WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump has made a flurry of picks for his cabinet and other high-ranking administration positions following his election victory.
Tulsi Gabbard, intelligence chief: Trump has named Tulsi Gabbard a former Democratic representative and critic of the Biden administration, as his director of national intelligence. Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022 to become an independent and has little direct experience with intelligence work. If confirmed, she would become the top official in the US intelligence community after Trump starts his second term in January.
Tulsi Gabbard, often mistaken for having Indian roots because of her first name, has no direct links with India. Her mother, converted to Hinduism, gave her children Hindu names, and Gabbard herself identifies as Hindu. She made history as the first Hindu member of the US Congress. Of American Samoan descent, Gabbard took her congressional oath with her hand on the Bhagavad Gita. With both European and Samoan ancestry, Gabbard was raised in a multicultural household. Her mother was born in Indiana and grew up in Michigan. Her father, who is of Samoan and European ancestry, was born in American Samoa and lived in Hawaii and Florida as a child. After moving to Hawaii, Gabbard's mother became interested in Hinduism and gave Hindu names to all her children. Gabbard's own name, "Tulsi," is the Sanskrit word for holy basil, regarded as an earthly manifestation of the goddess Tulasi.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, heads of DOGE: Trump named tech billionaire Musk and Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate, to lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, rewarding two of his well-known supporters from the private sector. Trump said that Musk and Ramaswamy will reduce government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut waste and restructure federal agencies.
Vivek Ramaswamy is an American biotech entrepreneur who drew national attention with his bid for the Republican nomination in the 2024 US presidential election. He suspended his campaign in January 2024 and subsequently endorsed Trump. Ramaswamy’s mother, who worked as a geriatric psychiatrist, and his father, an engineer and patent lawyer at General Electric, moved to the US from Kerala, in the 1970s. Ramaswamy was born in 1985 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he grew up. He was a nationally ranked junior tennis player and the valedictorian of his Jesuit high-school class. After finishing a bachelor’s degree in biology at Harvard University in 2007, he worked for a hedge fund and made $7 million in seven years. Meanwhile, he earned a law degree in 2013 from Yale University, where he met his future wife, Apoorva Tewari, a medical student (later, a throat surgeon). In 2014, when Ramaswamy was 29, he started a pharmaceutical company, Roivant Sciences. By 2023 he had made at least a quarter million dollars in personal income from the company.
Marco Rubio, secretary of state: Trump tapped US Senator Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state, putting the Florida-born politician on track to be the first Latino to serve as the United States' top diplomat. Rubio, 53, was arguably the most hawkish option on Trump's shortlist for secretary of state.
Mike Waltz, national security adviser: Trump said he had picked Waltz, a Republican US representative, to be national security adviser. Waltz is a retired Army Green Beret who has been a leading critic of China. Waltz, a 50-year-old Trump loyalist who also served in the National Guard as a colonel, has criticised Chinese activity in the Asia-Pacific and has voiced the need for the US to be ready for a potential conflict in the region.
Tom Homan, 'border czar': Trump said that Homan, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump's first administration, will be in charge of the country's borders. Homan, 62, said he would prioritize deporting immigrants illegally in the US who posed safety and security threats as well as those working at job sites.
