Donald Trump Is Picking His Cabinet: Here’s a Short List

Donald J. Trump’s transition team, which was handed over to Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Friday and includes a host of corporate consultants and lobbyists in addition to independent experts, is moving quickly to assemble leaders of the new administration. Here are some possibilities for the cabinet and other key posts.

Secretary of State

Whether Mr. Trump picks an ideologue or a seasoned foreign policy hand from past Republican administrations, his challenge will be that the State Department is the centerpiece of the post-1945 experiment of alliance-building and globalism, which Mr. Trump said he would dismantle.

• John R. Bolton Former United States ambassador to the United Nations under George W. Bush
• Bob Corker Senator from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
• Newt Gingrich Former House speaker
• Zalmay Khalilzad Former United States ambassador to Afghanistan
• Stanley A. McChrystal Former senior military commander in Afghanistan

Treasury Secretary

The secretary will be responsible for government borrowing in financial markets, assisting in any rewrite of the tax code and overseeing the Internal Revenue Service. The Treasury Department also carries out or lifts financial sanctions against foreign enemies — which are key to President Obama’s Iran deal and rapprochement with Cuba.

• Thomas Barrack Jr. Founder, chairman and executive chairman of Colony Capital; private equity and real estate investor
• Jeb Hensarling Representative from Texas and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee
• Steven Mnuchin Former Goldman Sachs executive and Mr. Trump’s campaign finance chairman
• Tim Pawlenty Former Minnesota governor

Defense Secretary

The incoming secretary will shape the fight against the Islamic State while overseeing a military that is struggling to put in place two Obama-era initiatives: integrating women into combat roles and allowing transgender people to serve openly. Both could be rolled back.

Kelly Ayotte Departing senator from New Hampshire and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee

• Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn Former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (he would need a waiver from Congress because of a seven-year rule for retired officers)
• Stephen J. Hadley National security adviser under George W. Bush
• Jon Kyl Former senator from Arizona
• Jeff Sessions Senator from Alabama who is a prominent immigration opponent

Attorney General

The nation's top law enforcement official will have the authority for carrying out Mr. Trump's “law and order” platform, including his threat to “jail” Hillary Clinton. The nominee can change how civil rights laws are enforced.

• Chris Christie New Jersey governor
• Rudolph W. Giuliani Former New York mayor
• Jeff Sessions Senator from Alabama

Interior Secretary

The Interior Department manages the nation’s public lands and waters. The next secretary will decide the fate of Obama-era rules that stop public land development; curb the exploration of oil, coal and gas; and promote wind and solar power on public lands.

• Jan Brewer Former Arizona governor
• Robert E. Grady Gryphon Investors partner
• Harold G. Hamm Chief executive of Continental Resources, an oil and gas company
• Forrest Lucas President of Lucas Oil Products, which manufactures automotive lubricants, additives and greases
• Sarah Palin Former Alaska governor

Agriculture Secretary

The agriculture secretary oversees America's farming industry, inspects food quality and provides income-based food assistance. The department also helps develop international markets for American products, giving the next secretary partial responsibility to carry out Mr. Trump's positions on trade.

• Sam Brownback Kansas governor
• Chuck Conner Chief executive officer of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives
• Sid Miller Texas agricultural commissioner
• Sonny Perdue Former Georgia governor

Commerce Secretary

The Commerce Department has been a perennial target for budget cuts, but the secretary oversees a diverse portfolio, including the Census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

• Chris Christie New Jersey governor
• Dan DiMicco Former chief executive of Nucor Corporation, a steel production company
• Lewis M. Eisenberg Private equity chief for Granite Capital International Group

Labor Secretary

The Labor Department enforces rules that protect the nation’s workers, distributes benefits to the unemployed and publishes economic data like the monthly jobs report. The new secretary will be in charge of keeping Mr. Trump’s promise to dismantle many Obama-era rules covering the vast work force of federal contractors.

• Victoria A. Lipnic Equal Employment Opportunity commissioner and work force policy counsel to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce

Health and Human Services Secretary

The secretary will help Mr. Trump achieve one of his central campaign promises: to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The department approves new drugs, regulates the food supply, operates biomedical research, and runs Medicare and Medicaid, which insure more than 100 million people.

• Dr. Ben Carson Former neurosurgeon and 2016 presidential candidate
• Mike Huckabee Former Arkansas governor and 2016 presidential candidate
• Bobby Jindal Former Louisiana governor who served as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals
• Rick Scott Florida governor and former chief executive of a large hospital chain

Energy Secretary

Despite its name, the primary purview of the Energy Department is to protect and manage the nation’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.

• James L. Connaughton Chief executive of Nautilus Data Technologies and former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush
• Robert E. Grady Gryphon Investors partner
• Harold G. Hamm Chief executive of Continental Resources, an oil and gas company

Education Secretary

Mr. Trump has said he wants to drastically shrink the Education Department and shift responsibilities for curriculum research, development and education aid to state and local governments.

• Dr. Ben Carson Former neurosurgeon and 2016 presidential candidate
• Williamson M. Evers Education expert at the Hoover Institution, a think tank

Secretary of Veterans Affairs

The secretary will face the task of improving the image of a department Mr. Trump has widely criticized. Mr. Trump repeatedly argued that the Obama administration neglected the country's veterans, and he said that improving their care was one of his top priorities.

• Jeff Miller Retired chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee

Homeland Security Secretary

The hodgepodge agency, formed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has one key role in the Trump administration: guarding the United States’ borders. If Mr. Trump makes good on his promises of widespread deportations and building walls, this secretary will have to carry them out.

• Joe Arpaio Departing sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz.
• David A. Clarke Jr. Milwaukee County sheriff
• Michael McCaul Representative from Texas and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee
• Jeff Sessions Senator from Alabama

White House Chief of Staff

The chief of staff manages the work and personnel of the West Wing, steering the president's agenda and tending to important relationships. The role will take on outsize importance in a White House run by Mr. Trump, who has no experience in policy making and little in the way of connections to key players in Washington.

• Stephen K. Bannon Editor of Breitbart News and chairman of Mr. Trump’s campaign
• Reince Priebus Chairman of the Republican National Committee

C.I.A. Director / Director of National Intelligence

Mr. Trump takes over at a time of diverse and complex threats to American security. The new C.I.A. director will have to decide whether to undo a C.I.A. “modernization” plan put in place this year by Director John O. Brennan, and how to proceed if the president-elect orders a resumption of harsh interrogation tactics — which critics have described as torture — for terrorism suspects.

• Michael T. Flynn Former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency
• Peter Hoekstra Former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee
• Mike Rogers Former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee
• Frances Townsend Former homeland security adviser under George W. Bush

National Security Adviser

The national security adviser, although not a member of the cabinet, is a critical gatekeeper for policy proposals from the State Department, the Pentagon and other agencies, a function that takes on more importance given Mr. Trump's lack of experience in elective office.

• Michael T. Flynn Former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency

Source - The New york Times