President-Elect Donald Trump Went On An Appointing Spree Friday Night
In just over one hour on Friday evening, President-elect Donald Trump announced nine new appointments on his social media site Truth Socialâincluding Russell Vought, a longtime ally and key figure in Project 2025, who is set to serve as the incoming head of the Office of Management and Budget.
His Friday appointments spree comes as the former president has moved unprecedentedly fast in forming his cabinet and staff. As Caitlin Dewey wrote for Vanity Fair earlier this week, Trump âis defying virtually every norm of presidential transitions, from coordinating with federal agencies to background-checking the candidates for top administration jobs.â
According to reporting from The Washington Post, his transition teams are running the show from Trumpâs Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and they âhave yet to set foot inside a single federal office.â Trump has also, per the Post, not yet collaborated with the General Services Administration, an office in charge of handing over control of hundreds of agencies, because the president-elect has not turned in required pledges to follow ethics rules (like personal conflicts of interest).
In addition to Trumpâs tap of Vought for the budget office, his Friday night choices spanned roles in finance, health, labor, and national security.
Trump âânamed the billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to serve as his next treasury secretary. Bessent, who is the founder of the hedge fund Key Square Capital Management and has worked on and off for Soros Fund Management since 1991, backed extending provisions of Trumpâs Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017âwhich is expected to cost trillions of dollars within the decade since itâs passing, according to AP based on different economic analyses.
United States House Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a first-term Republican from Oregon who narrowly lost her seat this month to Democrat Janelle Bynum, was tapped as the next secretary of the Department of Labor. A moderate from a swing district that includes parts of Portland, Chavez-DeRemer âwas one of only a few House Republicans to support major pro-union legislation, and she split her districtâs union endorsementsâ with Bynum, per the New York Times. Teamsters President Sean OâBrien urged Trump to pick the Oregonian representative, according to Politico.
Trump named former Texas state representative and pro football player Scott Turner to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Currently, Turner chairs the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank set up by former Trump staffers. During the president-electâs first term in 2019, Turner headed a council tasked with turning around distressed communities. âThe effort won bipartisan praise,â NPR reports, âthough critics suggested the wealthy investors getting tax breaks saw more benefit than local residents.â
Trump nominated surgeon and writer Martin Makary to oversee the Food and Drug Administration, the worldâs most influential drug regulator. A physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Makary will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.âthe president-electâs pick for Health and Human Services secretary. Per the Times, Makary has âchampioned the notion that thimerosal, a preservative once used widely in vaccines, caused an explosion of autism cases around the worldâ despite health officials rejecting âthe idea that research shows any link between thimerosal and autism.â
Former Florida Representative Dave Weldon, a physician and vaccine skeptic, is Trumpâs pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Weldon has similarly suggested that thimerosal is linked to a rise in autism. Weldon, who served in Congress for nearly two decades, âhas also raised concerns about the safety of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and Gardasil, the vaccine that girds against the papillomavirus virus, which can lead to cervical cancer,â Politico reports.
Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a Fox News contributor and medical director with family ties to Trumpâs first administration, is poised to be the next surgeon general of the United States. Nesheiwat is one of five medical directors for CityMD, a chain of urgent care centers across New York City. As the Times pointed out, âHer sister Julia Nesheiwat, a former Army officer, was homeland security adviser in the first Trump administration and is married to Representative Mike Waltz of Florida, whom Mr. Trump has tapped to be national security adviser.â
Bolstering his national security team for his second administration, Trump announced that Alex Wong would step into the role of principal deputy national security adviser, while Sebastian Gorka will serve as senior director for counterterrorism. Both Trump administration alums, Wong served as the deputy special representative for North Korea during the first Trump administration, and Gorka worked as a strategist and deputy assistant to the president in 2017 before being forced out just months after Trump took office. Gorka has âgained prominence as a commentator and purported expert on counterterrorism in conservative mediaâ and has claimed that âviolence is an intrinsic part of the Islamic faith,â per reporting from Politico.
These new appointeesâsome familiar faces and others more unknownâjoin a rapidly growing Trump cohort that will have broad-reaching influence on the nation for the next four years and beyond. And, a group that will be taskedâthanks to the Supreme Courtâwith supporting a president who will have more leeway than ever before.
Trumpâs choice of Vought, the man set to run the budget office, has called attention to the former presidentâs closeness to Project 2025âthe GOPâs concerning playbook for how the next conservative presidency ought to go. On the campaign trail, Trump continuouslyâand without evidenceâclaimed that he was not connected to Project 2025. As the NYT found in their analysis, those active in Trumpâs circles were tantamount to Project 2025âs creation.
During Trumpâs run for office, Howard Lutnick, the co-chair of Trumpâs transition and his nominee to serve as the secretary of commerce, was adamant that they would not use Project 2025âs extensive personnel databaseâcomplete with more than 10,000 candidates vetted for their MAGA credentialsâfor potential hires.
Yet, according to reporting from NBC News based on a person familiar with the plans, those at Project 2025 have also been aiding the Trump camp in their cabinet and staff selection process. NBCâs Allan Smith and Vaughn Hillyard write that transition officials are taking suggestions for potential hires from Project 2025âs personnel database. (When asked about the transition using the Project 2025 database, a Trump transition official told NBC News that, âThe transition is working to ensure great people are in position to deliver the promises made through President Trumpâs common sense agenda and overwhelming victory on Election Day.â)
As power changes hands in Washington, there are thousands of political appointee jobs to fill as Trump moves back into the White House.
âThereâs a lot of positions to fill, and we continue to send names over, including ones from the database as they are conservative, qualified, and vetted,â NBCâs source, who worked on Project 2025, said. âHard to find 4,000 solid people, so we are happy to help.â
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