Who has Trump picked for his administration so far? A primer on the cabinet contenders

Stay tuned here for the latest updates and background on the reported candidates for America's top offices and the issues a Trump cabinet will face in government

Loyalty matters to president-elect Donald Trump, and the 70-year old reality television star has chosen some of his staunchest supporters to serve in his administration.

In the weeks since taking office, Mr. Trump has singled out people with deep ties to Wall Street and Republican politics for his cabinet: A former Goldman Sachs executive as Treasury Secretary, a billionaire investor for Commerce, a hardline anti-immigration lawmaker for attorney-general, a staunch Obamacare critic for Health and Human Services. All of these will need to be confirmed by the Senate. Mr. Trump's more controversial picks – retired general Michael Flynn as national security adviser and anti-establishment conservative Stephen Bannon as chief strategist – do not need Senate approval.

Mr. Trump's other supporters are also expected to land big positions in his administration, including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. The real estate mogul's eldest children and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are part of the transition team. Mr. Kushner is reportedly trying to figure out how to circumvent federal anti-nepotism laws so that he can serve in his father-in-law's administration.

All cabinet nominations require Senate confirmation and Mr. Trump's choices may not all win approval. Republicans only control the Senate by two votes and several opposed Mr. Trump during the campaign.

Here's a look at Mr. Trump's appointees and who may fill the key positions in his White House.

White House advisers

Stephen Bannon: The appointment of Mr. Bannon as Mr. Trump's chief strategist sounded alarm bells across the political spectrum and among hate-watch groups. The head of the right-wing website Breitbart News has called it "the platform for the alt-right," or the white nationalist, anti-Semitic movement that supports Mr. Trump.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors and exposes hate groups, said Mr. Bannon propelled Breitbart to become a white nationalist propaganda mill and called on the Trump team to rescind the hire. The choice of Mr. Bannon appeared to placate Mr. Trump's anti establishment base.

Mr. Bannon is known for ripping into mainstream Republicans such as House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

Reince Priebus: The Republican National Committee chairman was one of Mr. Trump's most devoted soldiers. Throughout the campaign, Mr. Priebus took heat from mainstream Republicans for defending Mr. Trump's actions. Mr. Priebus threatened Republicans who did not fall in line with Mr. Trump and his loyalty earned him the position of chief of staff. Mr. Priebus has ties with long serving Republicans such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, which will help smooth relations between the White House and congressional Republicans.

Corey Lewandowski: When Mr. Lewandowski was Mr. Trump's campaign manager during the primaries, he believed it was best to "let Trump be Trump." He was eventually fired amid assault allegations and concerns he could not run a national campaign. But Mr. Lewandowski was steadfastly loyal and continued to advise Mr. Trump while being paid by CNN to provide political commentary.

Jared Kushner: Mr. Trump's son-in-law was one of Mr. Trump's prominent advisers during the campaign and is part of the transition team. He reportedly pushed his father-in-law to choose Mike Pence as his running mate. Mr. Kushner also helped mastermind the campaign's decision to bring Bill Clinton's sexual abuse accusers to the second debate, in an effort to shake Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Michael Flynn: The retired general will serve as Mr. Trump's national security adviser, a role he played on the campaign. Mr. Flynn was one of the only high-level defence officials to openly support Mr. Trump. He served as the Obama administration's Defense Intelligence Agency director before being fired in 2014 for what he said was the "stand I took on radical Islamism." Mr. Flynn's anti-Muslim rhetoric is reflected in Mr. Trump's call to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Earlier this year, the retired general tweeted: "Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL." His position does not need Senate approval.

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Treasury

Has someone been picked yet? Yes

Mr. Trump rode to victory on a wave of populism but his search for the country's top economic job focused on Wall Street types. The treasury secretary will have several big challenges ahead in a Trump administration, implementing tax cuts and fulfill Mr. Trump's campaign promises to create 25 million jobs and save factory jobs that have been lost to globalization.

Steven Mnuchin: A hedge-fund manager and former Goldman Sachs banker, Mr. Mnuchin was Mr. Trump's campaign finance manager and economic adviser, and part of the president-elect's transition team. He said on Nov. 30 that the administration would target tax reform and trade-pact overhauls as top priorities as they seek to achieve 3- to 4-per-cent economic growth.

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Commerce secretary

Has someone been picked yet? Yes

The commerce department describes the secretary's mission as being "the voice of U.S. business within the president's cabinet," focusing on job creation and domestic business.

