Trump Administration Appointee Tracker
Trump Administration Appointee Tracker
Stay up-to-date on the latest developments and gain valuable insights into the potential implications of President-elect Donald Trump’s appointees. This tracker offers a thorough overview of key appointments to prominent positions within the administration, detailing their current status and the roles to which they’ve been appointed. Each profile includes brief background information on the appointee and analysis of how their appointment could influence critical issues affecting CHROs and HR leaders.
| Position | Appointee | Background | Potential Company Impact | Appointment Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy & Homeland Security Advisor | Stephen Miller | Miller is a longtime Presidential advisor who currently runs America First Legal, which has filed lawsuits challenging corporate and higher education DEI-related policies. Credited as the architect of the President-elect's first administration immigration policies. He is known for his unabashedly hawkish stances on immigration and social issues, pushing for items like Executive Order 13769 which suspended asylum and instituted Travel Bans. Miller reportedly played a central role in the resignation in April 2019 of Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, who was insufficiently hawkish on immigration. After leaving the first Trump administration, he founded the America First Legal Foundation. | Miller is expected to help craft immigration policies. He was essential in negotiating the first Trump administration’s “safe third country” agreements, and the “Remain in Mexico” policy. We can expect to see an elevated number of executive orders revoking Biden era policies and reinstituting his own in the first 100 days of Trump’s second administration, if not day 1 on January 20th, 2025. | Neither position requires Senate confirmation. |
| Border Czar | Tom Homan | Tom Homan is a former police officer , immigration official, and political commentator who served during the Obama administration and the first Trump administration. He was the Acting Head of ICE during the first Trump administration. ICE has not had a Senate confirmed leader in decades. Homan is a vocal border hawk and has promised to ramp up deportations and made clear that he will use workplace raids to elevate the issue. He joined the Heritage Foundation in 2022. | Homan will head up the administration’s push for border overhaul which includes workplace raids to identify people working illegally in the U.S. Homan advocates deportation of illegal immigrants and opposes sanctuary city policies. The current advice moving forward has been to get businesses’ I-9 houses in order. | Does not require Senate confirmation. |
| Acting Secretary of Homeland Security | Benjamine Huffman | Director Benjamine C. Huffman leads the US Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Law Enforcement Centers (FLETC). Prior to joining FLETC, he was the Acting Deputy Commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Acting Chief Operating Officer for CBP. | On inauguration day, President Trump began his second term by ordering an end to remote work via executive order for federal government employees. Huffman ordered a full end to remote work for DHS employees the same day. | Appointed |
| Secretary of Homeland Security | Gov. Kristi Noem, (R-SD) | Noem has been serving as the Governor of South Dakota since 2019. A farmer and rancher, Noem rose to national prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic over her refusal to issue a statewide mandate to wear face masks. She has been a vocal supporter of the first Trump administration's policies and can be an active departmental vessel for policy expansion. Noem opposes the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and has voted to repeal it. Noem wanted to add such provisions to federal law as limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and allowing patients to buy health insurance plans from other states. | The governor has referenced possible reinstitution of Title 42 expulsions, though this would require additional emergency declarations. She may very well divvy up departmental border and immigration mandates with Stephen Miller and Tom Homan. | Confirmed - The Senate confirmed Kristi Noem as the next secretary of Homeland Security on Saturday 1/25 in a 59-34 vote. |
| Acting Secretary of Labor | Vincent Micone | Vince Micone is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management (OASAM) He oversees many different kinds of operations, including human resources management and employee safety and health. He most recently served as Principal Deputy Special Inspector General and COO for a federal law enforcement and independent audit agency at the U.S. Department of the Treasury that targets financial crimes and other fraud, waste, and abuse related to economic stabilization programs. Mr. Micone previously served in executive leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security including Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Senior Counselor, and Chief of Staff for Management. He also served as the 2016 Presidential Transition Officer. Mr. Micone began his career at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he managed HR programs and initiatives. He also served as the Partnership for Public Service’s Vice President for Development prior to joining Homeland Security. Mr. Micone serves as Co-Chairperson of the Combined Federal Campaign of the National Capital Area. | Official with extensive HR experience, he leads a comprehensive shared services delivery program providing customers with world-class IT, acquisition, HR, and solutions. | Appointed |
