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Senator Marco Rubio is tipped to be his secretary of state, while Trump’s former immigration adviser Stephen Miller is set to be appointed as the deputy chief of staff for policy.
Such picks are not only emblematic of Trump’s desire to rapidly round out his administration before inauguration day on January 20; they also offer the clearest insights yet into Trump’s priorities as he prepares to consolidate power within the Oval Office.
Although most appointments will need to be confirmed by the Senate, Trump has made it clear he wants people in his new administration who will deliver on his populist promises, strengthen executive power and reshape the government according to his vision.
Firstly, he wants to cut spending, eliminate regulations and restructure federal agencies.
So too does Musk (whose frustrations have been shaped by the federal oversight he’s had to endure through SpaceX and his other businesses) and Ramaswamy (whose policy proposals include scrapping the Education Department and the FBI, and slashing the federal workforce by cutting 75 per cent of jobs).
Elon Musk at a rally for Donald Trump. His investment will be rewarded.Credit: Getty Images
Secondly, Trump is determined to focus on strategic rivalry with Beijing, and both Rubio and Waltz are viewed as particularly strident anti-China hawks: the latter is a leading critic of China in Congress, while the former was sanctioned by Beijing for his criticism of its human rights violations and democracy crackdown on Hong Kong.
Thirdly, his biggest priority is stopping the flow of illegal immigrants at the US-Mexico border, no matter the price, or indeed the human cost. To that end, Trump’s appointment of Homan and Miller couldn’t be more apt.
Homan was one of the top advocates of the controversial family separation policy enacted during Trump’s first term, which separated more than 5500 children of immigrants from their parents at the border in 2018 under the shortlived “Zero Tolerance” policy.
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Now he’s setting his bar even higher. Asked last month whether it would be possible to carry out mass deportations without separating families, Homan replied matter-of-factly: “Families can be deported together”, suggesting children who are US citizens but with undocumented parents would have to go with them.
As for Miller, he’s the lead architect of Trump’s plans for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, whose policy views have been shaped in part by racist conspiracy theories about white people being replaced by immigrants.
America is in for a rude awakening, but Trump’s election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris was so resounding, there can be no doubt he has the mandate to carry out his plans. He’s certainly wasting no time finding the loyalists to help him.