Donald Trump appoints staunch loyalists to key positions

Donald Trump is advancing his pawns in the formation of his future administration. The president-elect is appointing loyalists to key positions and simultaneously demanding that they be able to assume their duties without a laborious Senate confirmation process.

The 78-year-old Republican announced on Sunday that he was going to entrust the burning issue of immigration control at the borders to Tom Homan, a hard-liner. Nicknamed the “Border Tsar,” he had already headed the agency responsible for border control and immigration (ICE) during Donald Trump’s previous term.

It is he who will be responsible for expelling illegal migrants, according to the Republican’s promise made during his electoral campaign. In his speeches, Trump had several times lashed out against the illegal immigrants, exacerbating fears of an “invasion”. He greatly exaggerated local tensions and misled his audience about immigration statistics and policy. The president-elect also spread “fake news” saying that Haitian migrants from Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents’ pets.

At the Republican National Convention in July, Tom Homan declared: “I have a message for the millions of illegal immigrants that Joe Biden has allowed into our country: you better start packing your bags now .”

Donald Trump has also already designated the United States ambassador to the United Nations in the person of Elise Stefanik. Elected to Congress in 2014, when she was only 30 years old, she initially voiced a moderate voice, before gradually asserting herself as pro-Trump.

Then, she virulently defended the president during his first impeachment proceedings, in 2019, before refusing to certify the presidential election won by Joe Biden in 2020. An ardent supporter of Israel, Elise Stefanik accused the UN of “languishing in anti-Semitism” last October.

Suffice it to say that his arrival at the United Nations delighted Israel: At a time when hatred and lies fill the halls of the UN, your resolute moral clarity is more necessary than ever,” the Israeli ambassador wrote to him. at the United Nations, Danny Danon, congratulating her on her appointment.

The soon 47^e American president had already made his first major appointment on Thursday by choosing a woman, Susie Wiles, to head his cabinet. He chose the woman who was his campaign manager and whom he calls “ice baby” because of her supposedly imperturbable temperament.

The appointment of other Donald Trump loyalists to key positions could occur quickly. Billionaire Elon Musk, who very actively campaigned for the Republican, could thus be responsible for fundamentally reorganizing the federal administration.

As for RFK Jr., nephew of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassinated in 1963 and independent presidential candidate before joining Donald Trump, he could be entrusted with responsibilities in public health. Notoriously critical of vaccination, he assured Thursday on NBC that he “would not take away anyone’s vaccines” but judged that Americans should be able to “decide individually”.

Donald Trump intends to bypass the laborious senatorial confirmation processes of the people he plans to nominate to key positions, despite the fact that Republicans have regained control of the upper house of Congress. To do this, he plans to use a clause that allows the president to make temporary appointments when the Senate is not in session. “Any Republican senator interested in the coveted position of majority leader in the United States Senate must agree to (this clause), without which we will not be able to have people confirmed on time,” he said. writes Donald Trump