Trump's choices tonight include former and current Fox News contributors
President-elect Donald Trump’s Friday cabinet picks include former and current Fox News contributors.
Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Trump’s pick for surgeon general, became a Fox News contributor at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2024. She has been a Fox regular ever since, and she was on the air earlier this week. She is the only current Fox contributor in today’s batch of hires.
A Fox News spokesperson says Nesheiwat is no longer a contributor as of tonight.
Dr. Marty Makary, Trump’s pick for FDA commissioner, also became a paid Fox News contributor at the outset of the pandemic in March 2020. He was a paid contributor through mid-2024, according to a Fox News spokesperson. He was on Fox News Sunday last weekend promoting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for HHS.
Sebastian Gorka, Trump’s pick to be senior director for counter-terrorism, was a Fox contributor in 2018 and 2019, but his primary media job now is radio host – he has been an afternoon drive time talk show host for Salem Radio Network for the past five years. His show is called “America First.” He also has a weekend show on Newsmax called “The Gorka Reality Check.” He was on the radio this afternoon.
RFK Jr. played a key role in picking top health roles
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. played a key role in selecting the names to fill out the Department of Health and Human Services that were announced tonight, including the FDA commissioner and the CDC director, according to a person familiar with the search.
Kennedy was named last week by President-elect Donald Trump to run the department, which has more than 80,000 employees.
In a late Friday flurry, Trump announces his choices for key administration roles. Here's what you should know
Donald Trump announced an array of administration picks Friday evening, including his treasury and labor secretaries. The President-elect was eager to announce his decisions ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday week, according to two sources familiar with the announcements.
Here’s a rundown of his Friday picks as well as other headlines you should know:
His latest selections:
- Trump named Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager, as his pick to lead the Treasury Department.
- Trump chose Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be the secretary of labor.
- Trump selected Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Vought was one of the key authors of Project 2025, the controversial conservative policy blueprint, and was Trump’s budget director during his first administration.
- Trump named Dr. Dave Weldon, a former congressman, to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Trump announced Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as his surgeon general.
- Trump chose Alex Wong as his principal deputy national security adviser and Sebastian Gorka as his senior director for counterterrorism.
- Trump chose Dr. Marty Makary to be the commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration.
- Trump named Scott Turner, a former NFL player, to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, known colloquially as HUD.
- Trump is expected to offer Kelly Loeffler the role of the secretary of the Department Agriculture, two people familiar with the matter tell CNN.
Gaetz updates:
- Following former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal from consideration as attorney general, the controversial Florida congressman has joined Cameo, a platform that allows fans to purchase brief personalized videos from a wide array of stars, athletes, and high-profile celebrities, a source familiar confirms to CNN.
- Gaetz will not return to Congress next year. He told conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk he would serve Trump in a different capacity, which he did not specify. He also downplayed the allegations in the House Ethics Committee report as part of a “smear campaign.”
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has set the dates for the special election to fill Gaetz’s seat in the US House of Representatives. The primary will be held on January 28, and the general election will be held on April 1.
Other headlines:
- First lady Melania Trump has announced her first hire for her second term at the East Wing, appointing Hayley Harrison, a longtime aide, as chief of staff.
- The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial has adjourned his sentencing, which was set for next week.
- Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the intelligence community, was briefly placed on a Transportation Security Administration list that prompts additional security screening before flights after her overseas travel patterns and foreign connections triggered a government algorithm earlier this year, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Who is the Project 2025 co-author who will run White House budget office
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Russell Vought, one of the key authors of Project 2025, as his pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
OMB oversees the development and execution of the federal budget, and the office has significant influence over the president’s agenda.
Here’s what to know about Vought:
During Trump’s first term: Vought was Trump’s former budget director and oversaw a widespread deregulation push. He made a name for himself as a policy wonk committed to the MAGA movement. The president-elect has repeatedly praised Vought for doing an “incredible” and “fantastic” job at OMB. Before serving as Trump’s budget director, Vought was the deputy director and later acting director of OMB. In 2018, then-Vice President Mike Pence cast a tie-breaking vote to save Vought’s confirmation as deputy director.
After Trump left office: Vought started the Center for Renewing America (CRA), a nonprofit that describes itself as the “tip of the America First spear.” CRA was one of many right-leaning groups that partnered on Project 2025, a more than 900-page blueprint for Trump’s second term that was led by the Heritage Foundation. Vought personally authored the project’s chapter on the executive office of the president, and his group contributed to several other chapters of the plan as well.
Other key things to know on Vought: He also served as the policy director of the Republican National Convention committee that rewrote the GOP’s official platform this year — a sign of how central he is to Republicans’ policy goals. Earlier this year, Vought was captured on hidden camera by undercover journalists talking about an agenda he was writing for the first 180 days of a new Trump administration.
Remember on Project 2025: Although Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025 during the campaign, at least 140 people who worked in the first Trump administration had a hand in the conservative blueprint, a CNN review found, including more than half of the people listed as authors, editors and contributors to “Mandate for Leadership,” the project’s extensive manifesto for overhauling the executive branch.
Trump wanted to announce new picks before the holiday weekend, sources say
President-elect Donald Trump named a flurry of new cabinet picks and other top administration roles Friday night, as he was eager to announce his latest decisions before the holiday weekend, two sources familiar with the announcements said.
