These loyal aides stuck by Trump. Now they're back for 'unfinished business'
WASHINGTON – Eight years after Donald Trump oversaw a famously chaotic transition during his first term, the president-elect has rapidly assembled his next White House team, bringing back prominent veterans of his previous administration to move aggressively on Day 1 of his presidency.
In just three weeks since his election victory, Trump has nominated 21 of his 24 Cabinet-level posts and filled several senior-level White House positions. It's a stark difference from Trump's disorganized 2016 transition that included abandoning his original transition chair, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and slowly assembling his roster, leaving vacancies for hundreds of senior staff posts at federal agencies months into Trump's presidency.
Among the "originals" returning to the White House are Stephen Miller, architect of Trump's mass deportation plans; Dan Scavino, a longtime Trump adviser, and Russell Vought, Trump's pick to lead the powerful Office of Management and Budget and a co-author of the controversial Project 2025 policy blueprint drafted by the Heritage Foundation.
At least 14 of Trump's picks so far for senior White House staff positions or Cabinet posts worked in Trump's first administration in official capacities, and that figure is expected to grow.
"I think these guys want to come back and finish the job," said Trump's first White House press secretary, Sean Spicer. With the experience of people who have been there before, Spicer said, he predicted "a flurry of activity out of the gate."
More: Trump reaches transition agreement with Biden White House after long delay
At the same time, there are newcomers to the Trump White House, including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary. The broader Trump orbit also includes close advisers who don't officially work inside the government, a group that includes Elon Musk, the billionaire tech entrepreneur helping lead an initiative to dismantle the federal bureaucracy.
Unlike 2016, there will be no learning on the fly in the next Trump White House, his allies say.
"It usually takes months for an administration to get off the ground. They're going to take seconds," Spicer said. "Buckle up, baby. The first 10 days, 100 days are going to be epic. He knows that he has four years to enact change, and he is going to take advantage of every second of every day."
The return of Trump's most trusted allies also underscores the value Trump places on loyalty after several aides ? such as former chief of staff John Kelly and top press aides Sarah Matthews, Stephanie Grisham and Alyssa Farah Griffin ? turned into Trump critics after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
During a podcast interview with Joe Rogan last month, Trump remarked that the "biggest mistake" of his first presidency was picking some “bad, disloyal people” to work for him. "I picked some people that I shouldn’t have picked," Trump said.
More: Trump makes a statement with aggressive Cabinet picks, fast-moving transition effort
Trump unveiled some of the Day 1 actions this week, announcing 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, and additional 10% tariffs on goods from China. Trump has also said his promise to deport undocumented immigrants will begin immediately after he takes office.
Here's a look at some of the top players coming back to Washington after working in the first Trump administration:
Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy
Stephen Miller, one of Trump's longest-serving top immigration advisers, will serve as deputy chief of staff for policy in the incoming White House.
The 39-year-old Miller served as senior adviser to Trump and director of speechwriting during the Republican's first term in the White House. He is credited with shaping Trump’s immigration policies while president, which included separating migrant children from their families and a ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries.
Many Democrats during Trump's first term accused Miller of being a white nationalist, seizing on a 2019 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center that highlighted more than 900 emails he purportedly sent to a former writer at the conservative website Breitbart sharing his views.
Miller, in an interview last week on Fox News, said Trump has assembled a "world-class policy team behind the scenes" to implement his campaign promises after Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
"So that the first day, the first week, the first 100 Days will be a bolt of lightning," Miller said. "The swamp, the deep state, the communists will not know what hit them."
Russell Vought, OMB director
Russell Vought is Trump's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a role he filled for part of Trump's first term.
Vought, whose appointment requires Senate confirmation, wrote the chapter on executive power in Project 2025, the policy blueprint created by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Trump tried to distance himself from the policy treatise during the 2024 campaign.
More: Trump taps Russell Vought, key Project 2025 architect, to lead budget office
He has advocated for strong presidential powers to take on federal agencies that operate outside the control of the White House.
"There is unfinished business on behalf of the American people, and it’s an honor of a lifetime to get the call again," Vought said in a post on X after getting the nomination.
Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff
Dan Scavino, one of Trump's longest-serving and most trusted aides, is returning to the White House as deputy chief of staff.
He served in a similar position during Trump's first White House and was also Trump's director of social media, helping manage Trump's communications on what was then known as Twitter, now called X.
Scavino gleefully responded Tuesday after a federal judge dismissed charges Monday against Trump, at the request of Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, on accusations of trying to steal the 2020 election.
"ALL THE TACTICS—I will NEVER FORGET IT!!! Tried to intimidate me. Tried to silence me. Tried to break me. Tried to destroy me. MAGA!!!!!" Scavino wrote on X.
Steven Cheung, director of communications
Steven Cheung, the aggressive communications director for Trump's 2024 campaign, has been named director of communications in the White House.
Cheung was a communications aide in the White House during Trump's first term after working as director of rapid response for Trump's 2016 campaign.
More: Trump hires longtime aide Steven Cheung as White House communications director
Cheung is perhaps best known for often sounding as combative as Trump, describing opponents as "snowflakes" and "cucks" who suffered from "Trump derangement syndrome."
