Merit Street Media
Washington — Donald Trump will return to the White House accompanied by a crew of longtime friends and aides as well as newfound, splashy allies.
The Republican president-elect has barely begun naming key figures in his administration, but he has kept a rotation of associates with him on and off the campaign trail in recent weeks who joined him on stage early Wednesday as he declared victory.
Here’s a look at some key figures in Trump’s orbit as he prepares once again to occupy the White House.
Susie Wiles
For the second time, Trump has won the White House with a woman steering his campaign. Wiles, who joined his 2024 effort early, served in effect as his campaign manager and was named Thursday as his new chief of staff. She’s been credited with being a steadfast and quiet power behind Trump’s third White House campaign, running a largely disciplined and ultimately winning operation.
Wiles is a longtime Florida-based Republican strategist who ran Trump’s campaign in the state in 2016 and 2020. Before that, she ran Rick Scott ’s 2010 campaign for Florida governor and briefly served as the manager of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman ’s 2012 presidential campaign.
Wiles is the daughter of the late NFL player-turned-broadcaster Pat Summerall.
Lara Trump
Both in business and in government, Trump has always kept relatives in key roles. If physical proximity is any sign of power, it’s worth noting the person standing to Trump’s right at his victory party was Lara Trump.
She is married to the former president’s middle son, Eric, and since the spring has been Donald Trump’s handpicked choice to serve as co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
Lara Trump, a former television producer, was a prominent campaigner for her father-in-law and contemplated her own campaign in 2022, weighing a run for Senate in her home state of North Carolina, before deciding against a bid.
At the RNC, she’s been a TV-ready advocate for the former president and tasked with boosting fundraising, expanding outreach to voters and the party’s “election integrity” initiative. She’s also explored a side venture as a singer, releasing several songs, which sometimes feature political imagery.
Dana White
White is the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Trump’s longtime friend. They go back to 2001, when White hosted a UFC battle at the Republican’s former Trump Taj Mahal casino-hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Trump has appeared at UFC matches over the years with White, especially in his 2024 campaign as he sought to appeal to younger male voters.
White, in turn, has had speaking roles at the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Republican conventions and appeared on stage at Trump’s victory party Wednesday, even speaking briefly to the crowd.
Linda McMahon
McMahon, who serves as the other co-chair of the president-elect’s transition team, has been Trump’s longtime friend.
She and her husband, Vince, founded World Wrestling Entertainment, growing the organization into a powerhouse. Trump participated in some WWE events over the years, and McMahon was one of his most generous benefactors in his 2016 campaign.
Trump tapped her to lead the Small Business Administration during his first term in office. She left to work on his reelection campaign and spent the years since he left office as one of the leaders of the America First Policy Institute strategizing for another Trump term.
Howard Lutnick
Lutnick, the CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, is the co-chair of Trump’s transition team helping to find the team that will work in the next administration.
Lutnick has donated to both Democrats and Republicans in the past, once appeared on Trump’s NBC reality show, “The Apprentice,” and has become a part of the president-elect’s inner circle. He shared the stage with Trump at events in the closing days of his campaign, including the rally at Madison Square Garden.
He came under criticism in the campaign’s final days for an interview with CNN in which he repeated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s debunked criticisms of vaccines.
Boris Epshteyn
Epshteyn is a lawyer and longtime aide to Trump who was a key surrogate in his 2016 campaign. Epshteyn briefly served as an adviser in Trump’s White House and as an on-screen political analyst for Sinclair Broadcast Group.
After Trump refused to accept his loss in 2020, Epshteyn worked with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on efforts to overturn the result. He was accused of carrying out a scheme with Giuliani to submit fake electors for Trump in Arizona and obstruct the certification of the results by Congress. He has pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges in Arizona related to the case.
Epshteyn has also appeared at Trump’s side during his court appearances.
Stephen Miller
Miller was a senior adviser in Trump’s first term and has been a central figure in many of the former president’s policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families as a deterrence program in 2018. Miller helped craft many of Trump’s hardline speeches and plans on immigration.
Since Trump left office, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization of former Trump advisers fashioned as a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union, challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as freedom of speech and religion and national security.
He is expected to take a leading role in Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and promised largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
Richard Grenell
Grenell is Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and former acting director of national intelligence who has remained a key foreign policy adviser and political aide. He’s expected to be at the top of Trump’s list to serve as secretary of state.
Throughout the campaign, Grenell played a role in events featuring Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, and the Log Cabin Republicans. He was a key broker in Trump’s outreach to Arab Americans in Michigan and joined Trump in September when he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Grenell developed a reputation as a pro-Trump antagonist in Berlin. Trump has joked about former German Chancellor Angela Merkel ‘s happiness when he moved Grenell from his ambassador’s post to place him in the intelligence position.
Elon Musk
One of the most powerful figures in Trump’s orbit these days is Musk, the billionaire head of car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX.
Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and transformed it into X, boosting conservative and far-right voices on the platform. Having once endorsed President Barack Obama, Musk has moved to the right and emerged as a leading voice among American conservatives. He endorsed Trump after the Republican survived an assassination attempt in July and poured more than $119 million into backing Trump’s campaign, including a $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes in Pennsylvania.
Trump praises Musk frequently and tells crowds about his awe watching SpaceX rocket landings. Trump has said he will give Musk, a major government contractor, a role in his administration running an efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist and environmentalist, is a Democratic Party scion whose rise in Trump’s orbit was among the surprises of the 2024 presidential campaign.
Kennedy entered the race as a Democratic candidate, left the party to run as an independent before abandoning his bid, then endorsed Trump with the promise to have an impact on health policy in a future administration.
In recent weeks, he has talked about exercising control of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or gaining the power to “reorganize” federal health agencies. He has said Trump upon taking office would push local water systems to remove fluoride from drinking water — one of the great public health achievements of the last century — and allow him to investigate the safety of vaccines, about which he has long promoted debunked theories.
Brooke Rollins
Rollins is another longtime associate who is seen as a potential hire in the incoming administration. She is Trump’s former domestic policy chief who has served as the president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute.
America First Policy flew under the radar compared with the Heritage Foundation, which ran the Project 2025 effort that Democrats frequently attacked to the chagrin of Trump’s campaign, which insisted that Project 2025 and Heritage did not speak for it.
Rollins previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Copyright Associated Press
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