He was especially eager to announce his pick for the Treasury Department before the weekend, to ensure it got more news coverage, one of the sources said.
All of the names Trump put out in the last hour had been decided by this afternoon, the sources said, but he wanted to name his treasury secretary first before publicly releasing his other decisions.
Trump taps Scott Turner to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development
President-elect Donald Trump has named Scott Turner, a former NFL player, as his pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, known colloquially as HUD.
“Scott will work alongside me to Make America Great Again for EVERY American. Congratulations to Scott, his wonderful wife, Robin, and his son, Solomon!” Trump said in a statement.
Trump picks Dr. Marty Makary for FDA commissioner
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Dr. Marty Makary as his pick to be the commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration.
Trump chooses Dr. Dave Weldon to head Center for Disease Control and Prevention
President-elect Donald Trump has named Dr. Dave Weldon, a former congressman, as his pick to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC falls under Health and Human Services, which Trump picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead.
Trump picks Alex Wong and Sebastian Gorka for national security posts
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Alex Wong as his principal deputy national security adviser and Sebastian Gorka as his senior director for counterterrorism.
On Wong: Trump cited Wong’s work on North Korea, East Asia and Pacific affairs during his first term. “As Deputy Special Representative for North Korea, he helped negotiate my Summit with North Korean Leader, Kim Jong Un. Alex also led the State Department’s efforts to implement the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy,” Trump said in the statement.
On Gorka: “Dr. Gorka is a legal immigrant to the United States, with more than 30 years of National Security experience,” Trump said as he continued to list a number of Gorka’s accomplishments. Here’s more background on Gorka.
Analysis: Trump suggests he doesn't want to rock the boat on Wall Street with treasury pick
President-elect Donald Trump’s treasury secretary pick stands in stark contrast to some of the more controversial and questionable Cabinet picks he’s announced so far. Scott Bessent won’t freak out Wall Street, the industry he’s set to oversee.
Treasury secretary is a serious job for a serious person who can meet immediate deadlines and pressures weighing on the financial markets from around the globe. In many respects, the Treasury secretary is the quarterback of the economy.
A radical selection could’ve rattled investors and added risk to Trump’s already complex economic agenda.
Wall Street was unfazed by the selection. Some applauded it.
In other words, Trump did not pick the Matt Gaetz or Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., of Wall Street to run Treasury.
Trump names Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as his pick for surgeon general
President-elect Donald Trump has named Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as his pick to be surgeon general.
Trump chooses GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead Department of Labor
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer as his pick to be the secretary of labor.
Chavez-DeRemer lost reelection to Oregon’s 5th District earlier this month.
Under the new Trump administration, the Department of Labor is likely to take on a more business-friendly agenda, given the president-elect’s larger goal of cutting bureaucratic red tape. The agency oversees, among other things, worker-protection programs, enforces labor standards and ensures compliance of overtime laws.
President Joe Biden’s Department of Labor was first headed by Marty Walsh, a former union boss and mayor of Boston. Julie Su, a civil rights lawyer, has served as acting secretary of the department since Walsh left in 2023 to take on a role at the National Hockey League Players’ Association.
During Trump’s first term, Alexander Acosta served as labor secretary for the first two years. He was named when Trump’s first pick, Andy Puzder, the then-CEO of the company that owns the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast food chains, withdrew his nomination after facing challenges to his Senate confirmation. Acosta, a previous member of the National Labor Relations Board, resigned after facing criticism about his role negotiating the 2008 plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein as the US attorney in Miami.
This post was updated with more information about the Department of Labor.
Trump picks Project 2025 co-author Russell Vought to lead White House budget office
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Russell Vought as his pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, he said in a Truth Social post.
Vought was one of the key authors of Project 2025, the controversial conservative policy blueprint, and was Trump’s budget director during his first administration. At that time, Vought oversaw a widespread push to deregulate.
Elon Musk is now worth nearly $350 billion
The aftermath of the 2024 US presidential election has been a boon to Elon Musk.
The richest person in the world got even richer Friday, with Musk’s net worth hitting a record $347.8 billion, Bloomberg reported. That beats his previous record set in November 2021, when the Tesla founder’s net worth exceeded $340 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Shares of Tesla have rallied since the November 5 election and climbed 3.8% on Friday. Since Election Day, the stock has risen about 40% on investors’ belief that Musk’s influence in the Trump administration will usher in an era of deregulation that will benefit the company. Musk, Tesla’s largest individual shareholder, is roughly $83 billion richer since Election Day, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
An alliance with President-elect Donald Trump has pushed Musk and his ventures to the forefront. Musk is the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, as well as the owner of X and CEO of other ventures, including Neuralink, xAI and the Boring Company. Now, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, he will oversee a new “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),” named after a memecoin.
Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, also more than doubled in value this week in a new funding round, surging to $50 billion from a few months ago, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Musk has skyrocketed past his peers on the billionaire rankings, which often sees the top contenders swapping places. As of Tuesday, Musk was more than $100 billion richer than the second richest person, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
CNN’s Allison Morrow contributed to this report.
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