Tracking Every Trump Cabinet Pick

President-elect Donald Trump is already beginning to finalize his Cabinet roster less than a week after his decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.

The president’s Cabinet usually includes the vice president and the heads of 15 executive departments, including the president’s chief of staff, the secretary of state, and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“Kristi has been very strong on Border Security,” Trump said in his announcement. “She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times.

“She will work closely with ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan to secure the Border and will guarantee that our American Homeland is secure from our adversaries.”

Noem became South Dakota’s first-ever female governor in 2018, and was reelected in 2022 by an historic vote count for the state. She was floated as the possible choice for Trump’s vice president before Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) was selected.

The 52-year-old mother and grandmother has continued to take a strong stance against illegal immigration. Previously describing the Texas border with Mexico as a “warzone,” she is aligned with Homan in the belief that anybody who crosses the U.S. border illegally must be deported.

Besides border security, the Department of Homeland Security encompasses several agencies, including the Secret Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Hegseth is the latest veteran to be named in the president-elect’s Cabinet. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a captain in the Army National Guard. He has been awarded two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman’s Badge.

Trump highlighted Hegseth’s military background in his announcement.

“Pete has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops and for the Country,” Trump said. “Pete is tough, smart, and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down.”

Hegseth also graduated from Princeton and Harvard, wrote the bestselling book “The War on Warriors,” which criticizes left-wind policies concerning the military, and he spent eight years as a Fox News host.

John Ratcliffe, CIA Director

Trump announced John Ratcliffe as his pick to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Ratcliffe served as the director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, as well as Trump’s primary intelligence adviser. Trump awarded him the National Security Medal in 2020.

Trump said Ratcliffe would be a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans while ensuring the highest levels of national security.”

The Notre Dame and SMU Law graduate previously served as a member of Congress, where he was a member of the House Intelligence Committee and House Judiciary Committee. While in Congress, he was also questioned about the foundation of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation against the Trump campaign in 2016, and, in late 2020, made the claim that year’s elections were marred by foreign intelligence.

Ratcliffe also spoke out against communist China intelligence, stating that the Chinese Communist Party attempted to meddle in the 2020 elections and later testifying that a lab leak in China was “the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science, and by common sense” for the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.