A look at Trump's cabinet
Today is the big day. The world watches on, keenly and intently focused on the tanned and floppy-haired Donald Trump as he is about to be inaugurated into office and enter the White House as America's 45th President. As we watch and wait we collectively wonder what will happen next?
Will he live up to all his outrageous promises? Will he invite Putin to the White House? Will he save the country?
The ultimate truth is that at this moment in time, no-one can tell what is going to happen. Onlookers, irrespective of their qualifications or experience, can at best only make an educated guess as to how good a president Trump will really be. We are all at the mercy of fate when it comes to how history will look back upon Trump's term(s) as President. For all his faults, we can't yet tell how effective a leader he really is and how much good he will do for the country. Looking to the media for an opinion on Trump there are as many people singing his praises as there are trying to discredit him and with all the speculation around as to the man's character there is really just one question that matters when looking back at any President; did they improve the country? We shall just have to wait and see. As I write I can hear on the radio Trump making his inaugural address and I must say; he sounds impressive.
With Trump boasting that his cabinet has "the highest IQ of any cabinet ever assembled" let's take an unbiased look at the people he has so far nominated.
Mike Pence | Vice President
He holds a law degree and previously served as the 50th governor of Indiana where he implemented the largest tax cut in Indiana's history, pushed for more funding for education initiatives, and continued to increase the state's budget surplus. He signed bills intended to restrict abortions, including one that prohibited abortions if the reason for the procedure was the fetus's race, gender, or disability. He controversially signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which upset moderate members of his own party, as well as the business community and LGBT advocates. He later signed an amendment intended to protect LGBT people
Rex Tillerson | Secretary of State
He holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. He joined Exxon in 1975, and rose through the ranks until 2006 when he was elected chairman and chief executive officer. Exxon is the world's 6th largest company by revenue. Tillerson eventually retired from Exxon in 2016.
He is a longtime contributor to Republican campaigns but has controversial ties to Russia. He has a business relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and served as the director of a joint US-Russian subsidiary of Exxon. In 2014 he strongly opposed the sanctions against Russia.
It was also recently revealed that while Tillerson was a senior executive at ExxonMobil, he conducted business with Iran, Syria, and Sudan when those states were under US sanctions.
He has been known to downplay the effects of the energy industry on climate change and stated in 2009 that he believed a carbon tax would be much more effective than the current "largely ineffective" regulations. He has also on occasion spoken out against government regulations in general.
He is a supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)- a trade agreement among twelve of the Pacific Rim countries that notably excludes China.
James Mattis | Secretary of Defense
In 2010 Mattis was appointed by Obama as the Commander of US Central Command, making him effectively the head of all military operations in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense. Notably, the Central Command includes Afghanistan and Iraq. As well as a substantial career in the Marines he holds a degree in History. When he served as a Brigadier General he was known as a man with "real leadership" who stood on the front lines with the Marines he commanded. In 2005 he sparked controversy by saying he enjoyed fighting and that shooting people was fun.
Since 2013 Mattis has been a board member of the Silicon Valley biotech company Theranos who have been criticised for distributing their blood-testing technology without FDA clearance.
In 2015, Mattis joined the advisory board of Spirit of America, a nonprofit organisation that provides assistance to support the safety and success of American service personnel. As he only retired from the military in 2013, his nomination will require a waiver of the National Security Act of 1947, which requires a 7 year waiting period before retired military personnel can assume the role of Secretary of Defense. He'll be the second person to receive such a waiver.
Jeff Sessions | US Attorney General
Sessions was the US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, then the Attorney General of Alabama, and eventually the junior US Senator for Alabama. He is known in the Senate for his opposition to illegal immigration and advocacy of reducing legal immigration.
He supported the major legislative efforts of the George W. Bush administration, including the 2001 and 2003 tax cut packages, the Iraq War, and a proposed national amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
As the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he opposed all three of Obama's nominees for the Supreme Court.
As an early supporter of Donald Trump's presidential campaign he was even considered as a possible vice presidential nominee. Sessions is another sceptic when it comes to climate change and has voted in favour of legislation that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases. In March 2016, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court, Sessions said the "Senate should not confirm a new Supreme Court justice until a new president is elected."
Ryan Zinke | Interior Secretary
Zinke was a Navy SEAL for 22 years and retired in 2008 with the rank of Commander. Following his military career he founded the consulting company On Point Montana and later served on the board of the oil pipeline company QS Energy from 2012 to 2015.
