S= status
Note: Job descriptions and much of this information is from the NY Times, which has the best compilation I've found so far on Trump's cabinet picks.
(This is a work in progress. It is simply too depressing, and I need to take a break from compiling this list.)
Cabinet:
Vice President- Mike Pence
- Background and Qualifications- Governor of Indiana.Got a law degree from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law before entering private practice. Lost two runs for Congress in 1988 and 1980 before becoming a conservative radio and television talk show host 1994 to 1999. Elected to Congress in 2000. Chairman of the House Republican Conference 2009-2011. Supporter of the Tea Party movement.
- Controversy- Describes himself as a Christian, conservative and Republican "in that order". He previously was a Democrat, having volunteered for the Democratic Party in 1976, and was inspired to get into politics by the likes of JFK and MLK. He became a born-again Christian in college, and changed his political beliefs. He used political donations from his 1990 congressional run to pay his "mortgage, personal credit card bill, groceries, golf tournament fees and car payments for his wife. While the spending was not illegal at the time, it reportedly undermined his campaign." (Wikipedia) Pence inherited a $2 billion reserve from his predecessor, Mitch Daniels, and finished 2014 with the same reserve. However to accomplish this he ordered cuts including $24 million from colleges and universities, $27 million cut from Family and Social Services Administration, and $12 cut from the Department of Correction. In 2014, the Indiana economy was among the most sluggish in the US. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation under the leadership of Pence approved "$24 million in incentives to 10 companies who sent jobs abroad. $8.7 million had been paid out by August 2016." (Wikipedia) He has fought higher wages. He's a supporter of the coal industry and labeled Indiana a "pro-coal state". He "repeatedly tried to roll back renewable energy standards and successfully ended Indiana's energy efficiency efforts." (Inside Climate News) Pence continues to defy "federal rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions" even if legal challenges to the rules failed. (Indianapolis Star) Pence signed a law making captive hunting legal in Indiana (raising animals for the purpose of hunting them). (The Journal Gazette) He is against things like needle exchange programs, which combat HIV transmission. He attempted to prevent Syrian refugees from settling in Indiana, and failed. However he conversely stated in December 2015 that "calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional." (The Guardian) According to a FiveThirtyEight rating of candidates ideology, Pence is the most conservative vice-presidential candidate in the last forty years. (Wikipedia) Criticized sex education and of Colin Powell for stating that young people should "protect themselves from the possibility of acquiring any sexually transmitted disease" through the use of condoms. (BuzzFeed) He supports "abstinence education" instead, and says that condoms are poor protection against STD. Believes that gays should be banned from service in the military. Believes in a same-sex marriage ban. Voted against an act to ban discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation. Voted against the DREAM act, which would grant undocumented children of illegal immigrants conditional non-immigrant status if they met certain requirements. He's a supporter of NAFTA free trade. Has opposed closing Guantanamo, but believes that "enemy combatants" should be tried in a military tribunal.
Secretary of State- Rex W. Tillerson (R)
CONFIRMED
Whether Mr. Trump picks an ideologue or a seasoned foreign policy hand from past Republican administrations, his challenge will be that the State Department is the centerpiece of the post-1945 experiment of alliance-building and globalism, which Mr. Trump said he would dismantle.
- Background and Qualifications- CEO of Exxon (that's about it, as he's been with the company since 1975 and it's the only job he's held)
- Controversy- CEO of Exxon. His success in Russia helped him climb the ladder at Exxon. He received the Russian Order of Friendship from Putin, one of the highest orders that can bestowed on a civilian (by comparison, some American sailors who helped save the lives of Russian submariners only hours from suffocation also won the same honor). Senators on both sides of the aisle are concerned with his close relationship with Putin. Russia has already indicated it would welcome Tillerson being named America's top diplomat. As Politico put it, "It’s hard to imagine Tillerson publicly chiding Putin today because he is now so very dependent on that friendship." And "Putin may act a friend and pin state medals on your breast, but he is, ultimately, a cynic. And to play ball with him, you have to be a cynic, too. Forget your honor, your rule of law, your independent judiciary, your human rights, your international law, and focus on the gold coins he throws to your feet. And forget looking dignified as you gather them up."
- For more insight into Tillerson's ties with Russia, read this article by The Guardian.
Secretary of Treasury- Steven Mnuchin (R)
S- waiting for floor votes
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy- He was Trump's top fundraiser, and personally contributed $430,000 to Trump and the RNC.
