These are inspired decisions
Here are some of the key people to watch as they bring their influence to bear on steering the next administration:
Elon Musk
After investing more than $100 million in Mr. Trump’s campaign, the billionaire has gained tremendous access to the president-elect. Mr. Musk was around Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s club and residence in Florida, last week as the president-elect began his first formal transition meetings.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump handed the phone to Mr. Musk while speaking to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Mr. Trump has also said he wants Mr. Musk in a role focused on slashing government spending.
In a social media post on Sunday suggesting a willingness to weigh in on a key congressional leadership fight, Mr. Musk backed Senator Rick Scott for majority leader while knocking Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, as a “top choice for Democrats.”
Mr. Musk also has something to gain from Mr. Trump: He is a major government contractor, and the Defense Department relies heavily on his company, SpaceX. Mr. Musk has sought to have some of his employees placed in government jobs.
Susie Wiles
Mr. Trump named Susie Wiles as his chief of staff. She will be the first woman to hold the job.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
Mr. Trump’s first job announcement after winning the election was naming Ms. Wiles, a loyal member of his inner circle, as his chief of staff. Ms. Wiles will be the first woman to hold the job and is the only campaign manager to complete an campaign cycle working for Mr. Trump.
Ms. Wiles, a political strategist from Florida, gained the respect of leaders in the MAGA movement while maintaining relationships in the old-guard Republican establishment. She worked on one of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns and in his White House. In recent years, she helped Mr. Scott win his Senate seat in Florida and worked with Ron DeSantis when he won the Florida governor’s race in 2018.
As Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Ms. Wiles will take the lead on driving his agenda.
Howard Lutnick
Mr. Lutnick, the billionaire chief executive of the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, is one of the names being floated as the next Treasury secretary. But as a co-chair of Mr. Trump’s transition team, Mr. Lutnick has already taken on the high-profile assignment of identifying 4,000 hires for the new administration.
Mr. Lutnick, who also spent time at Mar-a-Lago the day after the election, has been fielding input from Republican donors and executives for potential hires. He has sought advice from major financial leaders like Stephen A. Schwarzman, the billionaire chief executive of the Blackstone Group, and the brokerage firm founder Charles Schwab.
“We’ve got so many candidates,” Mr. Lutnick said of referrals for the Trump administration during a CNN interview on Oct. 31. “We are so set up — I feel great.”
Mr. Lutnick was a longtime registered Democrat, but he said the party had moved away from his interests and he was now a Republican.
His role in staffing the new administration has generated concern among ethics watch dogs. Mr. Lutnick continues to run firms that serve corporate clients, traders, cryptocurrency platforms and real estate ventures around the world, which are regulated by agencies whose appointees he is helping to identify.
Stephen Miller
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Stephen Miller, wearing a suit and gesturing with his hands together, speaks with reporters.
Stephen Miller, a former policy aide and speechwriter, is planning “the largest deportation program in American history.”Credit...Graham Dickie/The New York Times
Mr. Miller was the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda during his first administration and remains close to the president-elect. He has plans for an even more extreme crackdown on immigration.
A former policy aide and speechwriter, Mr. Miller is planning what Mr. Trump calls “the largest deportation program in American history” by using the military and local law enforcement to assist federal immigration officers. Mr. Miller will play a key role in choosing those who will fill roles relating to immigration policy.
He will work closely with Mr. Homan, Mr. Trump’s former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mr. Homan was one of the officials who endorsed Mr. Trump’s “zero-tolerance policy” at the border that led to the separation of thousands of migrant families. He told “60 Minutes” last month that the new Trump administration would begin large-scale work site raids that could lead to the arrest of unauthorized workers.
During Mr. Trump’s first term, Mr. Miller helped lead a purge of senior homeland security officials whom he and Mr. Trump did not view as effectively carrying out the administration’s immigration policies. Mr. Miller is now one of Mr. Trump’s aides evaluating conservative lawyers who could enact Mr. Trump’s policies.
Mr. Miller was taking over policy planning for the transition and was expected to be named deputy chief of staff in the incoming administration, people briefed on the matter said on Monday. His portfolio is expected to be vast and to far exceed what his eventual title will convey, those people said.
Steve Witkoff
Mr. Witkoff, a real estate developer and golf partner to the president-elect, was a donor to Mr. Trump’s political action committee. He also testified at the former president’s civil fraud trial this year and was playing golf with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago during the second assassination attempt of the presidential campaign.
Mr. Witkoff helped connect Mr. Trump to the entrepreneurs leading his latest cryptocurrency venture. The president-elect announced on Saturday that Mr. Witkoff would be the chairman of his inaugural committee alongside Kelly Loeffler, the former Georgia senator.
Mr. Trump’s first inaugural committee received scrutiny over its spending. The Trump family business and his 2017 inauguration committee jointly agreed to pay $750,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the attorney general for the District of Columbia, who claimed that the Trump International Hotel in Washington had illegally received excessive payments from the committee.
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