Wilbur Ross: U.S. media and Reuters News Agency reported Nov. 29 that the billionaire investor was poised to be named as commerce secretary, citing sources familiar with the matter. Mr. Ross, the 78-year-old chairman of Invesco Ltd. subsidiary WL Ross & Co., has been a staunch supporter of Mr. Trump and an economic adviser, has helped shape the Trump campaign's views on trade policy, blaming the 1994 North American free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and the 2001 entry of China into the World Trade Organization for causing massive U.S. factory job losses.

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Trade

Has someone been picked yet? No

Mr. Trump has blamed the North American free-trade agreement and U.S.-Chinese trade policies for eliminating high paying jobs in the United States. He has vowed to rip up NAFTA and label China a currency manipulator. The president-elect's position on trade won him the support from working class voters, which in turn helped flip Democratic-leaning states Republican. So far, Canada's ambassador to the United States has said Canada is open to renegotiating NAFTA.

Dan DiMicco: The former chief executive of steel producer Nucor Corp. has been talked about as a possible trade representative in the Trump administration.

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Secretary of State

Has someone been picked yet? No

The country's top diplomat will have the tricky job of forging new relations with America's allies after Mr. Trump questioned whether the U.S. should honour its commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and praised dictators such as North Korea's Kim Jong-un and Russia's Vladimir Putin. The state department also has oversight over the Keystone XL pipeline, which the Obama administration rejected. Mr. Trump and Republicans agree the pipeline, which would run from Alberta to Texas once fully completed, should be built.

Mitt Romney: Mr. Trump and the former Massachusetts governor (and 2012 GOP presidential contender) exchanged bitter insults during the campaign. In March, Mr. Romney called Mr. Trump "a phony," "a fraud" and "a con man." But the appointment of an establishment figure could offer some reassurance to lawmakers and others concerned about Mr. Trump's hard-line positions on immigration and national security and his lack of foreign-policy experience.

Rudy Giuliani: A former New York mayor and associate attorney-general in Ronald Reagan's administration, Mr. Giuliani was one of Mr. Trump's most vocal supporters. But consulting work for foreign governments by his firm, Giuliani Partners, has put him under added scrutiny for the State Department job. The firm helped businesses on behalf of states including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and Mr. Giuliani also advised TransCanada, which sought to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

David Petraeus: The retired general was Barack Obama's CIA director in 2011-12 before resigning amid the disclosure that he had an affair with his biographer and shared highly classified information with her.

Newt Gingrich: The former House speaker spent two decades as a lawmaker. After he was forced to resign as speaker in 1998, he dabbled in lobbying, ran a consulting firm and unsuccessfully ran for president. He attached himself to the Trump campaign early on, providing advice and defending the real estate mogul's actions.

John Bolton: A former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mr. Bolton has years of foreign policy experience, but he has raised eyebrows with some of his hawkish positions, including a 2015 New York Times op-ed in which he advocated bombing Iran to halt the country's nuclear program.

Bob Corker: Republican senator from Tennessee and chairman of the upper chamber's foreign relations committee.

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CIA director

Has someone been picked yet? Yes

Espionage and cybersecurity played an outsized role in the 2016 election, with Washington blaming Russian hackers for an attack on Democratic National Committee servers and Donald Trump inviting Moscow, apparently in jest, to do more hacking to uncover Hillary Clinton's e-mails. Mr. Trump faced criticism from former national-security officials during the campaign, and in choosing who to lead America's intelligence agencies, Mr. Trump faces an uphill battle in winning the security establishment's trust.

Mike Pompeo: On Nov. 18, the Trump transition team announced Mr. Pompeo, a GOP congressman from Kansas, had been offered and accepted the nomination for the CIA directorship. Mr. Pompeo originally backed Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination, but is reportedly close with vice-president-elect Mike Pence.

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Homeland Security

Has someone been picked yet? Yes

This is expected to be one of the key portfolios in the Trump administration. Mr. Trump kicked off his campaign promising to get Mexico to pay for a wall between their two countries. He said he would deport the 11-million undocumented immigrants living in the United States and has said he would ban Muslims from entering the country. However, his position has wavered throughout the campaign. His latest comments called for the deportation or jailing of what he called three million undocumented immigrants with criminal records. Mr. Trump's supporters have cited illegal immigration as their top issue and they will be watching his administration carefully to ensure he follows through on his promises.

John Kelly: As a Marine, the retired general carved out a reputation as a highly respected but often outspoken commander. He spent three years as head of U.S. Southern Command, which regularly works with Homeland Security to dismantle immigrant smuggling networks, and was often blunt about his need for more resources to fight the drug trade. He also served during some of the more fractious debate over the Obama administration's ultimately failed attempt to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, raising concerns about the costs of moving detainees to the United States.