Zinke was also elected to the Montana Senate in 2008, serving until 2011. When he served in the state Senate, he was widely seen as "a moderate Republican" but subsequently drifted to the right.
In 2010, Zinke signed a letter calling global warming "a threat multiplier for instability in the most volatile regions of the world" and stating that "the clean energy and climate challenge is America's new space race." The letter spoke of "catastrophic" costs and "unprecedented economic consequences" that would result from failing to act on climate change and asked President Obama and Nancy Pelosi (then-Speaker of the House) to champion sweeping clean-energy and climate legislation. He was one of nearly 1,200 state legislators who signed the letter calling for "comprehensive clean energy jobs and climate change legislation" however since then he has changed his tune, appearing to repeatedly express doubt about climate change.
In 2014 he became a member of the House of Representatives. In the run-up to his election he attracted attention for referring to Hillary Rodham Clinton as "the real enemy" and the "anti-Christ."
In 2016 Zinke broke with most Republicans on the issue of transfers of federal lands to the states, calling such proposals "extreme" and voting against them. Zinke said that he endorses "better management of federal land" rather than transfer.
George "Sonny" Perdue | Secretary of Agriculture
Perdue served as Governor of Georgia from 2003-2011, the first Republican to do so since the American Civil War. He is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and worked as a vet in his early years. He set out in politics as a Democrat, becoming a senator in 1990. He switched parties in 1998. He was re-elected to the Senate as a Republican before standing down in 2002 to run for Governor. His two primary objectives have been reforming state government and improving education.
Perdue advocated reforms designed to cut waste in government, most notably the sale of surplus vehicles and real estate. In education, Perdue promoted the return of most decision-making to the local level and after he took office Georgia moved out of last place in the national SAT scores.
He is known for promoting international trade in US meat and crops.
Wilbur Ross | Secretary of Commerce
Ross is an investor, former banker, and as of August 2014, he was a billionaire with a net worth of $2.9 billion. He has a record of restructuring failed companies in a range of industries including steel, coal, telecoms, foreign investment and textiles. He specialises in leveraged buyouts and distressed businesses.
He earned the nickname "King of Bankruptcy” by buying bankrupt companies in the manufacturing and steel industries and later selling them for a fortune after improving operations. He worked for 24 years for the Rothschild family.
In the 1980s he helped Trump with his casino business. Trump found himself in trouble with regards to his casinos in Atlantic City with his 3 casinos there under foreclosure threat from lenders. Ross, then senior managing director of Rothschild Inc., represented investors in the casino. Along with Carl Icahn, Ross convinced bondholders to strike a deal with Trump that allowed Trump to keep control of the casinos.
In 2000 he raised significant capital in order to buy out the fund he was managing whilst working under a Rothschild company and set up his own firm. He later sold the firm in 2006.
After a mine disaster in 2006 in which 12 miners died it was alleged that Ross was intimately involved in the companies that owned the mine and personally knew about the safety problems but refused to shut down the mine or rectify the 200+ safety issues.
In 2014, he paid $81 million to settle a lawsuit brought by shareholders that suggested he had breached his duty when engineering the merger of two companies that he majority-owned. In August 2016, he agreed to reimburse investors $11.8 million and pay a fine of $2.3 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into the overcharging of fees by WL Ross & Co, the firm he sold in 2006.
Ross started out as a Democrat and served under Bill Clinton on the board of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund, and later, under NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani as the Privatization Advisor. Since around 2011 he began funding Republican candidates and organisations. Ross has stated he is pro-trade and was initially in favour of the TPP, however on reviewing it he claimed the deal was "not consistent with what was advertised."
Andrew Puzder | Secretary of Labor
Puzder is president and CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of four different fast-food companies, with a combined revenue of $1.2 billion.
He was a student at the Kent State university when the May 4 Massacre took place, an incident in which unarmed college students were shot by the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. There were 28 soldiers who admitted to firing their weapons, killing 4 students and wounding 9 others. Puzder left the university after the shootings and says he "spent the next three years attending concerts and marching on Washington."
He became a lawyer and was very active in opposing abortion. Puzder authored the Missouri House Bill; an abortion law prohibiting the use of state money for abortions and declaring that life begins at conception. Following a challenge, the Supreme Court upheld the law and opened the door for new state-level restrictions on abortion.
