Election Live Updates: Trump Starts to Fill Out Cabinet With Loyal Defenders

The president-elect has not announced his nominees for the highest-profile jobs, like secretary of state or attorney general. He is expected to name Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as his secretary of state, three people familiar with his thinking said on Monday, cautioning that he could still change his mind at the last minute.

His cabinet choices will require confirmation by the Senate, which takes time and can sometimes present political problems. Mr. Trump was less prepared during his first term for the transition into office and complained that he had made bad choices, including picking Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama to be the attorney general.

This time, aides to Mr. Trump have been considering their choices and vetting potential candidates for months, if not years, in anticipation of his election victory.

The president’s cabinet includes the leaders of 15 departments and the vice president. But presidents often designate other top roles — including the E.P.A. administrator and the U.N. ambassador — to be cabinet-level, and those officials would attend meetings of the group with the president.

Andrew Puzder, Mr. Trump’s first choice to become labor secretary in 2016, withdrew the next year after opposition grew and senators made it clear to the White House that he did not have the votes to win confirmation. With Republicans in control of the Senate next year, Mr. Trump may have an easier time winning support for his picks.

Here’s what else to know:

• Senate leadership: Some of Mr. Trump’s closest allies are privately counseling him to try to block Senator John Thune of South Dakota, a onetime Republican nemesis, from becoming the Senate majority leader, pushing him to impose his will more forcefully on already compliant congressional Republicans.

• House update: Control of the House of Representatives remains unclear, though analysts say Republicans are favored to win a narrow majority when all of the votes are counted in close races around the country. Nine of the 16 uncalled races that will determine the balance of power are in California, where the counting of ballots typically takes longer than in any other state.

• National security pick: Mr. Trump has chosen Representative Michael Waltz of Florida to be his national security adviser, two people familiar with the decision said on Monday, turning to a former Green Beret who has taken a tough line on China to oversee foreign and national security policy in the White House.

• Larger role for Miller: Stephen Miller, the architect of Mr. Trump’s assault on immigration during his first term, is likely to take a much bigger role in the president-elect’s upcoming administration.

• A win for Democrats: Representative Ruben Gallego, a Phoenix-area Democrat and military veteran, has won the Senate race in Arizona, The Associated Press said — a bright spot for Democrats after Republicans regained control of the chamber.

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is headed to Brussels today for meetings with NATO and European officials to discuss the Ukraine-Russia war. The trip comes amid grave concern among Ukraine’s supporters that the Trump administration will slash U.S. support for Kyiv when the president-elect takes office early next year.

And as for NATO, the Biden administration and officials with the alliance fear Trump may seek to pull the United States out of it.

Doing so would be an extraordinary move even for Mr. Trump, who during his first term and since he has left office has had an iron grip on congressional Republicans. He has demanded and almost always received loyalty from them on matters of policy and personnel.

Mr. Thune, an establishment Republican who is reviled by some on the MAGA right, is competing for the position against Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida. Republican senators and senators-elect are set to vote by secret ballot on Wednesday.

Intervening in an internal leadership struggle among G.O.P. senators, who have at times been more resistant to the former president’s dictates and where members are fiercely protective of their independence, would signal Mr. Trump’s determination to dominate the legislative branch in his second term. The majority leader controls the Senate floor, including what proposals and nominees receive votes, and when.

Mr. Trump has already indicated his desire to hold a tighter rein on the Senate in the days since he was elected. He posted an ultimatum on social media on Sunday in which he demanded that any new Senate leader cooperate in his efforts to circumvent the confirmation process by calling recesses during which he could appoint personnel without winning Senate approval. All three candidates vying to lead the Senate next year quickly promised to speed through his choices.

So far, Mr. Trump has not lent his voice to the bid to block Mr. Thune, but influential figures in his orbit are pushing a campaign to do so. They include the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. Most of them are instead supporting Mr. Scott, whom Mr. Trump backed two years ago when he challenged Mr. McConnell.

But Mr. Trump is said to have privately conceded that Mr. Scott, who is unpopular with his colleagues, has little chance of succeeding in his bid. (The Floridian received only 10 votes the last time he sought to lead his G.O.P. colleagues.) One person close to Mr. Trump said the president-elect was reluctant to get involved in the leadership fight unless he is certain he has the votes to push the winner over the line.

Senators tend to resent outside intervention in their internal business or efforts to bully them publicly, even by a president or president-elect. Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and conspiracy theorist who traveled with Mr. Trump on his private plane during the campaign, has publicly threatened on social media to release negative information about Mr. Thune, a tactic that has the potential to backfire.