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Secretary of defence

Has someone been picked yet? Yes

The Trump administration will have to deal with the rise in terrorism at home and abroad. Mr. Trump's policies to fight terrorism and defeat Islamic State are vague. Initially, Mr. Trump said he knew more about IS than the generals and then said his plan would entail asking the military to devise a plan within 30 days to destroy Islamic State. Part of his plan is to temporarily ban immigration from certain regions that have a "history of exporting terrorism," though he has not identified the regions.

James Mattis: A retired Marine Corps general nicknamed ""Mad Dog", Gen. Mattis, 66, served as an American commander in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was known to be popular among the troops. Mr. Trump announced his choice of Gen. Mattis at a Dec. 1 rally in Ohio, his first major public appearance since election night.

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Attorney-general

Has someone been picked yet? Yes

The country's top lawyer and chief law enforcer will be instrumental in carrying out Mr. Trump's promises to bring back "law and order" to the country. Mr. Trump also vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Ms. Clinton's use of a private e-mail server when she served as secretary of state. This raised concerns that Mr. Trump would use the powers of his office to go after his rivals. However, Mr. Trump appears to have softened his position, saying that the Clintons were good people and that he did not want to hurt them.

Jeff Sessions: A Trump transition-team official said on Nov. 18 that U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions has accepted Trump's offer to serve as attorney-general, Reuters reported. The Alabama lawmaker is a member of the judiciary committee and is known for his hardline positions on immigration. Mr. Sessions was one of the few Republican senators to actively campaign on Mr. Trump's behalf.

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Interior

Has someone been picked yet? No

This department is in charge of the country's natural resources.

Sarah Palin: Resource development and exploration has a friend in Ms. Palin. The former Republican vice-presidential nominee and former Alaskan governor became known for her "drill, baby, drill" motto.

Mary Fallin: Oklahoma's Republican governor has been an ardent supporter of the state's drilling industry and has blocked attempts to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a controversial drilling technology.

Other reported possibilities: Jan Brewer, former Arizona governor; Forrest Lucas, founder of oil products company Lucas Oil; Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources Inc.; Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors.

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Energy

Has someone been picked yet? No

This department is responsible for ensuring the safety of the country's nuclear weapons. Under previous administrations, the department was also responsible for stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. But Mr. Trump has suggested that the U.S. would benefit if other countries like Japan and South Korea had their own nuclear weapons.

Reported possibilities: Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources Inc.; Kevin Cramer, North Dakota congressman; Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors; Larry Nichols, co-founder of Devon Energy Corp.; James Connaughton, CEO of Nautilus Data Technologies and a former environmental adviser to president George W. Bush.

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Health and Human Services

Has someone been picked yet? Yes

Republicans have been trying for years to repeal and replace Barack Obama's sweeping health-care law, popularly known as Obamacare. Mr. Trump has pledged to move quickly on overhauling the landmark measure, but has been vague about what he hopes to see in a replacement bill. He has said he favours keeping provisions that allow young people to stay on their parents' health insurance and which prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.

Tom Price: Mr. Trump was due to announce Mr. Price, a 62-year-old six-term Georgia congressman and orthopedic surgeon, as his pick for Health and Human Services secretary on Tuesday. A bookish conservative from the Atlanta suburbs, Mr. Price has been a vocal critic of Mr. Obama's health law. In November, he said that whatever Republicans do to replace it will bear a "significant resemblance" to a 2015 measure that was vetoed by the president.

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Education

Has someone been picked yet? Yes

On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump alarmed advocates for the U.S. public education system, which he has called a government-run monopoly, by proposing a federal voucher program.

Betsy DeVos: A major Republican fundraiser from Michigan, Ms. DeVos, 58, is a passionate believer in "school choice." She is a member by marriage of the DeVos family, the founders of Amway and one of the largest contributors to the Michigan Republican Party.

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Housing and Urban Development

Has someone been picked yet? Yes

Mr. Trump made his fortune in real estate, but even if he leaves his businesses behind him as president, he's still a landlord of a different sort to millions of Americans. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, better known as HUD, had a budget of $48-billion in 2016 and is best known for the administration of public housing for low-income people, Native Americans, the elderly and people with disabilities.HUD also enforces the Fair Housing Act, laws that apply to both public and private housing and that seek to end discrimination based on several factors including race, religion, gender and disability.

Ben Carson: A retired neurosurgeon who ran against Mr. Trump in the Republican primaries before becoming a close adviser, Dr. Carson was initially reluctant to accept a cabinet position, saying he lacked government experience.

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With reports from Reuters and Associated Press

Photos: Associated Press, AFP/Getty Images, Reuters, Twitter

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