Trump Taps Lutnick, Oz, McMahon For Key Administration Roles

President-elect Donald Trump continues to reach into the ranks of loyalists, allies and television personalities as he fills out the remainder of his cabinet.

On Tuesday, he chose Cantor Fitzgerald LP Chief Executive Officer Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department, a central position in an administration that will likely be shaped by proposals for sweeping tariff increases.

One of Trump’s most prominent Wall Street supporters and a co-chair of his transition, Lutnick had been a candidate to become Treasury secretary, a selection that the president-elect has yet to announce.

Trump picked celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency that manages $1.7 trillion in annual spending for federal programs insuring more than one-third of Americans.

Oz, who first came to prominence when he was dubbed “America’s doctor” on Oprah Winfrey’s daytime television show, is a surgeon with no government experience, though he did run for a Pennsylvania Senate seat in 2022, with Trump’s endorsement.

Trump also selected Linda McMahon, the onetime CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment who’s also in charge of the transition and ran the Small Business Administration in his first term, as his nominee for Education secretary.

While the announcements were being made, Vice President-elect JD Vance has been arranging meetings between Republican senators and Matt Gaetz, Trump’s choice to become attorney general, as well as Pete Hegseth, whom he selected to run the Defense Department, according to people familiar with the matter.

Vance will be making the rounds with those candidates, two of Trump’s most controversial nominees. Hegseth has been accused of sexual assault, while Gaetz has been investigated for sexual misconduct. They have both denied any wrongdoing.

“President Trump’s incoming administration is moving at an accelerated schedule in order to make good on getting key nominees confirmed in order to start delivering for the American people,” Brian Hughes, a Trump-Vance transition spokesperson, said in a statement.

He added that Gaetz, Hegseth, United Nations Ambassador pick Elise Stefanik and Veterans Affairs secretary nominee Doug Collins will all begin meetings on Capitol Hill this week.

Hegseth, the host of Fox News Channel’s weekend morning program and an Army National Guard officer, is an unconventional choice for Defense secretary, a role that has often gone to former military leaders, lawmakers or government officials with decades of experience. If confirmed, he would be taking over the Pentagon at a time of increased tensions in the Middle East and with Russian forces advancing in Ukraine.

Gaetz’s selection to be the nation’s top law enforcement official is another polarizing choice. If confirmed, he would be responsible for carrying out Trump’s pledge to reshape the Justice Department and on the front line of a promised crackdown on urban crime and mass deportation of millions of undocumented migrants.

Trump on Tuesday attended a launch of billionaire backer Elon Musk’s Starship rocket in Texas. The president-elect responded “no” when asked if he was reconsidering Gaetz’s nomination.

Here is how Trump’s transition is shaking out on Tuesday:

McMahon’s selection for the Education Department will put a Trump loyalist in charge of a sprawling government agency he has pledged to abolish.

“Linda will use her decades of leadership experience, and deep understanding of both education and business, to empower the next generation of American students and workers, and make America number one in education in the World,” Trump said in a statement on Tuesday night.

The Education Department has broad responsibilities, including allocating about $114 billion in federal student aid annually, investigating allegations of discrimination at schools and colleges, and dispensing congressional funding for education.

Trump has pledged to abolish it, a decision that would require congressional approval. He has called for many of its duties to instead be left to the states, though much of K-12 education oversight already rests with local jurisdictions.

Trump has also called for bolstering parental rights and expanding access to school choice. He has also proposed giving parents and school boards tools to reward high-performing teachers and punish others, including the ability to fire principals.

The Education Department has long been a target of conservatives, and Trump’s renewed push to shutter or drastically reduce its role comes after a number of issues that touch on the agency became flash points in the 2024 election cycle.

Over three decades, McMahon and her husband, Vince McMahon, built the family’s professional wrestling organization into a colossus, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., transforming the show business landscape and turning them into billionaires.

Along the way, they developed a close relationship with one of the company’s frequent guest stars: Trump, then a New York real estate mogul.

Linda McMahon preceded Trump on the path from outré entertainer to electoral politics. Stepping down as chief executive officer of WWE in 2009, she made two unsuccessful attempts at the US Senate from Connecticut. She spent $50 million apiece on her 2010 and 2012 campaigns, but was soundly beaten in each race.

Since Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, McMahon has served as chair of the America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit devoted to promoting his political positions.

Vance suggested that Trump is looking to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray, in a social media post Tuesday that the vice president-elect later deleted.

In a post on X defending his absence from a Senate vote on a judicial nominee, Vance wrote that while the “vote happened, I was meeting with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including for FBI Director.”

“I tend to think it’s more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45,” he added.

Trump has long clashed with the FBI, including under former Director James Comey, who opened an investigation into whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Trump fired Comey in 2017 and tapped Wray as his replacement.

Speculation has mounted that the president-elect may seek another FBI chief. Wray’s 10-year term will expire in 2027.

After Trump’s first term, FBI agents raided his Florida Mar-a-Lago club to seize classified documents and have investigated him over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Earlier Tuesday, Musk defended Gaetz, who is facing intense scrutiny from Republicans over a House sexual misconduct probe.

“Matt Gaetz has 3 critical assets that are needed for the AG role: a big brain, a spine of steel and an axe to grind,” Musk, the world’s richest person and a prominent Trump backer, wrote in a post on his social-media platform X.

“He is the Judge Dredd America needs to clean up a corrupt system and put powerful bad actors in prison,” he added, referring to a comic book character. “Gaetz will be our Hammer of Justice.”

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Senators in both parties are requesting more information on the House inquiry.

The Justice Department investigated allegations that Gaetz had sex with a minor in exchange for money but decided in February 2023 not to file any charges against him. Gaetz has denied the allegations.

Gaetz resigned from Congress days before the Ethics Committee was scheduled to deliberate on how to handle results from its investigation.

Republican Senator John Cornyn, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday that he expects women who spoke privately with the House Ethics Committee will testify before senators – and that the details of a House report will probably come out one way or another.

The Ethics Committee, which is under pressure to release its findings, plans to meet Wednesday. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has urged the panel to keep its findings confidential.

Musk, in another post on X, said he considered the accusations against Gaetz “worth less than nothing” adding that “a man is considered innocent until proven guilty.”

He also noted current Attorney General Merrick Garland did not seek charges against Gaetz, saying that if he “could have secured a conviction against Gaetz, he would have, but he knew he could not.”

Tom Homan, Trump’s incoming border czar, warned US cities not to thwart efforts to carry out the mass deportation of migrants the president-elect has promised, vowing that he would deploy “twice the amount of resources” to urban areas that resist those plans.

“If they don’t help us, get the hell out of the way; we’re going to do it,” Homan said on Fox News’ Fox and Friends. “If they will give us access to the jail, that would mean less agents in the community. For them pushing back and not letting us in the jail, it just means more agents will be in the community so they hurt themselves.”

Homan’s comments come a day after Trump confirmed that he would use the US military to deport migrants. Homan also reiterated his willingness to deputize local law enforcement to help deport migrants and said he had heard from former military and police officers who are asking to assist.