| Labor Secretary | Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR-5) | Lori Chavez-DeRemer (LCD) served locally in CA as a council member and then Mayor and has a Bachelors in Business Administration. In the House, Chavez-DeRemer served on the Education and the Workforce Committee. Serving one term she lost her reelection in the U.S. House of Representatives. In conflict with the first Trump administration’s efforts, she supports several union friendly pieces of legislation including the PRO Act. The business community is upset over LCD's nomination, but are withholding comments. Unions are skeptical that any nominee will deviate from Trump’s prior tacking away from pro-union policies, but it was at union President Sean O’Brien’s urging that she was selected. | Issues key certifications for certain employment-based visa programs and department of Labor issues more generally. Second-tier deputy and assistant secretary appointments in the department may stick to less populist, and historically more amenable polices for businesses and workers. It is unknown how willing she may be to abandon her stances that remain incongruent with the incoming administration’s historical positioning. | Nominated – Hearings slated before the Senate HELP Committee begin 10:00 am ET on Feb. 19th. Watch here. |
| Deputy Secretary of Labor | Keith Sonderling | Keith Sonderling previously served as the Vice-Chairman of the EEOC and acting Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of the DOL in Trumps first term. Keith Graduated Magna Cum Laude and has a degree in law. Sonderling began his legal career at the Gunster Law Firm in West Palm Beach, Florida. At Gunster, he practiced Labor and Employment law throughout his tenure at the firm. Sonderling was elevated to Shareholder in 2015. In 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott appointed Sonderling to serve as a Commissioner on the 4th District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission. His fellow Commissioners elected him Chair. Sonderling resigned from the commission in August 2024 following the expiration of his term and has recently been helping with the transition over at the EEOC along with Janet Dhillon. | Sonderling’s highest priority has been ensuring that AI-informed employment technologies are designed and deployed in ways that comply with longstanding laws. He published numerous articles and speaks globally on the benefits and potential harms of using artificial intelligence-based technology in the workplace. Sonderling has also focused his time on human capital management compliance, conducting proactive outreach to human resource leaders worldwide. Sonderling also analyzed the gig economy and issued proposed rules for marquee labor issues, such as updating the overtime threshold and joint employer standards under the FLSA so we may see action in these veins. | Nominated |
| Acting Secretary of State | Lisa Kenna | Lisa S. Dougherty Kenna is an American diplomat who has served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research since September 11, 2023. She had served as the United States Ambassador to Peru from March 2021 to September 2023. | Served for one day. | Appointed |
| Secretary of State | Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL | A Florida Senator since 2011, and presidential nominee that has historically been pro-immigration reform but has had prior “pathway to citizenship” reform efforts stifled in the Senate and by the Republican party more broadly. Rubio has supported lifting embargoes with Cuba due to being Cuban American from Miami and his close ties with the massive Florida Hispanic community He held several local and state elected positions, holds a law degree and taught briefly. During the first Trump administration he was referred to as the "virtual secretary of state for Latin America." Over time, Rubio distanced himself from his previous efforts to reach a compromise on immigration, and developed more hardline views on immigration, rejecting bipartisan immigration reform efforts in 2018. In 2022, he introduced the Chinese Communist Party Visa Ban Act, which would effectively prohibit any member of the CCP from visiting the United States. In March 2023, he voiced support for revoking China's permanent normal trade relations status. | Due to familial issues with immigration status and deportation in his youth, Rubio may have a more lenient application of policy surrounding Visas, Trade policies, creating opportunities for influencing the President’s intentions of across-the-board tariffs and abandonment of prior trade agreements. His stances have shifted to become a more hard-lined, pro-legal immigration stance. Rubio is an interventionalist and supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership, saying that the U.S. risks being excluded from global trade unless it is more open to trade. Rubio is a vocal opponent of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. | Confirmed, 99-0, only cabinet member confirmed on inauguration day. |
| Acting Health & Human Services Secretary | Dorothy Fink | The acting head of HHS, is the director of the HHS Office on Women's Health. Fink is an endocrinologist who has conducted research on topics such as polycystic ovary syndrome and the effects of diabetes on women's bones. She has a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and a medical degree from Georgetown. She completed a residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a residency in endocrinology at Columbia University. | One of her priorities at HHS has been finding ways to reduce the U.S. maternal mortality rate. | Appointed |
