(AFP) – US President-elect Donald Trump named new members for his incoming administration on Monday, tapping loyalist hardliners for several key posts including a “border czar” who will be in charge of mass deportations. His staffing picks are the subject of intense speculation and scrutiny, with Trump vowing that his second administration will oversee a radical shake-up of the federal government.
The 78-year-old Republican tycoon said Sunday he would nominate immigration official Tom Homan as the country’s “border czar,” while Lee Zeldin, an early political ally, was proposed as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief. “I’ve known Tom (Homan) for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders,” Trump said on Truth Social, adding that Homan would be in charge of “all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin.”
New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik got the nod for UN ambassador, while US media say Stephen Miller, who was the architect of Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban” immigration policy during his first term, was set to be his deputy chief of staff with a broad portfolio. Another hardliner, Florida congressman Michael Waltz, a noted China critic, is reportedly in line to take the crucial National Security Advisor role, according to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
Waltz, an army special forces veteran re-elected to the House of Representatives last week, delivered a speech praising Trump at the Republican National Convention in July in which he called for “peace through America’s strength.” Asked about Trump’s plans to end the war in Ukraine, he told CNN on election night last week that there was “a way to drive this war to an end, we can do it economically, we can do it diplomatically.” He mentioned specifically enforcing sanctions on Russia’s energy sector.
Stefanik, who has voiced strong support for Israel, will represent the administration at the UN as the world body grapples with the war in Ukraine as well as Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and Lebanon. Stefanik’s and Zeldin’s nominations would need approval by the Senate, but Trump is hoping to bypass oversight by the upper chamber by making appointments while it is in recess. He has turned the issue into a loyalty test, insisting Saturday that any Republican seeking to be the leader of the Senate “must agree” to recess appointments. The three senators jockeying for the post immediately issued statements saying they supported the move, or were at least open to the idea.
Trump will not be inaugurated until January and had previously made one cabinet-level appointment, naming his campaign manager Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff, a position that does not require Senate confirmation. Homan, a former acting director of ICE, holds hardline views on immigration, as does Miller, who served as Trump’s senior advisor and speechwriter during his first term. Curbing illegal immigration served as one of Trump’s central campaign promises as he pledged to launch the largest deportation operation of undocumented migrants in US history beginning on day one.
As Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head, Trump said Zeldin would be tasked with making “fair and swift deregulatory decisions,” with the Republican president promising to shred rules on safety and pollution that he considers red tape for businesses. Stefanik, a key Trump ally now in her fifth term in office, has been a staunch defender of Israel and will head to the UN as the wars in Gaza and Lebanon dominate diplomacy.
“The work ahead is immense as we see antisemitism skyrocketing, coupled with four years of catastrophically weak US leadership that significantly weakened our national security and diminished our standing in the eyes of both allies and adversaries,” she said in a statement on Monday. Israel welcomed the appointment. “At a time when hate and lies fill the halls of the UN, your unwavering moral clarity is needed more than ever,” its UN ambassador Danny Danon wrote on X, wishing her “success in standing firm for truth and justice.”
– Adam PLOWRIGHT
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