He’s expected to reward the band of surrogates who stood
by him.
President-elect Donald Trump does not have the
traditional cadre of Washington insiders and donors to build out his Cabinet,
but his transition team has spent the past several months quietly building a
short list of industry titans and conservative activists who could comprise one
of the more eclectic and controversial presidential Cabinets in modern history.
Trumpworld has started with a mandate to hire from the
private sector whenever possible. That’s why the Trump campaign is seriously
considering Forrest Lucas, the 74-year-old co-founder of oil products company
Lucas Oil, as a top contender for Interior secretary, or donor and Goldman
Sachs veteran Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary.
He’s also expected to reward the band of surrogates who
stood by him during the bruising presidential campaign, including Newt
Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie, all of whom are being considered
for top posts. A handful of Republican politicians may also make the cut,
including Sen. Bob Corker for secretary of state or Sen. Jeff Sessions for
secretary of defense.
Trump's divisive campaign may make it difficult for him
to attract top talent, especially since so many politicians and wonks openly
derided the president-elect over the past year. And Trump campaign officials
have worried privately that they will have difficulty finding high-profile
women to serve in his cabinet, according to a person familiar with the
campaign’s internal discussions, given Trump’s past comments about women.
Still, two Trump transition officials said they received
an influx of phone calls and emails in recent weeks, as the polls tightened and
a Trump White House seemed more within reach.
So far, the Trump campaign and transition teams have
been tight-lipped about their picks. (The Trump campaign has declined to
confirm cabinet speculation.) But here’s the buzz from POLITICO’s conversations
with policy experts, lobbyists, academics, congressional staffers and people
close to Trump.
Secretary
of state
Former House Speaker Gingrich, a leading Trump
supporter, is a candidate for the job, as is Corker, current chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Tennessee senator has said he’d
“strongly consider” serving as secretary of state.
Trump is also eyeing former U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations John Bolton.
Treasury
secretary
Trump himself has indicated that he wants to give the
Treasury secretary job to his finance chairman, Mnuchin, a 17-year-veteran of
Goldman Sachs who now works as the chairman and chief executive of the private
investment firm Dune Capital Management. Mnuchin has also worked for OneWest
Bank, which was later sold to CIT Group in 2015.
Secretary
of defense
Among the Republican defense officials who could join
the Trump administration: Sessions (R-Ala.), a close adviser, has been
discussed as a potential defense secretary. Former National Security Adviser
Stephen Hadley and former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) have also been mentioned as
potential candidates.
Top Trump confidant retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, former
director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, would need a waiver from Congress
to become defense secretary, as the law requires retired military officers to
wait seven years before becoming the civilian leader of the Pentagon. But
Trump’s chief military adviser is likely to wind up in some senior
administration post, potentially national security adviser. And other early
endorsers, like Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), could be in line for top posts
as well.
Attorney
general
People close to Trump say former New York City Mayor
Giuliani, one of Trump’s leading public defenders, is the leading candidate for
attorney general. New Jersey Gov. Christie, another vocal Trump supporter and
the head of the president-elect’s transition team, is also a contender for the
job — though any role in the cabinet for Christie could be threatened by the
Bridgegate scandal.
Another possibility: Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi,
though the controversy over Trump’s donation to Bondi could undercut her
nomination.
Interior
secretary
Lucas, the 74-year-old co-founder of oil products
company Lucas Oil, is seen as a top contender for Interior secretary.
Trump’s presidential transition team is also eyeing
venture capitalist Robert Grady, a George H.W. Bush White House official with
ties to Christie. And Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., is said to be interested in
the job.
Meanwhile, a person who spoke to the Trump campaign told
POLITICO that the aides have also discussed tapping Sarah Palin for Interior
secretary. Trump has said he’d like to put Palin in his cabinet, and Palin has
made no secret of her interest.
Other possible candidates include former Arizona Gov.
Jan Brewer; Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin; Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis; and
Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm.
Agriculture
secretary
There are several names being considered by Trump aides
for agriculture secretary, according to multiple sources familiar with the
transition. The president-elect has a deep bench to pull from, with nearly 70
leaders on his agricultural advisory committee.
The most controversial name on the transition’s current
short list is Sid Miller, the current secretary of agriculture in Texas, who
caused a firestorm just days ago after his campaign’s Twitter account referred
to Hillary Clinton as a "c---." Miller said it was a staffer mistake
and apologized.
