Who will be the top figures in the next Trump administration?
The US president is responsible for selecting individuals to fill around 4,000 positions across the US federal government. Ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration for a second term on 20 January, Global Government Forum shares the latest appointments he has made to the federal government.
According to a tracker from the Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post, Donald Trump has so far made 101 nominations for government roles.
Previously, Global Government Forum has covered the top appointments in our webinar: How the US federal government is getting ready for the new president. At the time, these included senior cabinet-level appointments such as Marco Rubio, the Republican senator named as the secretary of state nominee, as well as Robert Kennedy at the Department of Health and Human Services and Pete Hegseth at the Department of Defense.
Since then, Trump has named 23 cabinet appointees, as well as other appointments across the government.
These include Scott Bessent as secretary of the Treasury; former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum as secretary of the interior; and Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive who led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, to run the Department of Education – although Trump pledged to shut the department during the election campaign.
Other cabinet-level appointments include Michael Kratsios, who was named as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and science advisor to the president, and Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Both Kratsios and Vought served in Trump’s first administration. Kratsios served as the White House chief technology officer while Vought returns to again lead the OMB, which supervises the administration of the executive branch agencies and prepares the president’s budget proposal for Congress.
Trump has also announced the appointment of former PayPal senior executive David Sacks as White House AI and crypto ‘czar’ – a role in which he would “guide policy … in two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness”.
A full list of administration appointments so far can be found on the Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post’s political appointee tracker.
Read more: Trump combines AI and crypto in White House ‘czar’ role
Department of Government Efficiency under development
Further details have emerged about how the high-profile Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is being formed with the aim of reducing government spending and regulations.
Announcing the creation of the initiative, Trump called the work of DOGE “the Manhattan Project of our time”, and appointed entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the project.
Musk set an initial objective of DOGE trying to save $2 trillion annually from government spending, but has since added that “if we try for two trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting one”.
DOGE will not be a formal government agency but will work “from outside government” to provide “advice and guidance” to the White House and the Office of Management and Budget.
Read more: Japan looks to learn from Elon Musk’s US government efficiency programme
According to the New York Times, DOGE is unlikely to be formed as a standalone entity, but will instead exist as a group of various officials in different departments, who will provide recommendations to Musk and Ramaswamy.
The aim of the agency is to eventually have two DOGE representatives in each department, with a brief to provide recommendations for government programmes and other areas of spending to be cut. The New York Times also reports that some DOGE employees, including possibly Musk, will be designated as so-called special government employees, a class of temporary workers who can only work for the federal government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period.
However, DOGE is also expected to have an office in the Office of Management and Budget, and reports suggest that officials have also considered forming a think tank outside government.
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About Richard Johnstone
Richard Johnstone is the executive editor of Global Government Forum, where he helps to produce editorial analysis and insight for the title’s audience of public servants around the world. Before joining GGF, he spent nearly five years at UK-based title Civil Service World, latterly as acting editor, and has worked in public policy journalism throughout his career.
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