President-elect Donald Trump is starting to fill key posts in his second administration, putting an emphasis so far on aides and allies who were his strongest backers during the 2024 campaign.
Here’s a look at who he’s selected so far.
Trump has announced his intention to nominate John Ratcliffe, his former director of national intelligence, to be head of the CIA.
“From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBl’s abuse of Civil Liberties at the FISA Court, John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American Public,” Trump wrote in a statement on Truth Social on Tuesday. “When 51 intelligence officials were lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop, there was one, John Ratcliffe, telling the truth to the American People.”
Prior to serving in the Trump administration, Ratcliffe was a Republican congressman for Texas, serving on the House intelligence, judiciary, and homeland security committees.
In the House, Ratcliffe was critical of the investigations into ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign, and helped pursue Republican priorities like scrunitizing Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son.
Ratcliffe currently is the co-chair of the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank.
Susie Wiles was a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager.
The 67 year-old has a background in Florida politics. She helped Ron DeSantis win his first race for Florida governor but later fell out with him. Six years later, she was key to Trump’s defeat of him in the 2024 Republican primary.
Wiles’ hire was Trump’s first major decision as president-elect and one that could be a defining test of his incoming administration considering her close relationship with the president-elect. Wiles is said to have earned Trump’s trust in part by guiding what was the most disciplined of Trump’s three presidential campaigns.
She was able to help keep Trump on track as few others have, not by criticizing his impulses, but by winning his respect by demonstrating his success after taking her advice.
Trump asked Mike Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before Trump made a formal announcement.
The move would put Waltz at the forefront of a litany of national security crises, ranging from the ongoing effort to provide weapons to Ukraine and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah.
