As the dust settles on Donald Trump’s US election win, the president-elect has begun choosing who will be in his administration for his second stint in the White House.
During the campaign, Mr Trump avoided directly confirming any appointments but frequently dropped hints about who he would like in his top team.
So who is in, who is out and who are the leading contenders for jobs?
Who is in?
Susie Wiles
Image: Susie Wiles at Nashville International Airport in July. Pic: AP
Susie Wiles is a veteran Republican campaign manager – having helped Ronald Reagan and Ron DeSantis get elected as well as Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024. She is the first member of his team to be announced – and becomes the first female chief-of-staff in American history.
The 67-year-old, who lives in Florida, has a political career that spans decades but has largely kept out of the limelight and rarely given interviews.
She is the daughter of late American footballer Pat Summerall and one of her first jobs in politics was as an assistant to one of his former New York Giants teammates when he became a Republican representative.
Advertisement
Outside politics, she has worked in the private sector as a lobbyist, for both Ballard Partners, whose clients include Amazon, Google, and the MLB (Major League Baseball), and then Mercury, which works with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the Embassy of Qatar.
This time around, Mr Trump credited her with his “best-run” presidential campaign, describing her as “incredible” at a Milwaukee rally earlier this year, and an “ice maiden” in his victory speech.
Who is out?
Nikki Haley
Image: Former Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley on day two of the Republican National Convention this summer.
Pic: Reuters
Ms Haley was once Mr Trump’s main rival during his run for the Republican presidential nomination.
Despite losing the contest, she proved her popularity with parts of the GOP and previously served in his first presidential cabinet as the US ambassador to the United Nations.
The 51-year-old also served as governor of South Carolina but news of her not being involved this time around was broken by the president-elect on his own social media platform, Truth Social.
In a short statement, Mr Trump said he would not be inviting either her nor former secretary of state Mike Pompeo back but thanked them for their service.
Image: @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
In response, Ms Haley, who eventually endorsed Mr Trump despite harshly criticising him in the party primaries, said: “I was proud to work with President Trump defending America at the United Nations.
“I wish him, and all who serve, great success in moving us forward to a stronger, safer America over the next four years.”
Mike Pompeo
Mr Pompeo also served as the director of the CIA under Mr Trump and had been mentioned in some reports as a possible defence secretary or in relation to another role linked to national security, intelligence or diplomacy.
Mr Trump confirmed Mr Pompeo would not be returning to his cabinet in the same post that he ruled out Ms Haley.
Image: Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo. Pic: AP
Previously among Mr Trump’s closest allies, Mr Pompeo is one of the fiercest US defenders of Ukraine.
Mike Waltz, a congressman from Florida, and Tom Cotton, a Harvard College and Harvard Law School-educated Army officer-turned-senator from Arkansas, are also believed to be in the running for the defence role.
Who is yet to be decided?
Elon Musk
Image: Elon Musk joined Donald Trump on the campaign trail. Pic: Reuters
Tech billionaire Elon Musk became one of Mr Trump’s staunchest supporters in the months leading up to the election and spent at least $119m (£92m) canvassing for him in the seven battleground states.
His loyalty looks set to be rewarded as Mr Trump has promised the X owner a role as the head of a new Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE for short, a reference to the Dogecoin cryptocurrency Mr Musk often promotes).
The department would be “tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government”, Mr Trump said at an event in September.
It could give the billionaire the power to slash through the US federal bureaucracy both he and Mr Trump say has long held America back.
Robert F Kennedy Jr
Image: Robert F Kennedy Jr. Pic: AP
Robert F Kennedy Jr abandoned his independent presidential campaign to back Mr Trump in August.
It was a move that saw the prominent vaccine sceptic condemned by many members of his family, but as with Musk, his public support looks set to be rewarded by the president-elect.
Mr Trump has pledged to give him a role focusing on health policy and Mr Kennedy has hinted at one possible initiative, stating on X that “the Trump White House will advise all US water systems to remove fluoride from public water”, on inauguration day.
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Mr Kennedy – the son of politician Robert F Kennedy and the nephew of assassinated president John F Kennedy – made a name for himself as a vaccine sceptic during the COVID-19 pandemic and has frequently repeated debunked claims, including linking vaccines to autism in children.
Don Jr, Eric and Lara Trump
Image: Don Jr, flanked by Eric and Lara, defending his father outside his hush money trial in May. Pic: AP
Mr Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, were among his senior advisers during his first term. But will the businessman once again keep any family members close when he is in the Oval Office?
In June 2023, Mr Trump said he did not want his children to serve in a second administration, saying it was “too painful for the family”.
Nevertheless, while Ms Trump and Mr Kushner have stayed away from politics since, two of Mr Trump’s other sons – Don Jr and Eric – have played prominent roles on the campaign trail.
