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At 6:52 p.m. on Friday, President-elect Donald Trump announced his choice for Treasury secretary. Minutes later, he tapped a director for the Office of Management and Budget. Then came his picks for Labor secretary, deputy national security adviser and surgeon general.
The evening flurry lasted just over an hour, and in that time Trump announced nine high-ranking administration officials. And on Saturday afternoon, Trump announced Brooke Rollins as his pick for agriculture secretary, rounding out the core roles in his Cabinet with the spate of nominations.
It was the latest episode in a buzzing Trump transition that is starkly different from 2016, as the president-elect and his team — insulated from reporters at Mar-a-Lago — are making often surprising decisions at breakneck speed.
Just two and a half weeks since Election Day, Trump has announced names for 20 key administration roles, including leaders for all 15 executive agencies. He has yet to officially tap four remaining top positions, which include trade representative, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, administrator of the Small Business Administration and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy — roles that can be elevated to cabinet level at the president’s discretion. Overall, Trump will have to make about 4,000 political appointments, approximately 1,200 of which will require Senate confirmation.
“America, the Trump Cabinet is officially complete,” Trump’s campaign account wrote in a now-deleted post on X, referring to the selection of the president’s core Cabinet positions.
The velocity and volume of this process stand in contrast to Trump’s last transition, when he leaned on his more experienced team to make a steady stream of establishment selections. This time around, that drip has at times escalated into a fire hose as Trump, armed with hindsight and empowered by the GOP, has named anti-establishment loyalists to top positions.
Treasury
In a transition process characterized by rapid-fire decisions, Trump took his time deliberating on who to choose to head the treasury. His ultimate selection, hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, was the heavy favorite in the days after the election, but the process was complicated after one of Trump’s transition heads, Howard Lutnick, started pushing hard to get the job.
Bessent’s and Lutnick’s camps spent days trying to undermine each other’s candidacy, according to people familiar with the situation. This tussle sometimes spilled out into public view, such as when Elon Musk posted on X that Lutnick would be the better choice over Bessent, who the Tesla CEO and Trump appointee characterized as a “business-as-usual” pick.
The infighting frustrated Trump, people familiar with the transition process said, and he decided to add more names to the mix. A day after announcing Lutnick would instead become Commerce secretary — with special authority over trade — he brought in former Federal Reserve board member Kevin Warsh and Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan for interviews at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday afternoon.
Neither sold the president on the job, the people said — and Warsh is expected to be a candidate instead to chair the Fed when that position opens in May 2026 — leaving the path open for Bessent to ultimately clinch the nomination.
Labor
In selecting Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Department of Labor, Trump defied expectations that his pick would take a hard line against unions. Transition officials had been in touch with Chavez-DeRemer for several weeks, according to three people familiar with the matter, and there was a sense among people involved that she was in a strong position to edge out Trump’s former deputy labor secretary Patrick Pizzella. Plus, Trump was eager to move quickly.
Conservative warnings about her support for the PRO Act — legislation that would strengthen union efforts — and strong pro-union stance didn’t ultimately phase Trump. She had notable backing, including from some GOP leaders who had raised her name directly with Trump. And Teamsters President Sean O’Brien was pushing Chavez-DeRemer’s name in private, arguing the largest union in North America was eager to work with the Trump administration to improve the lives of working people — including many who had voted for Trump and shifted the Republican power balance.
Trump met with Chavez-DeRemer Thursday at Mar-a-Lago ready to make up his mind. The interview went well, and he offered her the job in the room, according to another person familiar with the matter.
Unlike many of Trump’s picks, Chavez-DeRemer’s announcement was largely well-received on both sides of the aisle. Trade union groups praised her pro-labor record, and some Democratic members of Congress signaled an openness to the vetting process.
National security
Firebrand former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka was seen as a contender for deputy national security adviser. Instead, Trump named Gorka as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism within the White House National Security Council, elevating him to a powerful — but comparatively low-profile — role.
Former national security adviser John Bolton — a notorious Trump defector — on Friday slammed Gorka as a “con man,” saying on CNN “I wouldn’t have him in any U.S. government.”
Trump ultimately settled on Alex Wong, a more traditional national security adviser who worked on North Korea policy in Trump’s first administration, for the No. 2 spot on the National Security Council.
Surgeon General
Trump’s pick for surgeon general, physician and Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat, has been embraced by several public health leaders as a solid choice for the administration — especially against the backdrop of Trump choosing vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Peter Hotez — a vaccine scientist and outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s response to Covid-19 and who has slammed the choice of Kennedy for HHS — said Nesheiwat was a good appointment in a post on X Friday night.
“She is very smart, thoughtful, interested in learning, and a compassionate doctor, and … a truly nice person,” he wrote.
Eric Bazail-Eimil, Daniel Payne, Meredith Lee Hill and Victoria Guida contributed to this report.
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