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The president-elect is rapidly filling out his cabinet with Republican lawmakers and loyalists just a week after Americans sent him back to the White House.
WASHINGTON (CN) — President-elect Donald Trump is set to appoint South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to lead his administration’s Department of Homeland Security, putting the firebrand state leader at the helm of the agency in charge of border security.
The staunch Trump ally is the latest in a growing list of Republican figures the incoming White House is weighing for key positions within the administration. CNN was first to report Trump’s plans to pick Noem.
The Mount Rushmore State’s top politician, elected in 2018 after serving four terms in the House, thrust herself into the national spotlight during the Covid-19 pandemic as a vocal opponent of government-mandated face mask mandates and medical recommendations for social distancing. South Dakota recorded some of the highest death and case rates nationwide throughout the pandemic.
If she joins the incoming Trump administration, Noem will relinquish her governorship and head up the Department of Homeland Security, an agency with a broad mandate over domestic security and public safety.
The department oversees the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, as well as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, meaning if confirmed Noem may end up in charge of the president-elect’s pledged “mass deportation” effort.
She would also lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the federal body in charge of disaster relief — and the subject of criticism by some Republicans angry about the government’s response to Hurricane Helene in September.
Picking a cabinet
Trump is also expected to name several current GOP lawmakers to top cabinet positions.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio is slated to join the administration as secretary of state, putting the lawmaker in charge of Washington’s diplomatic apparatus. And for national security adviser, the Trump team is expected to announce fellow Sunshine State Representative Mike Waltz.
Neither appointment has been unveiled officially, but both Rubio and Waltz are hawkish on foreign policy issues, a potential departure from the isolationist tenor of Trump’s campaign.
Among the appointments the president-elect has formally named is New York Representative Elise Stefanik, whom Trump has asked to lead Washington’s delegation to the United Nations. Stefanik, who chairs the House Republican conference, is another staunch ally of the incoming president.
Trump picked former New York Representative Lee Zeldin to head up the Environmental Protection Agency, where the lawmaker and one-time New York gubernatorial candidate is sure to oversee the rollback of environmental regulations and the end of the Biden administration’s electric vehicles program.
With several members of Congress — including current senator and Vice President-elect JD Vance — possibly headed to the White House in January, questions are swirling about potential effects on Republican majorities in both legislative houses.
The House, where the GOP is expected to hold a majority of only a handful of seats, is sure to feel the effect most acutely. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday morning he does not expect the incoming administration to poach any more members from the lower chamber.
In the Senate, which Republicans successfully flipped last week, the loss of Vance and Rubio’s potential departure would not significantly cut into the party’s more commanding lead.
Any change in Republicans’ congressional majority, though, would likely be temporary. State governors appoint replacements for members of Congress, so seats left empty by red state lawmakers such as Vance, Rubio and Waltz are sure to remain in GOP hands.
While the incoming administration fills out its cabinet, Trump is leaning on congressional Republicans to break longstanding procedures for confirming White House nominees. Writing in a post on Truth Social Sunday, Trump called on Senate Republican leaders to use a method known as recess appointments to ram through his cabinet picks.
Recess appointments, which would see the administration name cabinet officials while the Senate is not in session, would allow Trump to move forward with appointment without confirmation hearings or a floor vote — processes traditionally seen as a congressional check on executive power.
The president-elect framed the gambit as an effort to avoid a lengthy confirmation process for his cabinet.
“Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more,” he wrote on Truth Social. “This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again.”
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