President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he will nominate Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general, putting a loyalist in the role of the nation’s attorney general.
In selecting the congressman, Trump beat out some of the more established lawyers who had been mentioned as candidates for the job.
“Matt will end armed government, secure our borders, dismantle criminal organizations, and restore Americans’ faith and trust in the Justice Department,” Trump said in a statement.
Trump has chosen Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate, to serve as director of national intelligence, and has continued to stock his cabinet with loyal personalities on his own, rather than in fields that require long-term professionals.
“As a former candidate for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, he has broad support in both parties—he’s now a proud Republican!” Trump said in a statement. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, defending our Constitutional Rights and ensuring Peace through Strength. Tulsi will make us all proud!”
Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, with deployments to Iraq and Kuwait, would look like an outsider to his predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 after several years in senior national security and intelligence positions.
Gabbard has not worked directly in the intelligence community outside of House committees, including the Homeland Security Committee for two years. Like others Trump has tapped to lead his agency, she has been one of his most popular political surrogates, often drawing raucous responses from crowds when he pressed him in the final months of the campaign.
earlier on wednesday Trump called Sen. Marco Rubio As a candidate for Florida secretary of state, he established a one-time critic and became one of the president-elect’s staunchest advocates for the nation’s top diplomat.
The conservative lawmaker is a prominent hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist for Trump’s running mate this summer.
On Capitol Hill, Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It has pushed for a tougher anti-China stance and hit out at social media app TikTok because its parent company is Chinese. He and other lawmakers say Beijing can demand access to user data whenever it wants.
“He will be a strong Defender of our Nation, a true friend to our allies, and a fearsome Warrior who will never back down from our adversaries,” Trump said in a statement to Rubio.
Trump made the announcement as he returned to Florida from Washington after meeting with President Joe Biden.
The election is the culmination of a long and complicated history between the two men. During the close race for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, Rubio was particularly scathing in his criticism of Trump, calling him a “fraudster” and “the worst person to ever run for the presidency.”
He tried to match Trump’s often crude attacks by joking about the size of Trump’s hands in reference to his manhood. Trump responded by branding Rubio as “Little Marco,” a nickname that stuck with the senator for years.
But like many Republicans looking to stay relevant in the Trump era, Rubio changed his rhetoric. As speculation mounted that Trump could be his running mate, Rubio sought to play down the tension in 2016, suggesting the heated tone reflected the intensity of a campaign.
“That’s like asking a boxer if they punched someone in the face in the third round,” Rubio told CNN when asked about his previous comments. “It’s because they were boxing.”
Rubio was first elected to the Senate in 2010 as part of the Tea Party Republicans who swept into Washington. He quickly gained the reputation that he could embody a more diverse and welcoming Republican Party. He was a key member of a team that worked on a 2013 immigration bill that included a path to citizenship for millions of people in the country illegally.
But that legislation stalled in the House, where more conservative Republicans were in control, signaling the sharp rightward turn the party — and Rubio — would soon take. Now, Rubio says he supports Trump’s plan to outlaw the U.S. military.
“We’re going to have to do something, unfortunately, we’re going to have to do something dramatic,” Rubio said in a May interview on NBC.
It also echoes many of Trump’s attacks on his opponents, as well as false or unproven theories about voter fraud. After being Trump Charged with 34 crimes When New York prosecutors alleged that it was a plot to illegally influence the 2016 election, Rubio wrote a column for Newsweek telling Trump that he had been “held hostage” in court for “a sham political trial similar to what the communists used against political opponents in Cuba.” and the Soviet Union.”
Trump, on the other hand, has gone back to banning TikTok in the United States while he was president, and recently opened his own account on the platform.
The invoice that will be requested from the Chinese company ByteDance Sell TikTok or face a ban in the United States Rubio supported it despite Trump’s opposition to the effort.
Rubio’s Democratic counterpart on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Chairman Mark Warner of Virginia, praised the choice.
“I have worked with Marco Rubio for more than a decade on the Intelligence Committee, particularly closely for the past two years as his vice chairman, and while we may not always agree, he is smart, talented, and will continue to be a strong voice for American interests around the world,” Warner said. in a note
On Wednesday, Trump announced that longtime aide Dan Scavino will serve as deputy without providing a specific portfolio, campaign political director James Blair as deputy legislative, policy and public affairs and Taylor Budowich as deputy director of communications and staff. All will have the level of assistant to the president.
Trump also formally announced that Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, will be his deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security. This was previously confirmed by Vice President JD Vance on Monday.
Blair was Trump’s campaign political director and, once Trump became the GOP presumptive nominee, the Republican National Committee’s political director. He previously worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign in Florida and was a senior aide to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Scavino was a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign and, during his first term in the White House, served as director of social media.
He began working for Trump at one of Trump’s golf courses, and was part of a small staff team that traveled with the president across the country. He frequently posts memes and videos of Trump’s campaign trips on social media cataloging from within the campaign.
Before joining the campaign, Budowich worked for the Trump Super PAC, Maga Inc., and after Trump left office, Budowich served as his spokesperson while working for Trump’s political action committee, Save America.
“Dan, Stephen, James and Taylor were ‘best in class’ advisers to my winning campaign, and I know they will serve the American people with great honor in the White House,” Trump said in a statement. “They will continue to work hard to make America Great Again in their respective new roles.”
Miller is one of Trump’s longest serving, dating back to his first campaign for the White House. He was a senior adviser to Trump during his first term and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration, including Trump’s 2018 move to separate thousands of immigrant families as a deterrent program.