| Health & Human Services Secretary | Former Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) | Nephew of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy, RFK studied law and was an Assistant district attorney in NY. Early on he joined two non-profits waging battles against corporate polluters. He founded the nonprofit environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance in 1999. In 2016, Kennedy became counsel to the Morgan & Morgan law firm. Kennedy was a venture partner and senior advisor at VantagePoint Capital Partners, is also a senior advisor to Starwood Energy Group, is on the board of Vionx, is a partner in ColorZen, and was a co-owner and director of the smart-grid company Utility Integration Solutions (UISol) among other endeavors. Kennedy dropped his own independent bid in 2024 for president this past August and endorsed Trump, who said in his victory speech after winning reelection that Kennedy is “going to help make America healthy again.” Kennedy is active in the anti-vaccine movement but is also open to increasing health standards. | The position has wide ranging jurisdiction ranging from Refugee settlement, unaccompanied migrant children, and emergency operations to sub-agencies focused on everything from scientific research to food safety, drug price negotiations and Medicare. RFK’s general skepticism of the medical community has many up in arms, since He is the chairman and founder of Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy group. We may see scrutiny of areas traditionally ceded to public and private health subject matter experts in the realm of health care. | Confirmed - Vote 52-48 |
| Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services | James O’Neill | Jim O’Neill, an investor and historically close associate of billionaire Peter Thiel, O’Neill has also held roles as managing director at Thiel’s Mithril Capital Management and principal associate deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services during former President George W. Bush’s administration. I am very pleased to nominate Jim O’Neill to serve as the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services to work alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Trump said in a Tuesday statement. “He will oversee all operations and improve Management, Transparency, and Accountability to, Make America Healthy Again.” O'Neill worked for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and in the White House. | In a 2014 speech, O’Neill called for pushing against the FDA’s mission to consider the efficacy of drugs in its decision to approve them. He said that the agency should only consider drugs’ safety. “We should reform FDA so that it’s approving drugs after their sponsors have demonstrated safety and let people start using them at their own risk, but not much risk of safety,” O’Neill said. “But let’s prove efficacy after they’ve been legalized.” | Nominated |
| Acting Secretary of Commerce | Jeremy Pelter | Pelter previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration, and also as the Deputy Under Secretary for Industry and Security. Pelter previously served as a senior advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Commerce, and before working at the Department of Commerce, he served as the U.S. Small Business Administration in several financial and operational roles. | Mr. Pelter was an inaugural Fellow of the White House Leadership Development Program, supporting trade policy. | Appointed |
| Secretary of Commerce | Howard Lutnick | Lutnick is a businessman, chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and is running staffing for Trump Transition. He was a final candidate for Sectary of the Treasury but was ultimately not selected for that role but instead, Secretary of Commerce. He was a fundraiser for Donald Trump's 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns, as well as a vocal proponent of Trump's proposal to implement broad tariffs. He lost 658 employees and his brother on September 11th, with ongoing charity efforts through the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund. He has a degree in economics and places a high value on technology. In 2024, Lutnick, through his firm BGC Group, began efforts to launch a futures exchange, the FMX Futures Exchange. he advocated for the strength of economy of the United States in 1900, crediting the lack of income tax and high tariff policies active at the time, saying "We had no income tax, and all we had was tariffs." | Commerce committee will increasingly have more mission creep, especially around AI as well as the energy, trade and research investment required to sustain it. Lutnick is a proponent of broad tariffs. Lutnick has accused China of being the source of the fentanyl crisis in the United States and is a vocal supporter of cryptocurrencies. | Confirmed - 51-45 vote |
| Acting Attorney General | James McHenry | Had been working at DOJ in a position overseeing immigration judges before being tapped. Trump’s first attorney general in his first term, Jeff Sessions, named McHenry in 2017 as acting director of the Justice Department component that runs the immigration courts, the Executive Office of Immigration Review. He was given the job on a permanent basis the following year. McHenry started at the Justice Department in 2003 and later served as a senior lawyer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security. | McHenry is a lawyer specializing in immigration enforcement, and is seen as a hard-liner on immigration matters. McHenry is expected to serve in the post until Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, is confirmed. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up her nomination, but Bondi’s final confirmation could take a few more days or weeks. | Appointed |
