers the federal government can pull, and is seen as a bruiser with no qualms about pulling them.
He was the architect of the “family separation” programme in which children who illegally crossed the border were separated from their families and kept in cages.
Mr Trump backed away from the policy in 2018 at the behest of his wife, Melania, but may choose to double down this time around.
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