President-elect Donald Trump is starting to gradually build his administration as he prepares to return to the White House, putting people in key positions and emphasizing aides and allies who were his strongest supporters on the campaign trail this year.

See who he’s chosen so far.

Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State for Defence

Hegseth, 44, co-hosts Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend.” He has been with the channel since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who appeared regularly on the show.

He was also an Infantry Major in the National Guard decorated for his action in the Iraq War. If he is confirmed by the Senate to take the post, he will face a series of global crises – from Russia’s war with Ukraine and continued attacks in the Middle East by Iranian allies to pressure for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and the escalating concerns about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea.

Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year.

Steven Witkoff, Special Envoy to the Middle East

Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff a special envoy to the Middle East.

The 67-year-old is the president-elect’s golfing partner and they were playing golf together at Trump’s club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 15 when the former president was the target of a second assassination attempt.

Witkoff “is a highly respected leader in business and philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Stephen will be an unrelenting voice for peace and make us all proud.”

Mike Huckabee, Ambassador to Israel

Trump will nominate former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel, he announced yesterday.

Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel, and his anticipated nomination comes as Trump has promised to align US foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

“He loves Israel, and the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring peace to the Middle East.”

Mike Walsh, national security adviser

Trump has tapped Walsh, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday.

Trump is placing Walsh in the midst of national security crises, ranging from arms efforts in Ukraine and concerns about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran’s allies and pressure for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah.

“Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump said in a statement, “and will be a formidable champion in our pursuit of Peace through Strength!”

Walsh was elected to Congress in 2019 to represent an east Florida district and has taken an aggressive stance on Iran and China, as well as Mexico and Afghanistan.

He is considered a China “hawk” and has called for the US to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and the mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uyghur population.

Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff

Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager.

He has a background in Florida politics. He helped Ron de Sandys win his first race for governor of Florida. Six years later, it was key to Trump’s defeat in the 2024 Republican primary.

The hiring of Wiles was Trump’s first major decision as president-elect and could be a key test for his incoming administration. Wiles is said to have earned Trump’s trust in part by leading the most disciplined of his three presidential campaigns.

Wiles was able to help keep Trump on track like few others, not by criticizing his impulses, but by earning his respect and showing his success after taking her advice.

Tom Homan, “Czar of the Border”

Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history.

Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration as head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a post on the border, a key issue during his campaign.

Homan suggested at a conference last July in Washington that he would be willing to “conduct the largest deportation operation this country has ever seen.”

Democrats criticized Homan at the time for defending Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy at border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border.

Elise Stefanik, Ambassador to the United Nations

Stefanik is one of Trump’s staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment.

After being elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was chosen by her fellow House Republicans to chair the 2021 House Republican Conference when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 elections. Stefanik, 40, has served in this role since then as the third member of the House leadership.

Stefanik’s challenge to university presidents over anti-Semitism on campuses led to the resignation of two of those presidents, further raising her national profile.

If confirmed, he could represent American interests at the UN as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine that began in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and his invasion of Lebanon against Hezbollah.

Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary

US President-elect Donald Trump has tapped South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to serve as Homeland Security secretary, an agency critical to the president-elect’s hard-line immigration agenda.

Last April she caused a backlash when she wrote in her autobiography that she shot and killed a puppy on her family farm because she thought it was “untrainable”.

Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency

Trump has selected former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

Zeldin does not appear to have experience in environmental matters, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former US House member from New York wrote in X, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US a world leader in artificial intelligence.”

“We will do it while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added.

During his campaign, Trump frequently attacked the Biden administration’s promotion of electric vehicles.

In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions enacted in a way that unleashes the power of American businesses while maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.”

John Ratcliffe, director of the CIA

Trump tapped John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next.

Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the last year and a half of Trump’s first term and head of the US government’s intelligence services during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I look forward to John being the first person to serve in both of our Nation’s highest intelligence posts,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the constitutional rights of all Americans.”

William McGinley, White House Counsel

Trump says William McGinley, a lawyer who has served in the Trump White House and in a key policy role this year, will be his White House counsel.

McGinley was a White House cabinet secretary during the first Trump administration.

In a statement, Trump called McGinley “a smart and tenacious lawyer who will help me advance our ‘America First’ agenda while fighting for election integrity and against arming law enforcement.”

Elon Musk, Minister of Government Efficiency

Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk as Secretary of Government Efficiency.

Joining Musk in that ministry will be former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, with Trump saying of the duo he chose that “it will pave the way for my administration to dismantle the government bureaucracy, to cut excessive government restrictions , to cut wasteful government spending and restructure federal agencies.”

“A smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, would be the perfect gift to America on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I am sure they will succeed!” the new US president concluded in his announcement.

Elon Musk, in turn, went on a barrage of posts on X, signaling his intentions. He first responded to those who argue that this new government agency is a danger to democracy. “Threat to Democracy? No, a threat to the bureaucracy,” he replied. He then retweeted a video of himself talking about cutting federal agencies, saying at the time that there are about 428 and writing in his post, “99 federal agencies is more than enough.”

Either we make government more efficient or America goes bankrupt. This is the ultimate stake. I’d like to be wrong, but that’s the truth,” Musk continued.

The billionaire also pledged that “all acts of the Ministry of Government Efficiency will be published online for maximum transparency. Whenever people think we’re cutting something important or not cutting something useless, tell us. We will also have a table for the biggest stupid waste of tax revenue. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely funny.”