Worked 17 years at Goldman Sachs. Started his own hedge fund and invested in at least two Donald Trump projects. Turned around failed home lender IndyMac and renamed it OneWest. Company was involved in string of lawsuits over questionable foreclosure practices. In one controversy the bank foreclosed on a senior who accidentally underpaid by 27 cents. (NBC News)
Secretary of Defense- James "Mad Dog" N. Mattis (R)
CONFIRMED
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
CONFIRMED
- Background and Qualifications- Currently serving his fourth term as the US Senator from Alabama. First elected to the senate in 1996. Also served as Alabama's attorney general, and is a member of the senate judiciary committee.
- Controversy- Supported an amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Noted advocate for reducing legal immigration. Supported Bush tax cuts, opposed 2009 stimulus and Obamacare. He was ranked by the National Journal in 2007 as the fifth most conservative U.S. senator. He was nominated by Reagan in 1986 to be a judge of the US District Court of Alabama, but was not confirmed due to four other attorneys accusing him of making racist comments. Also said the KKK was "OK until I found out they smoked pot." One of three senators to vote against additional funding of the Veterans Affairs. Said on Politico's Off Message podcast "Trump is where the Republicans are and if you're going to be a Republican leader you should be supportive of that." and "My advice is to listen and accept the will of the American people, the Republican voters -– the Republican Party is the Republican voters. He has claimed to have worked on several Civil Rights cases (to offset his record as a racist), and the attorneys who actually worked on those same cases have come forward to publicly announce that Sessions had nothing to do with those cases.
"We worked in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, which brought those lawsuits...We can state categorically that Sessions had no substantive involvement in any of them. Sessions has not worked to protect civil rights. He worked against civil rights at every turn. Sessions knows that his real record on race and civil rights is harmful to his chances for confirmation. So he has made up a fake one. But many of us who were there in Alabama in the 1980s, 1990s and beyond are still around. We lived that story, too. And we are here to testify that Sessions has done many things throughout his 40-year career. Protecting civil rights has not been one of them." (Rachel Maddow/MSNBC)
Secretary of the Interior- Ryan Zinke (R)
S- waiting for floor votes
The Interior Department manages the nation’s public lands and waters. The next secretary will decide the fate of Obama-era rules that stop public land development; curb the exploration of oil, coal and gas; and promote wind and solar power on public lands.
- Background and Qualifications- Earned a degree in geology from the University of Oregon before joining the Navy. US Navy Seal 1986-2008. Retired as a Commander. Led more than 3500 Special Ops personnel in Iraq as acting commander of Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Arabian Peninsula. Senator of Montana 2009-2011. House of Representatives 2015-2016.
- Controversy- He called Hillary Clinton "the Antichrist" when campaigning for the House in 2014. His wife, Lolita, is on Mr. Trump's transition team for the Department of Veteran's Affairs. (NY Times) "As interior secretary, Mr. Zinke would be charged with carrying out the aggressive pro-drilling agenda that Mr. Trump championed on the campaign trail." (NY Times) He's a staunch supporter of keeping public lands in federal hands, but supports mining and logging on those lands. (NY Times) "In Congress, Zinke has supported the deployment of U.S. ground troops to combat ISIL, "abandoning" the Affordable Care Act, and cutting regulations. He supported a Republican effort to repeal the estate tax.
Zinke "frequently votes against environmentalists on issues ranging from coal extraction to oil and gas drilling" and received a 3 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters. Nevertheless, Zinke broke with most Republicans on the issue of transfers of federal lands to the states, calling such proposals "extreme" and voting against them. In July 2016, Zinke withdrew as a delegate to the Republican nominating convention in protest of a plank in the party's draft platform which would require that "certain" public lands be transferred to state control. Zinke said that he endorses "better management of federal land" rather than transfer." (Wikipedia)
He has also "consistently voted in favor of maintaining the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is funded by royalties from oil and gas exploration on public lands but intended to preserve other natural habitats. (NY Times) It is believed that his confirmation could potentially help Democrats in the Senate, meaning one less challenger to democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana.
S- awaiting hearing
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
S- waiting for floor votes
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy- A senior Trump fundraiser, he gave $200,000 to Trump and $117,000 to the RNC. A billionaire who made his fortune on distressed businesses, some view him as a vulture, and others as a phoenix. He is a former Democrat. Dubbed the "king of bankruptcy". Restructured failed companies in steel, coal, and telecommunications using leveraged buyouts. (NBC News)
- For more insight into Commerce pick Ross, read this article by Slate.