Mr. Trump has tried to insert himself in internal congressional elections in the past with mixed success. Last year during a prolonged fight among House Republicans over who should be their speaker, he backed Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio for the post, but the pressure campaign to install him, amplified by the hard right, alienated establishment Republicans, who banded together to defeat Mr. Jordan. Mr. Trump has had more success at tearing down candidacies than he has at boosting them. He torpedoed the speakership bid of Representative Tom Emmer, whom he slammed as a “RINO.” (Mr. Emmer ended the 2024 race by speaking enthusiastically on Mr. Trump’s behalf at his events.)

This time, the prospect of Mr. Trump’s involvement has scrambled an already intense fight among Senate Republicans about who should lead them.

For months, Mr. Thune and Mr. Cornyn have been seen as the front-runners in the race to succeed Mr. McConnell. Each has crisscrossed the country raising millions of dollars for other senators and shoring up votes privately.

Mr. Thune and Mr. Cornyn, both institutionalists, have worked to improve their relationships with Mr. Trump, who has been harshly critical of each at different times but has stayed out of the fray so far during this leadership contest. Mr. Thune visited Mar-a-Lago in March and spoke with Mr. Trump just days ago. Mr. Cornyn has met with Mr. Trump twice in recent months, in Texas and Nevada, and also speaks with him regularly.

Both have run quiet, traditional races, working in one-on-one meetings with senators to secure votes, pitching themselves as experienced leaders who can navigate the intricacies of Congress to deliver on Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda. Mr. Thune is believed to have an edge over Mr. Cornyn.

Mr. Scott, by contrast, is running to appeal to the right flank of the party, and doing so publicly and online. Many in the establishment wing of the party view Mr. Scott’s time leading Senate Republicans’ campaign arm as a failure. He was blamed for a failure to recruit quality candidates, questionable spending practices, and the release of a disastrous policy agenda including the phasing out of popular entitlement programs that was quickly repudiated by his colleagues.

Most Republican senators have not publicly declared which of the three candidates they support for majority leader. The three are set to meet on Tuesday night at a closed-door forum moderated by Senator Mike Lee of Utah. Privately, some are already grumbling about online influencers attempting to pressure them to change their votes.

Mr. Rubio was elected to the Senate in 2010, and has staked out a position as a foreign policy hawk, taking hard lines on China, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba in particular.

He initially found himself at odds with those Republicans who were more skeptical about interventions abroad, but he has also echoed Mr. Trump more recently on issues like Russia’s war against Ukraine, saying that the conflict has reached a stalemate and “needs to be brought to a conclusion.”

Despite speaking in hard-line terms about Russia in the past, Mr. Rubio would likely go along with Mr. Trump’s expected plans to press Ukraine to find a way to come to a settlement with Russia and remain outside of NATO. It is unclear whether the leaders of Ukraine or Russia would be prepared to enter into talks at Mr. Trump’s urging.

Mr. Rubio has been among the most outspoken senators on the need for the United States to be more aggressive on China. He has adopted positions that later became more mainstream in both parties. For example, while serving in Congress during the first Trump administration, he began advocating industrial policy meant to help the United States better compete with China’s state-directed economy.

Mr. Rubio also served as a co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which has aimed to craft aggressive policy on China, especially in trying to address human rights abuses there. In 2020, Mr. Rubio sponsored a bill that tried to prevent the import of Chinese goods made with the use of forced labor by China’s ethnic Uyghur minority. President Biden signed it into law the next year.

In 2019, Mr. Rubio helped persuade Mr. Trump to adopt a harsh sanctions policy against Venezuela to try to unseat its authoritarian leftist president, Nicolás Maduro. “He’s picked a battle he can’t win,” Mr. Rubio said of Mr. Maduro in an interview with The New York Times. “It’s just a matter of time. The only thing we don’t know is how long it will take — and whether it will be peaceful or bloody.”

Though Venezuelans have suffered from the U.S.-imposed sanctions, Mr. Maduro remains in power.

More recently, Mr. Rubio has expressed unalloyed American support for Israel’s war in Gaza. When asked by a peace activist late last year what he thought about the many Palestinian civilian deaths, he said, “I think Hamas is 100 percent to blame.”

Mr. Rubio has worked across party lines on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, and would likely sail through a confirmation process.

If he becomes secretary of state, a main question is whether he would forgo U.S. interventions in parts of the world to prioritize China. That approach would align with Mr. Trump’s “America First” ideas but would run counter to some of Mr. Rubio’s earlier positions.

