Here’s the latest on who Trump has picked or is considering for his new Cabinet, including reaction, commentary, and analysis.
President-elect Donald Trump isn’t wasting any time reminding everyone what it’s going to be like when Donald Trump is president. He continues to announce his various picks for his next Cabinet, rewarding his most loyal allies, setting the tenor for what his second administration will try to accomplish, and showing little apparent concern over what anybody else will think. His most contentious picks include (now former) congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general, Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary, and vaccine conspiracy proponent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary. Below are live updates on Trump’s latest Cabinet picks, along with some of the reactions, concerns, and commentary that follows.
Trump announced on Friday afternoon that the outgoing North Dakota governor (and onetime GOP primary rival) will run the Department of the Interior, as well serve as the coordinator of the Trump administration’s energy policy throughout the government. Trump says Burgum will chair “the newly formed, and very important, National Energy Council, which will consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy.”
What that actually means is that he’ll be an “energy czar” primarily tasked with increasing the production and use of fossil fuels. He’ll also serve on Trump’s White House Security Council, the president-elect said.
The reports that there is internal turmoil within Trump’s transition team over the Defense secretary pick, following the news that Hegseth, a Fox News host, was investigated for sexual assault in 2017:
The internal turmoil over Hegseth’s future was sparked by a complaint shared with the transition team with extensive information about a woman’s claim that Hegseth assaulted her in a hotel in Monterey, California, after a Republican conference, according to a person familiar with the complaint who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. The woman who drafted the complaint said the alleged victim was a friend who later signed a nondisclosure agreement with Hegseth.
Monterey police confirmed they had investigated Hegseth over an allegation of “alleged sexual assault” in 2017 and that the incident did not result in criminal charges.