His journey to become the CEO of CKE restaurants was an unorthodox one and initially came about because of his relationship with Carl Karcher, the founder of CKE. Puzder represented Karcher legally, after which Karcher retained him as his personal attorney. It would later become clear he wasn't just a good lawyer but had business sense and he is credited with turning around the fortunes of the company after they became burdened by $700 million in debt following the acquisition of a struggling brand.
Puzder has been critical of raising the federal minimum wage, arguing that it would increase costs for consumers and increase automation, leading to fewer jobs. He also opposed a Labor Department rule that would make more workers eligible for overtime pay. He also supports repealing the Affordable Care Act and has been critical of paid sick leave policies. He backed comprehensive immigration reform in 2013.
Puzder is a frequent author on economic and legal issues in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Real Clear Politics, CNBC online, National Review, The Hill, Politico, and the Orange County Register
Tom Price | Secretary of Health and Human Services
Price is a physician and the US Representative for Georgia's 6th congressional district, serving since 2005. He previously served as chairman of the Republican Study Committee and the Republican Policy Committee. Price also currently serves as chairman of the House Budget Committee.
He ran an orthopaedic clinic in Atlanta for 20 years and was also was the director of the orthopaedic clinic at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital. Price is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a politically conservative non-profit association founded in 1943 to "fight socialized medicine and to fight the government takeover of medicine."
Price opposes abortion and supported the proposed Protect Life Act of 2011, which would have denied funding to health care plans that offered abortion and allowed hospitals to decline to provide abortions, excluding cases where the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest and in cases where a woman suffers from a medical issue that would place her at risk of death unless an abortion is performed.
Price opposes gun control. He praised the Supreme Court's decision that the absolute prohibition of handguns in the District of Columbia was unconstitutional, and McDonald v. Chicago, which stated that the Second Amendment applied to the states.
Price voted against a bill prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation and he voted in favour of constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman.
In 2008 Price signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise taxes
Betsy DeVos | Secretary of Education
DeVos is a businesswoman, philanthropist, and education activist known for her advocacy of school choice, voucher programs, and ties to the Reformed Christian community. She was Republican National Committeewoman for Michigan from 1992 to 1997 and served as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000, with reelection to the post in 2003.
She is the daughter-in-law of billionaire Richard DeVos, the co-founder of Amway. Her brother, Erik Prince, a former U.S. Navy SEAL officer, is the founder of private military company Academi, formerly Blackwater USA. She raised more than $150,000 for the 2004 Bush re-election campaign and hosted a Republican fundraiser at her home in October 2008 that was headlined by President George W. Bush. During the 2016 primaries, DeVos initially donated to Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina before eventually supporting Marco Rubio. In March 2016, she described Donald Trump as an "interloper" and said that he "does not represent the Republican Party".
Her nomination has been generally criticised by teachers unions and praised by supporters of school choice.
David Shulkin | Secretary of Veterans Affairs
He has a background in medicine, with a MD degree from Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1986; having done his internship at Yale School of Medicine, and his residency and fellowship in General Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Presbyterian Medical Center. He served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. He also served as President of Morristown Medical Center and the Atlantic Health System accountable Care Organization. He has been Chief Medical Officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University Hospital, and the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital.
His has also been Chairman of Medicine and Vice Dean at Drexel University College of Medicine and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein School of Medicine.
He has been the editor of Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management and Hospital Physician, and has been on the editorial boards of several journals, including Journal of the American Medical Association. He founded and served as the Chairman and CEO of DoctorQuality, Inc a consumer-oriented information service. He has written 25 peer-reviewed journal articles, and many other professional publications.
John Kelly | Secretary of Homeland Security
Kelly was a Marine Corps general and the former commander of US Southern Command, which covers Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Kelly previously served as the commanding general of the Multi-National Force—West in Iraq from February 2008 to February 2009.
In 2003, while in Iraq, Kelly was promoted to brigadier general, which was the first known promotion of a Marine Corps colonel in an active combat zone since January 1951. Following the promotion Kelly took command of the newly formed Task Force Tripoli and drove it north from Baghdad into Samarra and Tikrit. During the initial assault on Baghdad, Kelly made the news when he was asked by a reporter of The LA Times if he would ever consider defeat, giving the response "Hell these are Marines. Men like them held Guadalcanal and took Iwo Jima. Baghdad ain't shit."
He was the Senior Military Assistant to Panetta, the Secretary of Defense under Obama from 2011-2013.