| Department of Justice Attorney General | Pam Bondi | Bondi is an attorney, lobbyist, politician and partner at Ballard Partners, the lobbying firm that had been run by Trump’s incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles and whose founder, Brian Ballard, is a top Trump fundraiser. She is co-chair of the law and justice division at the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute. She served as Florida’s first female Attorney General. Bondi was the lead attorney general in an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in Florida et al v. United States Department of Health and Human Services. Bondi joined with 19 other Republican-led states in a lawsuit to overturn the ACA's bans on health insurance companies charging people with pre-existing conditions higher premiums or denying them coverage outright. She has ties to scientology and is or has been a registered agent for multiple foreign entities, which may cause some issues with the FBI background checks and possibly her nomination. | The position has jurisdiction over immigration courts and is the enforcement and litigating arm of the independent regulating entities. She is tasked with helping implement and then defending in court many of his policy agendas. Her rise to fame within the president’s orbit has hinged on her fundraising and ability to defend President- Trump during his first impeachment trial or push Trump's policies since in Florida. Her positions are in lock step with Trump, so she is a sympathetic ally on a litany of issues across the DOJ firewall. | Confirmed by the Senate, 54-46 |
| Acting NLRB General Counsel | William Cowen | Cowen was tapped while serving as the NLRB’s regional director of one of its Los Angeles branches Cowen previously served a brief stint on the agency’s board as a recess appointee under President George W. Bush. He then acted as Executive Assistant (Chief of Staff) to NLRB Chairman Robert J. Battista. From 2006 to 2016, Mr. Cowen served as the Board’s Solicitor. | Cowen will lead the agency's prosecutorial arm until a nominee is named and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. | Appointed |
| NLRB General Counsel | Jennifer Abruzzo | Abruzzo has been removed as GC. She relocated her Deputy GC Peter Sung Ohr before she was fired who now heads the division of enforcement litigation. Abruzzo elevated associate general counsel Jessica Rutter to serve as her new deputy. Trump dismissed deputy general counsel Jessica Rutter, and, in an unprecedented move, Democratic NLRB Member Gwynne Wilcox as well Trump appointed an Acting GC. | A new NLRB GC will likely rescind various memos issued by GC Abruzzo. Although we expect any newly-appointed GC to rescind scores of currently-active memorandums issued by GC Abruzzo. Trump’s choice could determine what happens to the agency’s efforts to hold companies liable for the treatment of subcontracted staff who the companies claim are not their employees. | Removed |
| NLRB Chair | Marvin Kaplan | Marvin E. Kaplan has served as a Member of the National Labor Relations Board since August 10, 2017. Prior to his appointment to the NLRB, Mr. Kaplan served as Chief Counsel to the Chairman of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Before his work with the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, Mr. Kaplan served as counsel for the House of Representatives’ Oversight Government Reform Committee and as policy counsel for the House of Representatives’ Education and the Workforce Committee. He also worked at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor Management Standards and with the law firm McDowell Rice Smith & Buchanan. Mr. Kaplan received his J.D. from Washington University in St Louis, and his B.S. from Cornell University. | Prior Board Chair Lauren McFerran’s term expired on Dec. 16, 2024 with failed a vote 49-50 to be confirmed to a third term. Joseph L. Ditelberg’s vote was also pulled following the failed vote. | Already Serving, Confirmation not required. Term of five years expiring August 27, 2025 |
| FTC Chair | Andrew Ferguson | Serves currently as a sitting commissioner of the FTC, and as Virginia’s Solicitor General prior. He is a lawyer who has practiced antitrust litigation from before the FTC to the Supreme Court. Ferguson previously did stints as chief counsel for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). He was the former solicitor general for Virginia and was also a senior special counsel for incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). In June 2024, Ferguson, dissented when the Commission issued a final rule banning non-compete clauses in most employment contracts. In October 2024, Ferguson argued in a partial dissent from a disqualification motion that the removal protections provided to the commission's administrative law judges are unconstitutional. | The position provides Independent Regulatory oversight. Ferguson won’t need Senate confirmation since he is already on the commission. He has stated intentions to ease his predecessor's scrutiny of business mergers and acquisitions, while continuing critical oversight of big tech platforms. Ferguson, a Republican, in the position of running the agency from a 2-3 minority until Kressin Meador Powers LLC partner Mark Meador wins Senate confirmation. | Nominated, already serving, confirmation not required. |
