Donald Trump’s re-election to serve a second, non-consecutive term — the second presidential candidate to do so in the nation’s history—spurred immediate speculation over his cabinet picks. In the weeks that have followed his win, the president-elect has named the nominees for all the major posts in his administration. The nominees range across the political spectrum and include MAGA loyalists, disaffected Democrats, GOP moderates and technocrats, and so-far have been met with mixed reactions– some from within Trump’s own party. The following will be a brief accounting of more interesting and controversial candidate picks and what priorities they could indicate for the next four years.
Attorney-General – Matt Gaetz Pam Bondi
The nominee that faced the most pushback by far was Trump’s initial nomination of Matt Gaetz for the position of Attorney General. Gaetz, an inexperienced attorney but long time Trump ally since his election to representative in 2016, has been marred by controversy for witness alleged intimidation of Michael Cohem, use of tax-payer funds to friends, and sexual misconduct. The last of which led to a House ethics committee investigation whose report was never released, a non-starter for the GOP senators, leading Gaetz to ultimately withdraw his name from consideration.
Trump’s follow up nominee was another MAGA loyalist and fellow Floridian Pam Bondi, the state’s first female Attorney General, who earned her MAGA bona fides defending Trump in his first impeachment trial in 2020. In her capacity as Florida’s Attorney-General, she had a mixed record on LGBTQ+ civil rights and supported controversial immigration policies like Arizona’s “show me your papers” law. The Attorney-General is a powerful position in the cabinet, especially for its dual-role of both overseeing and representing the president in legal matters. Trump’s last two attorney generals, Jeff Sessions and William Bar, both found themselves on the receiving end of Trump’s criticism for their refusal to toe his party line, the former with recusing himself from the Russian investigation and the latter by finding no fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s decision to appoint two avowed loyalists with the track-records to prove it indicates that he intends to go into a second term expecting the attorney general to take marching orders and give little or no oversight to the actions of the president.
Secretary of Defense – Pete Hegseth
Trump has made no secret of his desire to use the US military in enacting his mass deportation of illegal immigrants, making the choice of his secretary of defense especially relevant for the peacetime nation. To this end, Trump has put forward Fox News commentator and National Guard army veteran Pete Hegseth to enact his domestic policy agenda. Hegseth, a major in the Army National Guard who served overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, has had no shortage of past controversial statements and equally controversial plans for the military.
Hegseth’s history with Trump goes back to his first administration where he lobbied the then-President to pardon several U.S. soldiers charged with war crimes, one of which was for firing on civilians. Hegseth’s lobbying worked. Coupled with this, he has said that women should not be in combat roles, written, “America’s white sons and daughters are walking away [from the military], and who can blame them,” and said that the US army and NATO should disregard international law concerning the rules of warfare.
If confirmed, Hegseth would be set to change the face of the military, quite literally, by purging “woke” officers, a term with a lax definition and could extend to any officer supporting DEI and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He has also suggested that he would support restricting transgender participation in the armed forces, reversing Obama and Biden era positions. These specific policies are a part of a larger scheme of Hegseth’s to purge the Pentagon of alleged internal enemies, including seditious fifth columnists, leftists, and “enemies of freedom.” Against these domestic threats, Hegseth calls for a “crusade” couched in a nationalistic and religious rhetoric appropriate for a man whose chest bears a Jerusalem Cross and “Deus Vult,” two symbols associated with far-right Christian nationalism.
Secretary of State – Marco Rubio
The turbulent state of global politics, from the Israel-Hamas war, Russo-Ukrainian war, the crisis in Haiti, civil wars in Sudan, Yemen and Myanmar, and the rising tensions between China and Taiwan, to name a few, makes the choice for Secretary of State crucial for divining Trump’s foreign policy agenda. In keeping with Trump’s self-described appellation as “Peace,” he has named notable China-hawk, and previous Trump critic, Marco Rubio.
If confirmed, Rubio would be the first Latino to serve as the Secretary of State and be responsible for implementing Trump’s foreign policy goals, which could mean arbitrating a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine (invariably giving concessions to the former), and standing by while Israel “finishes the job” in Gaza.
Rubio will also be responsible for translating Trump’s sabre-rattling rhetoric into workable policy with regard to Latin America, which ranges anywhere from tariffs on Mexico, to maintaining the status quo with Cuba, a belligerent attitude toward Venezuela, and all the while handling the diplomatic front with Trump’s proposed mass deportation of illegal immigrants. By using Trump’s first term as precedent, and by the fact that he’s already equivocating on his proposed tariffs, some foreign policy experts predict that Rubio’s tenure will feature more “continuity over change.”
Though Rubio is not the first member of the inner circle to have a checkered political history with MAGA—one need only look at Trump’s VP—he is significant for being a high ranking figure who predates Trump himself, and is as “old-guard” as one is probable to find in the second Trump cabinet.
What is clear from these examples is that in the almost 10 years since Trump first entered into national politics, he has ingratiated himself into mainstream politics so that he can draw on MAGA politicians—re. not necessarily GOP politicians—for his appointments, as opposed to the first administration where he had to search for the true believers.
