MAE O’MALLEY / ASST. NEWS EDITOR

On November 5, former President Donald Trump was re-elected to the executive office and became the 47th president-elect of the United States. The president-elect is tasked with appointing the positions of their senior advisors, and nominees must be confirmed by the Senate in a series of hearings. With the results of the election, Republicans took control of the Senate, which will likely impact the Senate confirmations for each nominee. 

Trump has already announced the nominations of 15 members for different Cabinet positions. After meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House, Trump announced he would be nominating Senator Marco Rubio of Florida (R) to be the Secretary of State. A Republican from Miami, Rubio has served in the Senate since 2011 and ran for president in 2016. The senior senator has been a vocal supporter of Trump since he suspended his own 2016 presidential campaign. Tulsi Gabbard (R), former congresswoman from Hawaii, was nominated to be the director of national intelligence. Gabbard ran as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, but in 2024 became a staunch Trump supporter. Trump’s senior advisor on the campaign trail, Susie Wiles, has been promoted to White House chief of staff, and is the first woman who will hold the position. 

Some appointees have made themselves well known in the media before, whether it be due to scandals or allyship with Trump, while others have been working behind the scenes with the president-elect. USD first-year Michael Ivory commented on how he feels about the Cabinet appointments. 

“I’m not really big on following politics, but there’s no escaping hearing about these Cabinet positions in the news,” Ivory stated. “I feel like each pick has done something controversial or noteworthy that makes it a wild choice from Trump. I heard about the attorney general and was like ‘Okay, a congressman, that makes sense,’ and then, no, apparently people think he’s crazy. I don’t really know what to believe so I’m just gonna wait and see how they do when they’re actually in the Cabinet.” 

Representative Matt Gatez of Florida was originally nominated to be the next Attorney General, but withdrew due to criticism for his extreme views andpast investigation for alleged sex trafficking. In late 2020, a Justice Department investigation placed Gaetz under public scrutiny, claiming that he was linked to a federal sex trafficking scandal involving minors. The investigation ended with no federal charges against him and Gaetz insisted that he was innocent. Following his withdrawal from nomination, Gaetz also announced that he would not be returning to his  position in  Congress. 

Politicians are not the only ones gaining political acknowledgement from Trump.  Pete Hegseth, a political commentator on Fox News, was nominated to be the secretary of defense. Hegseth served in the United States Army and in the National Guard. He also received a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University. In 2017, Hegseth was accused of sexually assaulting a female conservative group staffer, but no charges were filed. The accusations have once again resurfaced with the news of his possible appointment. Hegseth has also long been an ignitor of the debate as to whether or not women should be allowed to serve in the military. He has been vocal on his belief that women should not fight in combat. 

“I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated,” Hegseth stated on a podcast with Shawn Ryan. 

Elon Musk, who was a fierce ally of Trump’s on the campaign trail, was rewarded for his loyalty to the president-elect. Musk was selected to run the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside investor Vivek Ramaswamy, which is not an official government agency. Ramaswamy, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, is the founder of pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences. He declared his race for the presidency in early 2023, but dropped out after the 2024 Iowa caucuses and endorsed Trump. Trump spoke of his hopes for the new department in a post on the social media platform X.

“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,” Trump stated.

Trump hopes that the agency will seek external advice and focus on reforming the federal bureaucracy to improve efficiency. This department is not an official government agency, and raises questions as to whether or not Musk and Ramaswamy will actually be able to act efficiently.

Trump’s choices of having non-politicians run government agencies, particularly someone such as Elon Musk who is the richest man in the world, has garnered attention. USD sophomore Annie Jackson weighed in on what she thinks the dividing line between politics and celebrities should be. 

“I’ve never agreed with famous people getting into politics,” Jackson commented. “I think they should support candidates just like any other American does, but to actually give them government roles when they have no experience in politics is pretty crazy to me.” 

Another outspoken Trump campaign supporter, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was nominated to be the secretary of health and human services (HHS). RFK Jr. originally ran in the 2024 election as a Democrat before opting to run as an Independent candidate. Ultimately, he dropped the bid altogether, and endorsed Trump. Former Vice President Mike Pence spoke out against the nomination, saying that RFK Jr. would be the most pro-abortion Republican secretary in modern history. As Secretary of HHS, RFK Jr. would be responsible for responding to public health and medical emergencies. The former environmental lawyer has long been questioned on his stance on vaccinations. This is widely due to his opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine as well as his involvement with anti-vaccine group, Children’s Health Defense. However, just recently, Kennedy insisted that he is not anti-vaccine and would not take vaccines off the market.

“If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away,” Kennedy stated in an interview with MSNBC. “People ought to have choice and ought to be informed by the best information, so I’m going to make sure that scientific safety studies and efficacies are out there and people can make individual assessments about whether that product is going to be good for them.” 

Though some USD students are following the nomination of each position, others are choosing to focus on other things. USD sophomore Siena Pugay is tired of political commentary, and wants to redirect attention elsewhere.

“Don’t get me wrong, I totally think it’s important to pay attention to politics, I just find it exhausting sometimes,” Pugay stated. “Trump doesn’t care what I personally think about his nominations, so I decided to just not really pay attention to it. It’s just really not that big of a deal, at least to me.” 

Trump’s nominees will continue to roll out as he works to transition back into office. 

Trump and Musk have become close allies during the course of the campaign. Photo courtesy of @benmbruce/Instagram