Other names include Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback; Nebraska
Gov. Dave Heineman; former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue; and former Texas Gov.
Rick Perry; as well as Charles Herbster, Republican donor and agribusiness
leader; and Mike McCloskey, a major dairy executive in Indiana, according to
Arabella Advisors, a firm that advises top foundations and closely tracked both
transition efforts.
Bruce Rastetter, a major Republican donor in Iowa, and
Kip Tom, a farmer who ran for Congress in Indiana this year but was defeated in
the primary, are also among those being considered, Arabella said.
Other top Republican insiders expect that Chuck Connor,
president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives; Don Villwock,
president of the Indiana Farm Bureau; and Ted McKinney, current director of the
Indiana Department of Agriculture in administration of Gov. Mike Pence, are
also likely to be in the running for the post.
Commerce
secretary
Trump is expected to look to the business community for
this job.
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, a Trump economic
adviser, could fit the bill. Dan DiMicco, former CEO of steelmaker Nucor Corp
and a Trump trade adviser, is another possibility.
Trump is said to also be considering former Texas Gov.
Perry, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and even Christie for the job.
Labor
secretary
As with many Cabinet posts under Trump, the campaign and
transition staff have been looking for a CEO or executive to lead the Labor
Department. One name being bandied about is Victoria Lipnic, commissioner of
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission since 2010. She also served as an
assistant secretary of labor for employment standards from 2002 until 2009. The
Mitt Romney transition team reportedly also considered her for a top labor post
in 2012.
Health
and Human Services secretary
Among the names receiving buzz: Florida Gov. Rick Scott,
Gingrich and Ben Carson, a former GOP presidential candidate. Carson has
received the most attention lately for HHS, even from Trump himself.
At a recent anti-Obamacare rally, Trump went out of his
way to praise Carson by calling him a "brilliant" physician. "I
hope that he will be very much involved in my administration in the coming
years," Trump said.
One longer shot would be Rich Bagger, executive director
of the Trump transition team and a former pharmaceutical executive who led,
behind closed doors, many of the meetings this fall with health care industry
donors and executives.
Energy
secretary
Continental Resources CEO Hamm has long been seen as a
leading candidate for energy secretary. Hamm, an Oklahoma billionaire who has
been a friend of Trump’s for years, has been the leading influence on Trump’s
energy policy during the campaign.
If Hamm passes, venture capitalist Robert Grady is also
seen as a top candidate, though he could also be in line for Interior.
Education
secretary
Trump has made clear the Education Department would play
a reduced role in his administration — if it exists at all. He has suggested he
may try to do away with it altogether.
The GOP nominee has also offered a few hints about who
he would pick to lead the department while it’s still around. Among those who
may be on the shortlist is Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who ran against
Trump in the primary but later endorsed the Republican presidential candidate.
Education Insider, a monthly survey of congressional staff, federal officials
and other “insiders,” said in May that Carson was Trump’s most likely pick.
Another possible education secretary under Trump is
William Evers, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution who has worked on
education matters for the Trump transition team. Evers worked at the Education
Department during the Bush administration and served as a senior adviser to
then-Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.
Veterans
Affairs secretary
The name most commonly mentioned for Veterans Affairs
secretary is House Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller, who’s retiring from
the House and was an early Trump backer.
Homeland
Security secretary
One person close to Trump’s campaign said David Clarke,
the conservative sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, is a possible
candidate for Homeland Security secretary. Clarke has cultivated a devoted
following on the right, and he spoke at the Republican National Convention in
Ohio, declaring, "Blue lives matter." Christie is also seen as a
possible DHS secretary.
Environmental
Protection Agency administrator
While Trump has called for eliminating the EPA, he has
more recently modified that position, saying in September that he’ll “refocus
the EPA on its core mission of ensuring clean air, and clean, safe drinking
water for all Americans.”
Myron Ebell, a climate skeptic who is running the EPA
working group on Trump’s transition team, is seen as a top candidate to lead
the agency. Ebell, an official at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has
come under fire from environmental groups for his stances on global warming.
Venture capitalist Robert Grady is also a contender.
Other potential candidates: Joe Aiello, director of the
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Environmental
Safety and Quality Assurance; Carol Comer, the commissioner of the Indiana
Department of Environmental Management, who was appointed by Pence; and Leslie
Rutledge, attorney general of Arkansas and a lead challenger of EPA regulations
in the state.
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