The new (and familiar) faces staffing the second Trump administration

President-elect Donald Trump has begun naming members of his White House team, offering an early signal as to what direction he’ll take on issues, including foreign policy and immigration. 

Thus far, Trump has announced a handful of policy staffers, nominating House GOP Conference chair Elise Stefanik as Ambassador to the United Nations, and former Rep. Lee Zeldin as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. He’s also named former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Tom Homan as his choice for “border czar” and is set to announce longstanding policy adviser Stephen Miller as a deputy chief of staff. Stefanik has been a staunch supporter of Israel, and Zeldin has emphasized his desire to roll back environmental regulations. Homan and Miller, meanwhile, are known for their hard-line stances on immigration, including overseeing family separations during Trump’s first administration.

Many other nominations — including for powerful Cabinet positions like Secretaries of State and Defense — are still to come. 

Trump described a range of priorities while on the campaign trail, including promises of mass deportations, expansive tariffs, and cuts to protections for LGBTQ people. It will be up to his secretaries and staff to execute these plans, with his picks thus far underscoring just how serious he is about pursuing many of these goals, particularly on immigration. 

During his first administration, many of Trump’s Cabinet members oversaw significant changes to the executive branch including Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who were critical to curtailing worker protections and attempting massive cuts to education spending, respectively. Trump has indicated that he wants to go further and move faster this time around and that he wants to ensure he’s surrounded by like-minded staff. 

Below is a rundown of the people Trump has named and the roles these appointees could play. 

House Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY) has been tapped for UN Ambassador

Who she is: Once a moderate, Stefanik — currently part of Republican House leadership — has become a vocal Trump loyalist in recent years as her New York district shifted right. 

Stefanik first burst onto the national stage as a member of the House Intelligence Committee, grilling witnesses as part of Trump’s first impeachment proceeding in the lower chamber in 2019. More recently, she went viral for her questioning of college presidents during a hearing on antisemitism and their handling of student protests over Gaza. 

As a top House Republican, Stefanik has amplified Trump’s 2020 election denials and hewed so close to the president-elect that she was once on the shortlist for the vice presidency. Stefanik is also known for her efforts to recruit and support more Republican women for House seats. 

She’s taken a pretty standard conservative stance on foreign policy: Stefanik has been a prominent supporter of aid to Israel while balking at continuing support for Ukraine. She backed early tranches of Ukraine aid but joined other Republicans in arguing that more recent aid could be better applied domestically. Stefanik has previously questioned aid to the United Nations, including to its Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has been vital to providing humanitarian aid to Gaza. 

“Elise is an incredibly strong, tough and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement about the role. 

What we know about the role: The Ambassador to the UN serves as a vital envoy for US interests; given the country’s financial support for the body and its role on the UN Security Council, the ambassador has major influence regarding how the organization utilizes its resources and who serves in its leadership. 

In the last year, UN officials have been increasingly critical of Israel’s attacks on Gaza as thousands have died, health care systems have been assaulted, and famine has struck. As Ambassador, Stefanik could criticize these positions and call for defunding UN relief programs. 

This role requires Senate confirmation. 

What message this sends: The pick suggests that the Trump administration could once again ramp up its disagreements with the United Nations, after attempting to curb funding for certain UN initiatives in Trump’s first term. At that time, the administration also pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council, citing its criticisms of Israel. 

Stefanik’s naming could also underscore the president-elect’s skepticism of additional aid to Ukraine. 

Former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan has been named “border czar” 

Who he is: Homan was acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first Trump administration and oversaw the implementation of the family separation policy during his tenure from 2017 to 2018. He’s also long backed Trump’s desire to deport unauthorized immigrants, previously noting that if invited to join the administration, he intended to “run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.”

Homan worked for ICE during former President Barack Obama’s administration as well, and has also served as a police officer and Border Patrol agent. He’s been in lockstep with Trump on implementing punitive immigration policies and called for ICE to deport a wide range of unauthorized immigrants, including those who don’t have criminal histories. 

“Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “There is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders.” 

What we know about the role: The “border czar” is not an official role that requires Senate confirmation; the Secretary of Homeland Security is the actual cabinet official overseeing the border. However, Homan appears poised to have a major say over policy and will weigh in on proposals at both the northern and southern borders, according to Trump. 

What message this sends: Homan’s efforts in the first Trump administration and his commitment to sweeping deportations this term indicate that the president-elect is fully focused on his promise to remove a large number of unauthorized immigrants from the US. 

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin tapped for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

Who he is: Zeldin is a former Republican House lawmaker who also ran a failed campaign for the New York governor’s seat in 2022. 

Zeldin did not previously sit on committees focused on environmental policy in the House, and focused on crime and inflation during his gubernatorial run. That year, he came within a notably close margin of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul as a Republican running in a traditionally blue state.

Zeldin has said that some of his first priorities will be to “roll back regulations that are forcing businesses to be able to struggle,” and to work on US “energy dominance.” 

What we know about the role: The EPA is responsible for crafting policies that protect clean water and air, and also plays a major role in approving regulations to combat climate change. The position of administrator is a Senate-confirmed role. 

What message this sends: Trump promised to take a very different approach to the environment than the Biden administration, including by exiting international climate agreements and focusing on expanding fossil fuel production. Zeldin’s nomination suggests those promises will be a priority, as will rescinding Biden-era environmental protections that curbed carbon emissions for businesses. 

Trump policy aide Stephen Miller expected to be named deputy chief of staff and policy adviser

Who he is: Miller is a staunch Trump loyalist and policy adviser who pushed many of the harshest immigration policies during the president-elect’s first term. He has advocated for a travel ban and family separations in the past, and he’s a chief architect and booster for the idea of the mass deportations Trump has promised this term as well.

“They begin on Inauguration Day, as soon as he takes the oath of office,” Miller has said of deportations. 

Trump has not yet formally announced the appointment, though Vice President-elect JD Vance has already posted his congratulations to Miller. 

What we know about the role: Another political appointment that doesn’t require Senate confirmation, this position is set to focus heavily on providing policy guidance — likely focused on immigration, given Miller’s expertise — to the president-elect. 

What message this sends: Between this appointment and Homan’s, Trump has made clear that his promised mass deportations will be one of his top policy goals when he retakes office. 

Trump campaign adviser Susie Wiles has been named chief of staff

Who she is: A longtime Florida campaign operative, Wiles helped run Trump’s 2016 campaign in the state and was a senior national adviser to him in 2024. She’s heavily credited for the success Trump had during the Republican primary in 2024 and had previously aided Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during his gubernatorial run in 2018 prior to a falling out between the two. 

Wiles has also been a corporate lobbyist and worked with a spectrum of Republicans in the past, including former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and Florida Sen. Rick Scott.  

“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, … universally admired and respected,” Trump said in a statement. 

What we know about the role: The chief of staff is effectively a gatekeeper who helps shape the president’s priorities and offers policy counsel. The position is the most prominent political appointee in the White House and is not Senate confirmed. 

Notably, Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly has been a major critic of Trump, describing him as a “fascist” who favors a “dictator approach.”

What message this sends: Wiles has been credited with professionalizing Trump’s campaign operations and reining in some of the chaos that has marked his past operations. That said, his campaign was still rife with racist remarks that echoed authoritarians as well as frequent lies about former Vice President Kamala Harris’s policies and identity. Kelly has said that he attempted to restrain the president during his first term, though it was still plagued by in-fighting and tumultuous policies on everything from climate to immigration.