Mr. Rubio was a loyal surrogate for Mr. Trump during the campaign even after being passed over as the vice-presidential pick.

A spokesman for Mr. Rubio declined to comment, and a spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Trump has made his choice for a number of other national security roles. He has selected Representative Michael Waltz, Republican of Florida, to be his national security adviser, and Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, to be ambassador to the United Nations.

Mr. Rubio was first elected to the Senate in 2010 as part of a new generation of conservative Tea Party leaders. But some conservatives considered him wobbly on immigration, an issue that caused him political problems when he ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 against Mr. Trump and others.

During that campaign, Mr. Trump belittled him as “Little Marco,” and Mr. Rubio responded with acerbic attacks.

But after Mr. Trump’s 2016 victory, Mr. Rubio went on to patch things up with him, serving as an informal foreign policy adviser and helping to prepare him for his first debate against Mr. Biden in 2020.

Under Florida law, Gov. Ron DeSantis can temporarily appoint a replacement to Mr. Rubio’s seat who will serve in the Senate until the next regularly scheduled general election is held. After last week’s elections, Republicans are set to hold at least 52 seats in the chamber.

Catie Edmondson contributed reporting.

Mr. Waltz, 50, has been a member of the Armed Services, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees in the House and would join the Trump administration as it addresses Russia’s war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East and confronts an increasingly aggressive China. His wife, Julia Nesheiwat, was homeland security adviser in the first Trump administration.

Even as a congressional freshman, Mr. Waltz caught the eye of the Trump White House with his national security credentials. In 2020, in the days after Mr. Trump authorized the drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani of Iran, Mr. Waltz was included in a small group of Republicans invited to the White House who received a briefing on the strike.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the move.

Mr. Waltz, who became a fixture on Fox News on matters of foreign policy, is widely regarded on Capitol Hill as a hawk on both China and Iran. He served multiple combat tours in Afghanistan and vociferously opposed President Biden’s withdrawal of troops from there. “What no one can ever do for me, including this administration right now, is articulate a counterterrorism plan that’s realistic without us there,” Mr. Waltz, who also served as a counterterrorism adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, said in an interview in the days after the withdrawal.

Mr. Waltz had also opposed withdrawing large numbers of troops from Afghanistan during the Trump administration without stringent conditions, and he introduced legislation to prevent a significant troop drawdown from Afghanistan unless the director of national intelligence could certify that the Taliban would not associate with Al Qaeda.

The pick would also whittle down even further what is expected to be a slender Republican majority in the House in the early days of the next congressional session.

House Republicans appear on track to win a narrow majority in the next Congress. Special elections would need to be held to replace both Mr. Waltz and Ms. Stefanik, who currently represent safe districts for the party.

And late Sunday, Mr. Trump announced on social media that Thomas Homan, the acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency during Mr. Trump’s first term, would be his “border czar.”

It remains to be seen how broad Mr. Miller’s portfolio will be, but it is expected to be vast and to far exceed what the eventual title will convey, according to the people briefed on the matter.

A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Miller also did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Mr. Miller’s views are favored by Mr. Trump’s hard-line base. Vice President-elect JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr., who has been influential in the transition, praised the prospective choice on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The expected move was reported earlier by CNN.

Mr. Trump has talked repeatedly since 2023 about his plans for the largest deportation effort in the country’s history. Among the only potential restraints on those efforts might be negative media coverage, such as the kind he faced when his first administration enacted the policy of separating children from their parents during unauthorized border crossings. Mr. Homan was an ardent supporter of that policy.

Mr. Miller is expected to work closely with Mr. Homan to oversee the planned deportations, as well as the nation’s maritime and aviation security. In an interview with “60 Minutes” that aired on CBS in October, Mr. Homan described “targeted arrests” and workplace enforcements when asked about the deportation plan.

“It’s not OK to enter a country illegally, which is a crime,” he said. “That’s what drives illegal immigration, when there’s no consequences.”

Mr. Miller was an influential aide in Mr. Trump’s first term and has remained an important adviser and speechwriter. He has been involved in Mr. Trump’s early transition planning meetings since their election victory last Tuesday and is expected to play a key role in staffing the government — especially regarding roles that intersect with immigration policy.

While many former Trump aides made themselves scarce after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Mr. Miller stayed close to Mr. Trump immediately after he left office. Mr. Miller advised Mr. Trump’s team on messaging and policy and formed a nonprofit group, America First Legal Foundation, to battle the Biden administration in the courts. He has been a frequent presence on Fox News defending Mr. Trump.