Like others preparing for Round Two in the White House, Cheung stuck with Trump after his defeat in the 2020 election and fallout from the Jan. 6 riot.
William McGinley, White House counsel
William McGinley, who was White House Cabinet secretary during Trump's first presidency, is heading back, this time as White House counsel.
During the 2024 election, McGinley, a partner at the Washington-based law firm Holtzman Vogel, held a top role with the Republican National Committee's "Outside Counsel for Election Integrity," which the Trump-led RNC assembled to target election fraud.
Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary
Karoline Leavitt, a one-time assistant press secretary in Trump's first presidency, will return as White House press secretary.
The Leavitt, 27, who will be the youngest press secretary in White House history, was the 2024 Trump campaign's national press secretary.
It has been a rapid rise for Leavitt, who started as an intern before working as an assistant under then-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Leavitt, at 25 years old, ran for Congress in New Hampshire as the Republican nominee but lost to the Democratic incumbent.
More: Trump names Karoline Leavitt youngest ever White House press secretary
Leavitt will take the podium at White House press briefings, which were often combative spectacles during Trump's first term. In a post on X last week, Leavitt pushed back against media reports questioning Trump's self-declared "MAGA mandate" given his victory over Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris was the closest popular vote margin since 2000.
"The fake news is trying to minimize President Trump’s massive and historic victory to try to delegitimize his mandate before he even takes the Oath of Office again," Leavitt wrote.
Sebastian Gorka, senior director for counterterrorism
Sebastian Gorka, a controversial conservative commentator who served in Trump's first administration, was named deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism in the incoming White House.
Gorka, who was a top defender of Trump's ban on refugees from predominantly Muslim countries, held a similar role in Trump's first White House.
A close ally of former Trump strategist and head of Breitbart Steve Bannon, Gorka was forced out of the first Trump White House after the arrival of Kelly as Trump's chief of staff and Bannon's departure. Since leaving the White House, Gorka has hosted his own radio show and a show on Newsmax. He also was a regular commentator on Fox News.
Gorka, born in Britain to Hungarian parents, is known for characterizing Islam as a threat to Western civilization. Deeply pro-Israel, Gorka has said there is "no such thing as Palestine" and commented "kill every single one of them" after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
More: Sebastian Gorka, firebrand commentator, to return to Trump White House as adviser
John Ratcliffe, CIA director
John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence during Trump's first presidency, has been nominated director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Ratcliffe was the U.S. attorney for eastern Texas in 2007 and 2008, then served five years in the House as a Republican congressman from Texas before Trump named him director of national intelligence during his last year in office.
Trump first nominated Ratcliffe for the intelligence position in 2019 to replace the retiring Dan Coats. But he withdrew after lawmakers from both parties questioned his qualifications for the sensitive post. Trump nominated Ratcliffe again in 2020, and that time the Senate confirmed him.
Matthew Whitaker, US ambassador to NATO
Matthew Whitaker, who briefly served as acting attorney general in the first Trump administration, was tapped by Trump to be the next U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, was acting attorney general from November 2018 to February 2019, between Trump firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and hiring Bill Barr.
More: Donald Trump names Matthew Whitaker, former interim attorney general, as U.S. ambassador to NATO
Linda McMahon, education secretary
Billionaire former professional wrestling executive Linda McMahon is Trump's nominee for education secretary after working as administrator of the Small Business Administration during Trump's first term.
Her experience in education is limited, having served on the Connecticut Board of Education for one year beginning in 2009. McMahon falsely stated that she received a bachelor's degree in education in a questionnaire for the board role. She actually received a bachelor's degree in French.
After Trump's first term, McMahon has remained a close ally as chair of the board for the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank founded by Trump aides in 2021 to promote his GOP priorities. Trump has vowed to eliminate the Department of Education.
More: Trump's education secretary nominee once said she had an education degree. She doesn't.
Jamieson Greer, US trade represenative
Jamieson Greer has been nominated to serve as Trump's United States trade representative, a role that will be crucial in Trump’s pledge to impose new tariffs on imports. Greer worked in Trump's first administration as chief of staff for former trade representative Robert Lighthizer.
The nomination of Greer, which requires Senate confirmation, comes one day after Trump announced Day 1 executive actions to levy a 25% tariff on all products arriving from Mexico and Canada and a 10% tariff increase on imports from China.
More: Trump picks Jamieson Greer as US trade representative to help lead tariff hikes
James Braid, director of legislative affairs
James Braid, an OMB aide in Trump's first administration, is set to return as deputy assistant to the president and director of the Office of Legislative Affairs. After Trump's first term, Braid was Vice President-elect JD Vance's lead policy staffer in his Senate office.
Alex Latcham, director of the Office of Public Liaison
Alex Latcham is set to return to the White House as director of the Office of Public Liaison after being a special assistant to the president and deputy political director during the first Trump term.
Kevin Hassett, director of National Economic Council
Kevin Hassett is returning as director of the White House National Economic Council after working has chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during Trump's first administration. In a statement announcing the hire, Trump credited Hassett for playing a "crucial role" in helping push Trump's tax cut package through Congress in 2017.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Unfinished business': The White House aides coming back for Trump 2.0