On 2/15/17, Puzder was removed from consideration for Secretary of Labor after video of his ex-wife was released from her appearance on Oprah in 1990 speaking on Puzder's abuse of her.
The Labor Department enforces rules that protect the nation’s workers, distributes benefits to the unemployed and publishes economic data like the monthly jobs report. The new secretary will be in charge of keeping Mr. Trump’s promise to dismantle many Obama-era rules covering the vast work force of federal contractors.
- Background and Qualifications- CEO of CKE Restaurants
- Controversy- A wealthy businessman and campaign fundraiser who personally contributed $388,000 to the RNC and $150,000 to Trump, and who also gave $10,000 to Trump-backed Rebuilding America Now. Some conservatives have criticized that he would be too sympathetic to foreign workers. “President-elect Trump’s choice of Andrew Puzder to run the Department of Labor raises questions and concerns about whether he will vigorously defend the interests of American workers,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in a statement. “Puzder has served as an executive of a fast food conglomerate,” he added, “an industry that has thrived on low-wage labor, illegal workers, and which has lobbied for greater access to foreign guest workers to maximize corporate profits.” He is a critic of minimum wage increase and the Obama administration, and intends to dismantle many of the labor policies that Obama has instituted. He opposes an increase of minimum wage to $10/hr from the current $7.25, where it has remained since 2009. Said to most resemble Trump's style and "He seems to delight in bashing elites — he complained that 'big corporate interests' and 'globalist companies' were supporting Hillary Clinton in the presidential election — and is prone to the occasional streak of political incorrectness." He has said about his advertising style of half-naked women in ads for Hardee's and Carl Jr's, “I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it’s very American.” Long live the USA.
CONFIRMED
- Background and Qualifications- Chairman of the House Budget Committee, an orthopedic surgeon. Served in Congress alongside Mike Pence. Served four terms in the Georgia state Senate.
- Controversy-NY Senator Chuck Schumer has said, "Congressman Price has proven to be far out of the mainstream of what Americans want when it comes to Medicare, the Affordable Care Act and Planned Parenthood." He supports repealing Obamacare and privatizing Medicare. He wants to replace Obamacare with tax credits and health savings accounts.
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy- Has said social safety net and welfare programs create dependency among poor.
CONFIRMED
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
S- waiting for floor votes
Despite its name, the primary purview of the Energy Department is to protect and manage the nation’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy- Perry proposed scrapping the Energy Department while seeking the Republican nomination for president.
CONFIRMED
- Background and Qualifications- Married to an heir to the Amway fortune. Formerly served as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party. Currently serving as chairwoman of the Windquest Group, a privately held investment and management firm. Also chairwoman of the American Federation for Children (a school advocacy group), and serves on a number of additional boards, including Great Lakes Education Project, Foundation for Excellence in Education and Alliance for School Choice.
- Controversy- DeVos belongs to one of the top Republican donor families in the country, but unlike other cabinet picks, she did not support Trump. She actually gave $50,000 to a super PAC supporting Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and donated to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Criticized by conservatives for supporting Common Core. ABC News says "DeVos and her husband were the subject of a Mother Jones profile that labeled them the “new Kochs.” Billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch have been influential in national politics for decades, donating hundreds of millions of dollars to Republican candidates, think tanks, PACs and more." They also say "Breitbart News, a conservative website that endorsed Trump and was once run by his incoming top strategist Steve Bannon, published a piece just hours before the announcement slamming the possibility of her appointment, given what it said was her past support for Common Core and links to the Clinton Foundation." A donor to the Clinton Foundation. Faith-based proponent of school voucher programs.
S- waiting for floor votes
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
CONFIRMED
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
Cabinet-Level Positions:
White House Chief-of-Staff- Reince Priebus
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
S- waiting for floor votes
The Environmental Protection Agency, which issues and oversees environmental regulations, is under threat from the president-elect, who has vowed to dismantle the agency "in almost every form.”
- Background and Qualifications- Oklahoma Attorney General. Owned and managed the Oklahoma City Redhawks minor league baseball team, which saw a 45% increase in revenue and broke the all-time attendance record for minor league baseball in Oklahoma history. Elected to the Oklahoma Senate in 1998. After two years, he was chosen to serve as Republican Whip from 2001-2003, and later the Republican Assistance Floor Leader until 2003.