Mr. Miller traveled with Mr. Trump during the campaign and encouraged Mr. Trump’s instincts to elevate immigration as the top issue in the closing weeks of the race.

Mr. Miller, along with several of Mr. Trump’s first-term advisers who will return to the administration, also knows far more about the mechanisms of the federal government than he did when he first joined in 2017.

Over the past two years, Mr. Miller has also been working on detailed plans for mass deportations. He outlined these and other hard-line immigration policies in an interview with The New York Times last year. The plans include restricting legal and illegal immigration in a number of ways, including rounding up undocumented immigrants already in the United States and detaining them in camps before they’re expelled from the country.

A handful of other people from the top of Mr. Trump’s campaign ranks are expected to be among the deputy chiefs of staff announced as soon as Monday.

The group of course includes his vice president-elect, JD Vance. Less known are other influential business executives and Republican operatives advising Mr. Trump. Over the weekend, the group began to navigate the ideological differences of the party — and Mr. Trump’s impulses — as they began setting on appointments, including Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, as U.N. ambassador and Thomas D. Homan as border “czar.”

“President-elect Trump will begin making decisions on who will serve in his second administration soon,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for his presidential transition, said on Sunday. “Those decisions will be announced when they are made.”

Here are some of the key people to watch as they bring their influence to bear on steering the next administration:

Elon Musk

After investing more than $100 million in Mr. Trump’s campaign, the billionaire has gained tremendous access to the president-elect. Mr. Musk was around Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s club and residence in Florida, last week as the president-elect began his first formal transition meetings.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump handed the phone to Mr. Musk while speaking to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Mr. Trump has also said he wants Mr. Musk in a role focused on slashing government spending.

In a social media post on Sunday suggesting a willingness to weigh in on a key congressional leadership fight, Mr. Musk backed Senator Rick Scott for majority leader while knocking Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, as a “top choice for Democrats.”

Mr. Musk also has something to gain from Mr. Trump: He is a major government contractor, and the Defense Department relies heavily on his company, SpaceX. Mr. Musk has sought to have some of his employees placed in government jobs.

Susie Wiles

Mr. Trump’s first job announcement after winning the election was naming Ms. Wiles, a loyal member of his inner circle, as his chief of staff. Ms. Wiles will be the first woman to hold the job and is the only campaign manager to complete an campaign cycle working for Mr. Trump.

Ms. Wiles, a political strategist from Florida, gained the respect of leaders in the MAGA movement while maintaining relationships in the old-guard Republican establishment. She worked on one of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns and in his White House. In recent years, she helped Mr. Scott win his Senate seat in Florida and worked with Ron DeSantis when he won the Florida governor’s race in 2018.

As Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Ms. Wiles will take the lead on driving his agenda.

Howard Lutnick

Mr. Lutnick, the billionaire chief executive of the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, is one of the names being floated as the next Treasury secretary. But as a co-chair of Mr. Trump’s transition team, Mr. Lutnick has already taken on the high-profile assignment of identifying 4,000 hires for the new administration.

Mr. Lutnick, who also spent time at Mar-a-Lago the day after the election, has been fielding input from Republican donors and executives for potential hires. He has sought advice from major financial leaders like Stephen A. Schwarzman, the billionaire chief executive of the Blackstone Group, and the brokerage firm founder Charles Schwab.

“We’ve got so many candidates,” Mr. Lutnick said of referrals for the Trump administration during a CNN interview on Oct. 31. “We are so set up — I feel great.”

Mr. Lutnick was a longtime registered Democrat, but he said the party had moved away from his interests and he was now a Republican.

His role in staffing the new administration has generated concern among ethics watch dogs. Mr. Lutnick continues to run firms that serve corporate clients, traders, cryptocurrency platforms and real estate ventures around the world, which are regulated by agencies whose appointees he is helping to identify.

Stephen Miller

Mr. Miller was the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda during his first administration and remains close to the president-elect. He has plans for an even more extreme crackdown on immigration.

A former policy aide and speechwriter, Mr. Miller is planning what Mr. Trump calls “the largest deportation program in American history” by using the military and local law enforcement to assist federal immigration officers. Mr. Miller will play a key role in choosing those who will fill roles relating to immigration policy.

