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Trump picks, known for their tough stance on immigration, border security, environment and war, will push for ‘America First’
Donald Trump’s campaign was centred on ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA). (AP)
Fresh from a landslide win, US President-elect Donald Trump has started to pick his team, in keeping with his ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) poll campaign.
Trump won a total of 312 electoral votes over his Democratic rival Kamala Harris’s 226, capping a tumultuous presidential campaign that began with President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign in July, followed by his endorsement of Vice President Harris, to the attempted assassination attempts on Trump.
All of his team members are Trump loyalists who have come to be known for their tough stance on issues such as immigration, border security, war, among others.
A look at the key appointments and the early policy signals:
STEPHEN MILLER: AMERICA IS FOR AMERICANS AND AMERICANS ONLY
Trump has named longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration. Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, dating back to his first campaign for the White House. He was a senior adviser in Trump’s first term and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration, including Trump’s move to separate thousands of immigrant families as a deterrence program in 2018.
What it means: Miller has helped craft many of Trump’s hardline speeches, and was often the public face of those policies during Trump’s first term in office and during his campaigns.
Miller drew large cheers at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden during the race’s final stretch, telling the crowd, “Your salvation is at hand …after decades of abuse that has been heaped upon the good people of this nation — their jobs looted and stolen from them and shipped to Mexico, Asia and foreign countries. The lives of their loved ones ripped away from them by illegal aliens, criminal gangs and thugs who don’t belong in this country.”
His stance is clear: “America is for Americans and Americans only.” This means, as promised, the US could see mass deportations.
MIKE WALTZ: HAWKISH ON CHINA
A retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, Mike Waltz, 50, was a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida and was the first Green Beret elected to the US House. He has been chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on readiness and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Waltz is an ardent Trump advocate who backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election and is expected to take his vision to boost America’s security forward. He has also repeated Trump’s frequent complaints about a so-called “woke” military that the former president has derided as soft and too focused on diversity and equity programs.
What it means: Waltz is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its ongoing mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population.
He has been a sharp critic of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan and has called on the US to hold accountable those who bear responsibility for the deaths of the 13 US service members at Abbey Gate and for “thousands of Americans and allies behind enemy lines”.
Waltz was against the Biden administration’s attempts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. He had also criticised the Biden administration for arming Ukraine to repel Russia’s invasion as “too little, too late”. However, later on, he has been seen supporting Trump’s view that Europe, too, should bear the burden of supporting Ukraine as the US needed to focus on its borders.
Waltz has on several occasions reiterated the importance of India to the US, according to ANI. In 2023, Waltz travelled to India to take part in the Independence Day celebrations, and praised PM Narendra Modi. Earlier in June, he had slammed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and “happily predicted the demise of his government in the next election”.
Waltz’s appointment would add another dimension to how the country would take on China and its role in the ongoing wars.
MARCO RUBIO: AGAINST AID FOR UKRAINE
Marco Rubio, 53, a Florida-born politician, is on track to be the first Latino to serve as America’s top diplomat – secretary of state — once the Republican president-elect takes office in January. He was arguably the most hawkish option on Trump’s shortlist for secretary of state, and he has advocated for a muscular foreign policy concerning America’s geopolitical foes, including China, Iran, and Cuba.
What it means: While most of his proposed policies were aimed at China and Iran, Rubio has said in recent interviews that Ukraine needs to seek a negotiated settlement with Russia rather than focus on regaining all territory that Russia has taken in the last decade. He was also one of 15 Republican senators to vote against a $95 billion military aid package for Ukraine, passed in April. “I’m not on Russia’s side — but unfortunately, the reality of it is that the way the war in Ukraine is going to end is with a negotiated settlement,” Rubio told NBC in September.
In 2020, he sponsored a bill to block imports of Chinese goods made with forced Uyghur labour, which US President Biden signed into law in 2021.
Rubio could play a key role in shaping Trump’s policy towards Russia and Ukraine, a war Trump had promised to end.
TOM HOMAN: ZERO TOLERANCE FOR IMMIGRATION
Trump on Monday appointed former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan, 62, as his “Border Czar”, expressing confidence in his ability to deport “illegal aliens back to their country of origin”. Trump said that Homan would be in charge of the US Borders and that “there is nobody better at controlling our borders” than him.
What it means: Homan was the ICE director for the first 16 months in Trump’s first term, being the face of the President’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies that deviated from the practice of keeping families together during detention and deportation.
Thousands of undocumented people, including children, were separated from their family members, which had drawn severe backlash. He said in a recent CBS News interview that families could be reported together.
While at ICE, Homan frequently appeared at White House briefings where he backed the arrest of undocumented immigrants. Earlier in September 2017, he had said that his agency would also arrest undocumented people who came forward to care for these children.
On Monday, Homan on Fox News warned Democratic governors who try to block deportations “to get the hell out of the way”, clearly indicating what his idea of ‘America First’ would be.
ELISE STEFANIK: ALL FOR STRENGTH LEADERSHIP
Trump has offered Elise Stefanik the job as US ambassador to the United Nations. The 40-year-old New York Congresswoman, the fourth-ranking House Republican, has been a strong ally of the president-elect and a major fundraiser for the GOP. Her aggressive performance during his 2019 impeachment hearings made her a “Republican star,” as Trump himself said at the time. And again she stepped up for Trump after his 2020 defeat, when she objected to certifying President Joe Biden’s win in the House and promoted Trump’s false claims about election fraud.
What it means: Stefanik replaced then-Rep. Liz Cheney as GOP conference chair in May 2021 after the Wyoming Republican called out Trump’s election falsehoods. She is a member of the Armed Services Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, among other committees. Stefanik made headlines last year with her campaign to oust college leaders who did not, as she and others saw it, adequately denounce antisemitism during a House hearing on the matter.
In a clear indication of the way forward, Stefanik, another China hawk, in a statement said, “I stand ready to advance President Donald J. Trump’s restoration of America First peace through strength leadership on the world stage on Day One at the United Nations.”
LEE ZELDIN: DRILL BABY DRILL
Trump has selected Lee Zeldin, 44, to serve as his administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Zeldin announced that he has accepted the role. Zeldin, who lost the 2022 New York governor’s race to Kathy Hochul, has remained close to Trump, regularly appearing at Mar-a-Lago throughout his 2024 campaign. One of Zeldin’s first tasks will likely be starting the process to overturn several of the Biden EPA’s biggest rules on climate, including tailpipe regulations for vehicles and rules aimed at slashing pollution from power plants and oil and gas producers.
What it means: Zeldin on Monday told Fox News that he will pull back “left-wing” regulations and focus on “unleashing economic prosperity” through the agency.
As a Congressman from New York, Zeldin received the League of Conservation Voters’ worst score on environmental issues out of the entire New York delegation in 2020. Zeldin has a 14% lifetime score from LCV, a national environmental advocacy group.
Around $103 billion in Biden’s climate law funding – 92% of the law’s total – has been announced as of late October. That money will fund everything from clean energy rebates to helping coastal communities prepare for rising seas and slashing pollution from oil and gas operations.
Asked about day one priorities from the agency, Zeldin said, “So, day one and the first 100 days, we have the opportunity to roll back regulations that are forcing businesses to be able to struggle, they’re forced to cut costs, internally, they are moving overseas all together.”
Contrary to the previous two Democratic presidents, who have used the EPA’s regulatory powers to try to fight climate change, Zeldin has pledged to implement Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” energy policy for “energy dominance”.
With Agency Inputs