| FTC Commissioner | Mark Meador | Meador is currently a Kressin Meador Powers LLC partner. He worked for a time in the office of the Texas Attorney General and after he graduated from Houston, he worked from 2011 to 2016 with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as an attorney for the bureau of competition division. After his time with the FTC, Meador worked with the firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, as an associate in private practice. Meador joined the United States Department of Justice in 2019 as a trial attorney in the antitrust division, where he served two years. He then joined the office of Utah U.S. Senator Mike Lee, where he held the position of Deputy Chief Counsel for Antitrust and Competition Policy. He worked for Lee, the minority leader of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, until 2023. During his time in Lee's office, Meador drafted a bill for Lee that would have required Google's ad tech business to break up. | Term of seven years from September 26, 2024. Meador focuses on antitrust cases. Bloomberg Law described Meador as "a pro-enforcement, populist Republican, particularly when it comes to the technology industry. | Nominated |
| Acting EEOC General Counsel | Andrew Rogers | Rogers was serving previously as the chief counsel to acting Chair Andrea Lucas. Rogers formerly worked at the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division and 12 years in management-side law firms like Littler and Paul Hastings representing and advising clients on wage and hour, discrimination, labor relations, and workplace violence issues. | Rogers will lead a key post that will help the new administration move forward more aggressively on its agenda at the civil rights agency. He’ll replace Karla Gilbride who Trump fired along with two of the EEOC’s three Democratic Commissioners. Trump’s pick of a Lucas EEOC staffer signals that the agency’s litigation arm will be in sync with the Republican acting agency chair’s priorities. | Appointed |
| Acting EEOC Chair | Andrea Lucas | Lucas has served on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) since 2020, when she was nominated by President Trump during his first term and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a Commissioner. She was designated as Acting Chair of the EEOC by President Trump on January 20, 2025. Before her appointment to the EEOC, Lucas was a member of the labor and employment and litigation practice groups of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. While at Gibson Dunn, Lucas represented and advised employers and boards of directors on a wide variety of employment-related issues, including significant employment discrimination litigation, sexual harassment and other sensitive workplace investigations, and compliance with federal and state employment discrimination statutes. “Supreme Court case could spark rush of reverse-discrimination cases,” Washington Post. Lucas has been an outspoken critic of workplace DEI initiatives, particularly after the Supreme Court overturned race-based affirmative action in university admissions in June 2023, Lucas noted that the ruling also had implications for employers’ race and gender diversity programs, calling it a “wake-up call.” | Independent Regulatory oversight – Lucas prioritizes evenhanded enforcement of civil rights laws for all Americans, including by rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination; protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination; defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including women’s rights to single-sex spaces; protecting workers from religious bias and harassment; and remedying other areas that have been historically under-enforced by the agency. Lucas believes protecting workers starts with preventing discrimination. As a result, compliance and education efforts have been important components of her work both during and before her time on the Commission. | Already Serving, Appointed |
| Acting SEC Chair | Mark Uyeda | Uyeda has served as a Republican Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) since June 30, 2022. Before becoming an SEC Commissioner, Uyeda served on the staff of the SEC for more than 15 years. Uyeda worked as an associate at K&L Gates. He later became an associate at O'Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles. He served as a senior advisor to the commissioner of the California Department of Corporations. Trump has said he will nominate former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to run the agency on a permanent basis. | Atkins, for whom both Uyeda and current SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce both previously worked at the agency, is expected to make a sharp turn away from how the Biden administration oversaw capital markets. Uyeda are expected to kick-start a cryptocurrency policy overhaul as early as this week, Reuters reported - "The pending administration change will give the SEC a chance to reset its regulatory agenda to focus on capital formation and innovation, while protecting investors, like seniors, from scam artists defrauding them," Uyeda. | Already Serving, Appointed |
| SEC Commissioner | Paul Atkins | CEO of Patomak Global Partners LLC, is a lawyer and former top SEC official, and will be an experienced Washington insider regulating Wall Street. Replaces SEC Chair Gary Gensler. Atkins has criticized socially conscious corporate shareholder activism - an issue the SEC has embraced in recent years with climate risk disclosures and other rules on environmental, social and governance investing. He has also criticized overzealous SEC corporate enforcement actions, arguing they only hurt shareholders twice over. | Independent Regulatory oversight - Atkins is expected to review many of Gensler's rules and enforcement actions pending in the courts. Serves remainder of the term expiring June 5, 2026. | Nominated |
| Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing | Peter Navarro | A Harvard-educated economist, came into Trump's orbit due to his various writings on China, in which he blasted Beijing for gaming the international trading system through currency manipulation, illegal export subsidies and several other policy tools. Navarro joined the 2016 Trump campaign and has remained a close ally ever since. One of the most influential voices of Trump’s tariff-heavy first term. He was released from prison following a contempt of Congress charge. | During the first Trump term, Navarro was picked to head the newly created Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, where he helped shape the White House's trade strategy, specifically its campaign to set waves of new tariffs on more than $300 billion worth of Chinese goods. Trump also alluded to the role Navarro played in revamping the North American Free Trade Agreement into the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and a retooling of the U.S. trade deal with South Korea. "During my First Term, few were more effective or tenacious than Peter in enforcing my two sacred rules, Buy American, Hire American," stated Trump. | Appointed |
| United States Trade Representative | Jamieson Greer | Former Air Force lawyer turned trade litigator, has a mentor in Robert Lighthizer, who was Trump’s trade representative in his first administration and is expected to influence trade policy in Trump’s second term. | Greer will be on the front line of Trump’s threat to impose a baseline tariff of up to 20 percent on all $3 trillion worth of U.S. exports and a separate 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods. | Nominated – Advanced out of the Senate Finance Committee on 2/12. 15-12 vote |
| Assistant Attorney General - DOJ Antitrust Division | Abigail "Gail" Slater | Oxford-educated economic policy adviser to Vice President-elect JD Vance. Slater was a tech policy adviser on the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term, and has been advising his transition team on antitrust and tech policy. Earlier she spent 10 years at the US Federal Trade Commission, including as an adviser to former Democratic FTC Commissioner Julie Brill in Barack Obama’s administration. Slater is seen as a pro-enforcement, populist Republican, particularly when it comes to the tech sector, and her nomination signals a new Trump administration is unlikely to fully back down from the aggressive stance of Joe Biden’s administration. Her boss, Vance, who has represented Ohio in the Senate since 2023, has expressed his support for much of the agenda of outgoing FTC Chair Lina Khan. | In their own words, “Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech!” Trump said. “I was proud to fight these abuses in my First Term, and our Department of Justice’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership.” Trump's leadership pick announcements for the FTC and DOJ per antitrust appear to produce a mandate to continue aggressively going after the technology platforms first targeted in his prior administration. | Nominated |
| Customs and Border Protection | Rodney S. Scott | A former career border official whom Mr. Trump installed as chief of the Border Patrol in 2020. Mr. Scott carried out many of Trump’s signature policies in his first term, and credited him with achieving drops in immigration. | Oversees the country’s borders, including the Border Patrol. Runs enforcement operations within America’s Legal Ports of entry. Works hand in hand with ICE. | Nominated |
| Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement | Caleb Vitello | Vitello is a longtime Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, will be in a key position charged with overseeing Mr. Trump’s planned mass deportation efforts. | ICE arrests, detains and deports unauthorized immigrants and can directly affect access to labor across several industries. | Appointed |
| A.I. and Crypto Czar | David Sacks | Sacks is a venture capitalist and an early executive at PayPal who launched a hit podcast. He is one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent conservative investors, donors and media personalities. | AI Regulation is increasingly important across multiple business sectors including HR, in both the search for talent and evolution of career paths utilizing AI. | Appointed |
| Medicare Medicaid Administrator | Dr. Mehmet Oz | Dr. Oz is a heart surgeon and the son of Turkish immigrants. Mr. Trump said Dr. Oz would “work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.” Mr. Trump noted that Dr. Oz had “won nine Daytime Emmy Awards hosting ‘The Dr. Oz Show,’ where he taught millions of Americans how to make healthier lifestyle choices. Dr. Oz has also frequently clashed with other medical experts. In 2020, he argued for a universal health coverage system, in which every American not covered by Medicaid would be enrolled in a private Medicare Advantage plan. The coverage expansion would be financed by an “affordable 20 percent payroll tax,” and would eliminate employer health coverage and the government Medicare program. | Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services oversee several of the country’s largest government programs, providing health coverage to more than 150 million Americans. They regulate health insurance and set policy that guides the prices that doctors, hospitals and drug companies are paid for many medical services. About a quarter of all federal spending runs through the centers. The agency also oversees insurance marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act. | Nominated |