He will work closely with Mr. Homan, Mr. Trump’s former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mr. Homan was one of the officials who endorsed Mr. Trump’s “zero-tolerance policy” at the border that led to the separation of thousands of migrant families. He told “60 Minutes” last month that the new Trump administration would begin large-scale work site raids that could lead to the arrest of unauthorized workers.

During Mr. Trump’s first term, Mr. Miller helped lead a purge of senior homeland security officials whom he and Mr. Trump did not view as effectively carrying out the administration’s immigration policies. Mr. Miller is now one of Mr. Trump’s aides evaluating conservative lawyers who could enact Mr. Trump’s policies.

Mr. Miller was taking over policy planning for the transition and was expected to be named deputy chief of staff in the incoming administration, people briefed on the matter said on Monday. His portfolio is expected to be vast and to far exceed what his eventual title will convey, those people said.

Steve Witkoff

Mr. Witkoff, a real estate developer and golf partner to the president-elect, was a donor to Mr. Trump’s political action committee. He also testified at the former president’s civil fraud trial this year and was playing golf with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago during the second assassination attempt of the presidential campaign.

Mr. Witkoff helped connect Mr. Trump to the entrepreneurs leading his latest cryptocurrency venture. The president-elect announced on Saturday that Mr. Witkoff would be the chairman of his inaugural committee alongside Kelly Loeffler, the former Georgia senator.

Mr. Trump’s first inaugural committee received scrutiny over its spending. The Trump family business and his 2017 inauguration committee jointly agreed to pay $750,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the attorney general for the District of Columbia, who claimed that the Trump International Hotel in Washington had illegally received excessive payments from the committee.

Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan contributed reporting.

Ms. Stefanik announced on social media that she had accepted the offer, saying she was ready to pursue “peace through strength leadership on the world stage.”

Ms. Stefanik, 40, emerged as a key ally to Mr. Trump during his first impeachment proceeding. She has been chair of the House Republican conference, but has minimal experience in foreign policy and national security. She has served on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

She has been an outspoken supporter of Israel, and had a high-profile role in the congressional hearings that led to the resignations of several university presidents over their handling of campus unrest following the terror attack by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

She also impressed Mr. Trump years ago with an outspoken defense of him during his first impeachment trial in the House.

In a statement, Mr. Trump called her a “strong, tough and smart America First fighter.”

House Republicans appear on track to win a narrow majority in the incoming Congress. Ms. Stefanik’s departure could make their margin even thinner until a special election to replace her is held in what is considered a safe district for the party. Her nomination as U.N. ambassador will have to be approved by the Republican-controlled Senate.

It’s not yet clear whether Mr. Trump will be able to raid the House for his loyalists who serve there. Republicans are currently on track to keep their majority, but only by the similar razor-thin margin they have now, which has made it difficult to control the floor. Next year, they will be expected to produce major legislative results as a result of the party’s unified power in Washington.

Ms. Stefanik, the first Trump ally from the House who has been announced as a cabinet pick, has long been positioning herself to rise in a Trump administration. But her situation may be particularly difficult. In New York State, Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, would most likely wait as long as possible to call a special election to fill her seat.

Elon Musk, the billionaire and major Trump supporter, made clear on X that he had reservations about her appointment, based on the tight margin of control he is expecting in the House.

“Elise is awesome, but it might be too dicey to lose her from the House, at least for now,” Mr. Musk wrote on the social media platform.

Her selection comes after Mr. Trump last week named Susie Wiles, a longtime political operative who helped lead his campaign, as his White House chief of staff. On Sunday evening, Mr. Trump named Thomas D. Homan, an immigration hard-liner, to be his “border czar.”

Annie Karni and Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.

“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders,” Mr. Trump wrote in the post. “Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin.”

Mr. Trump made a broad crackdown on immigration a pillar of his presidential campaign, but it is so far unclear what that would look like or what his presidency will mean for immigrants in the United States.

One major question is whether the new administration will implement large-scale worksite raids that could lead to the arrest of unauthorized workers. Mr. Homan said on CBS’s “60 Minutes” last month that such raids, which have not been conducted under President Biden, would resume under the new administration. Mr. Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Mr. Homan was named acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2017, and he has decades of experience in immigration enforcement. He was a police officer, a United States Border Patrol agent and a special agent with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Mr. Trump’s announcement on Sunday was the latest clue into who will — and won’t — be his cabinet members and closest advisers. On Thursday, Mr. Trump named Susie Wiles, who has run his political operation, as his White House chief of staff. On Saturday he said that he would not invite Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations, or Mike Pompeo, his former secretary of state, to join the new administration.