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Susie Wiles has been named Trump’s White House chief of staff. A longtime Republican strategist and Florida political operative, Wiles will be the first woman to hold the position.
Everything you need to know about Team Trump 2.0
Susie Wiles has been named Trump’s White House chief of staff. A longtime Republican strategist and Florida political operative, Wiles will be the first woman to hold the position. Before serving as Trump’s de facto campaign advisor in 2024, she was credited with helping Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott get elected in the Sunshine State.
Tom Homan has been tapped to serve as “border czar” to oversee Trump’s plans for mass deportations. The former ICE director is a strong believer in border control and will also be responsible for maritime and aviation security. At the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, DC, earlier this year, Homan notably said that if he was appointed to the position “no one’s off the table. If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.”
Stephen Miller, a senior adviser and speechwriter in Trump’s first term, has been appointed deputy chief of staff for policy. He also is expected to play a big role in cracking down on immigration. In an interview on Fox News last week, Miller expressed that he hoped to increase deportation numbers to more than one million per year, and said he hoped to begin them as soon as possible.
Rep. Mike Waltz, a House Republican and veteran Green Beret, has been chosen to serve as national security adviser. Waltz is a big China hawk who has argued that the US is not prepared enough for a potential conflict in the Indo-Pacific.
Sen. Marco Rubio will serve as America’s top diplomat – in the role of secretary of state. Rubio aligns with Trump in that he is a China hawk and has supported negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. But he is also a proponent of maintaining alliances and could serve as a counterweight to isolationist voices in Trump’s circle on some issues. He is also known for his hawkishness when it comes to Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela — and could make Latin America a much bigger priority for Trump 2.0. Tapping Rubio “suggests that Trump is going to take a more direct interest in Latin American policy this time around,” says Eurasia Group’s Clayton Allen.
John Ratcliffe, a loyalist who served as director of national intelligence in Trump's first administration, has been tapped to become the next CIA director. Ratcliffe is also a China hawk who aligns with Trump on security police.
Rep. Elise Stefanik will serve as the US ambassador to the UN. She is currently the chair of the House Republican Conference and the only woman in House Republican leadership. She has often criticized the UN, particularly over issues involving Israel and Palestine. She recently called for the US to conduct a “complete reassessment” of US funding for the UN if it continues to consider revoking Israel’s UN membership.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will serve as US ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is also an evangelical pastor and the first non-Jew to hold the position in 15 years. He has been a stalwart supporter of Israel’s right to defend itself and of its settlements in the West Bank throughout his career. His appointment is expected to further empower the far-right within Israel’s government.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has been picked to become Trump’s Homeland Security chief, where she will oversee Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FEMA, the Secret Service, and Customs and Border Protection. Noem is known as a hardliner on immigration, even sending her state’s national guard to the southern border to assist in detaining migrants, and supported Trump’s travel ban from Muslim-majority countries during his first term.
Fox News host Pete Hegseth has been nominatedto become defense secretary. Hegseth is an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq but lacks government experience, and this unorthodox choice is already facing major questions. So far, he is expected to be the most likely appointment to be held up in the Senate confirmation process.
Trump has also created new positions for Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet, and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new "Department of Government Efficiency.” Since this cabinet position does not officially exist, and cannot be created without an act of Congress, it is unclear how it will increase efficiency or streamline the bureaucracy. Trump says that it will “provide advice and guidance from outside the government.”
On Wednesday, Trump announced that former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a defector from the Democratic Party, who was briefly in the running to be Trump’s running mate, will be the director of national intelligence. Her prior service as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve has made her skeptical of the foreign policy establishment, and she is yet another of Trump’s picks who will be skeptical of US military intervention.
Trump also nominated Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as his attorney general. Gaetz notably is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee over sexual misconduct allegations. As one of Trump's closest allies, Gaetz’s nomination raises flags about his ability to put his loyalties aside in a position that’s meant to be independent of the president. That said, Gaetz is far from the first AG nominee whose independence has been questioned. The same was said about Eric Holder and Barack Obama, John Mitchell and Richard Nixon, and John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert F. Kennedy.
Will Donald Trump let AI companies run wild?
Days are numbered for Biden’s executive order
Trump hasn’t given many details about how exactly he’ll rejigger the regulatory approach to AI, but he has promised to repeal President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI, which tasked every executive department and agency with developing common-sense rules to rein in AI while also exploring how they can use the technology to further their work. At a December 2023 campaign rally in Iowa, Trump promised to “cancel” the executive order and “ban the use of AI to censor the speech of American citizens on day one.” (It’s unclear what exactly Trump was referring to, but AI has long been used by social media companies for content moderation.)
The states will be in charge of regulating AI
Megan Shahi, director of technology policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, said that a deregulatory approach by the Trump administration will cause a patchwork system that’ll be difficult for AI companies to comply with.
“This can be beneficial for some Americans living in states willing to pass regulation, but harmful for others without it,” she said. “The hope is that states set a national standard that AI companies seek to universally comply with, but that is unlikely to be a reality right away at least.”
While Trump himself is likely to be hands-off, she expects him to “entrust a team of his trusted allies”— such as Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk — “to do much of the agenda setting, decision making, and execution of the tech agenda.”
Will Trump reverse Biden’s chip crackdown?
Matt Mittelsteadt, a research fellow at the libertarian Mercatus Center at George Mason University, said he expects export controls on chips aimed at curbing China’s ability to compete on AI to continue. And while he thinks it’s a harmful idea, he believes a Republican unified government could enact controls on AI software — especially following reports that China used Meta’s open-source Llama models for military purposes.
The biggest change is Trump’s proposed tariffs on China. “For AI, the use of tariffs to either attempt to ‘punish China’ or reshore industry could be an industry killer,” Mittelsteadt said. “AI hardware depends on materials either not found or manufactured in the United States and no amount of trade protection will ‘reshore’ what cannot be reshored. The only possible result here will be financial strain that is bound to tighten the belts of Silicon Valley and yield a resulting decrease in research and development spend.”
This could give China a strategic advantage: “At this critical moment in the ‘AI race’ with China, such restrictions could represent a generational leapfrog opportunity for China’s tech sector.”
In the coming weeks, Trump will announce his Cabinet selections — the earliest indication of how he’ll handle AI and a litany of other crucial policy areas. Personnel is policy, after all. How quickly he can get them confirmed will impact how quickly he can unwind Biden’s orders and chart a new path, especially with a first 100 days agenda that’s likely to be jam-packed. Will AI make the cut or fall by the wayside? Trump hasn’t even been sworn in yet, but the clock is already ticking.