- Controversy- Described as a "close ally" of the fossil fuel industry, he is a strong climate-change denialist who intends to dismantle the safeguards put in place by Obama and the EPA. Says Ken Cook, head of the Environmental Working Group, a Washington research and advocacy organization, “It’s a safe assumption that Pruitt could be the most hostile E.P.A.
administrator toward clean air and safe drinking water in history." Trump once pledged to get rid of the EPA "in almost every form", and Pruitt is just the guy to help him achieve that. Mr. Pruitt is one of the attorneys behind a lawsuit against the EPAs climate rules, and the case is expected to advance to the Supreme Court. (Is it not a conflict of interest to have someone behind a lawsuit against the EPA to then oversee the EPA-- even while the lawsuit is still ongoing???) Once sworn in as Attorney General, Pruitt's campaign "quickly became an opportunity to work secretly with some of the largest oil and gas companies, and the state's coal-burning electric utility, to try to overturn a large part of the Obama administration's regulations on air emissions, water pollution and endangered animals." (NY Times) Another conflict (again from the same NY Times article): "A 2014 investigation by The Times
found that energy lobbyists drafted letters for Mr. Pruitt to send, on
state stationery, to the E.P.A., the Interior Department, the Office of
Management and Budget and even President Obama, outlining the economic
hardship of the environmental rules." To take this further:
As attorney general, Mr. Pruitt took the unusual step of jointly filing an antiregulatory lawsuit with industry players, such as Oklahoma Gas and Electric, the coal-burning electric utility, and the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, a nonprofit group backed by major oil and gas executives, including Mr. Hamm.Behind the scenes, he was taking campaign contributions from many of the industry players on his team, or helping deliver even larger sums of money to the Republican Attorneys General Association, which he became the chairman of.Mr. Pruitt’s office also began to send letters to federal regulators — including the E.P.A. and even President Obama — that documents obtained through open records requests show were written by energy industry lobbyists from companies including Devon Energy. Mr. Pruitt’s staff put these ghostwritten letters on state government stationery and then sent them to Washington, moves that the companies often then praised in their own news releases, without noting that they had actually drafted the letters in the first place.
He also filed a brief (on behalf of the Hobby Lobby and others) in 2014 arguing that the owners of "privately held companies need not provide their employees with birth control, if that goes against their beliefs." There are constitutional concerns with Pruitt, who criticized both Supreme Court's finding that a 2004 amendment defining marriage as "only the union of one man and one woman" a violation of the US Constitution and their refusal to hear Oklahoma's appeal on it. In 2014 he "joined a lawsuit targeting California's prohibition on the sale of eggs laid by caged hens kept in conditions more restrictive than those approved by California voters" (Wikipedia), and then in true Trump fashion he threatened he would investigate the Humane Society of the United States, who was one of the main proponents behind the law. He's against the separation of church and state, believing that the "distribution of religious materials to public school students was constitutional" (Wikipedia) For some more "light reading", check out this NY Times article from 2014 about Pruitt's close alliance with big oil and energy.
S- awaiting hearing
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
CONFIRMED
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
S- waiting for floor votes
The agency guarantees loans for small businesses, helps them get government contracts and supports their interests on Capitol Hill.
- Background and Qualifications- Former CEO of the WWE. She's actually had a rather impressive personal background with graduating at 17, marrying Vince McMahon (her high school sweetheart) soon after, and obtained her BA in three years. She trained as a paralegal and learned about intellectual property rights, which became useful later when assisting her husband in the management of his newly formed company Titan Sports, Inc.She's been thought of as a business genius for the way she and husband Vince grew the WWF into the powerhouse that the WWE is today.Linda was appointed to the State Board of Education in 2009. She and Vince have a lot of charitable involvement.
- Controversy- Another billionaire addition to the cabinet. She gave $6 million to Rebuilding America Now, a super PAC that backed Trump, as well as $400,000 to the RNC and $153,000 to Trump. She had two failed attempts at the US Senate in 2010 and 2012. Involved in a steroid scandal with the WWE 2007-2009.
Additional Positions:
White House Counsel- Donald F. McGahn II
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
Resigned amid revelations that he lied about speaking with Russia about dropping sanctions
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
CONFIRMED
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
S- awaiting hearing
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
- Background and Qualifications-
- Controversy-
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