Eric’s wife, Lara Trump, already has a significant role in US politics, as she serves as co-chair of the Republican Party.
Richard Grenell
Image: Richard Grenell. Pic: AP
Among Mr Trump’s closest aides on foreign policy, Richard Grenell is thought to be a potential pick for national security adviser.
His private dealings with foreign leaders and often caustic personality have made him into a controversial figure, but he could well be part of Mr Trump’s second administration.
Mr Grenell has in the past supported establishing an autonomous zone in eastern Ukraine to end the war, an idea that Kyiv rejected as unacceptable.
Larry Kudlow
Image: Larry Kudlow hosts shows on Fox News and Fox Business. Pic: AP
Fox News personality Larry Kudlow served as director of the National Economic Council for much of Mr Trump’s first term and is said to have an outside shot at becoming his treasury secretary this time around.
Other names being linked to the post include John Paulson – a billionaire hedge fund manager and donor, who hosted a fundraiser that raked in more than $50m (£38m) for the former president.
Marco Rubio
Image: Marco Rubio has previously tried to land himself on the Republican presidential ticket. Pic: Reuters
Marco Rubio, a Florida senator who unsuccessfully ran against Mr Trump to be the Republican’s presidential candidate in 2016, is a potential candidate for secretary of state.
His policies are very much in line with Mr Trump’s and he was a contender to be his 2024 running mate before JD Vance landed the role.
Bill Hagerty – another of the running mate contenders – is also being linked to the position, as is Robert O’Brien, who served as Mr Trump’s fourth and final national security adviser during his first term.
Tanking stock markets, collapsing world orders, devastating trade wars; economists with their hair ablaze are scrambling to keep up.
But as we try to make sense of Donald Trumps’s tariff tsunami, economic theory only goes so far. In the end this surely is about something more primal.
Power.
Understanding that may be crucial to how the world responds.
Yes, economics helps explain the impact. The world’s economy has after all shifted on its axis, the way it’s been run for decades turned on its head.
Instead of driving world trade, America is creating a trade war. We will all feel the impact.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:58
PM will ‘fight’ for deal with US
Donald Trump says he is settling scores, righting wrongs. America has been raped, looted and pillaged by the world trading system.
More from US
But don’t be distracted by the hyperbole – and if you think this is about economics alone, you may be missing the point.
Above all, tariffs give Donald Trump power. They strike fear into allies and enemies, from governments to corporations.
This is a president who runs his presidency like a medieval emperor or mafia don.
It is one reason why since his election we have seen what one statesman called a conga line of sycophants make their way to the White House, from world leaders to titans of industry.
The conga line will grow longer as they now redouble their efforts hoping to special treatment from Trump’s tariffs. Sir Keir Starmer among them.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
President Trump’s using similar tactics at home, deploying presidential power to extract concessions and deter dissent in corporate America, academia and the US media. Those who offer favours are spared punishment.
His critics say he seeks a form power for the executive or presidential branch of government that the founding fathers deliberately sought to prevent.
Whether or not that is true, the same playbook of divide and rule through intimidation can now be applied internationally. Thanks to tariffs
Each country will seek exceptions but on Trump’s terms. Those who retaliate may meet escalation.
This is the unforgiving calculus for governments including our own plotting their next moves.
The temptation will be to give Trump whatever he wants to spare their economies, but there is a jeopardy that compounds the longer this goes on.
Image: Could America’s traditional allies turn to China? Pic: AP
Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister who coined the conga line comparison, put it this way: “Pretty much all the international leaders I have seen that have sucked up to Trump have been run over. The reality is if you suck up to bullies, whether it’s global affairs or in the playground, you just get more bullying.”
Trading partners may be able to mitigate the impact of these tariffs through negotiation, but that may only encourage this unorthodox president to demand ever more?
Ultimately the world will need a more reliable superpower than that.
In the hands of such a president, America cannot be counted on.
When it comes to security, stability and prosperity, allies will need to fend for themselves.
And they will need new friends. If Washington can’t be relied on, Beijing beckons.
America First will, more and more, mean America on its own.
Actors, directors and celebrity friends have paid tribute to Val Kilmer, after he died aged 65.
The California-born star of Top Gun, Batman and Heat died of pneumonia on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, his daughter Mercedes told the Associated Press.
She said Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.
Tributes flooded in after reports broke of the actor’s death, with No Country For Old Men star Josh Brolin among the first to share their memories.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:49
Watch: Val Kilmer in his most iconic roles
He wrote on Instagram: “See ya, pal. I’m going to miss you. You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There’s not a lot left of those.
“I hope to see you up there in the heavens when I eventually get there. Until then, amazing memories, lovely thoughts.”
Instagram
This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Instagram cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Instagram cookies for this session only.
Kyle Maclachlan, who co-starred with Kilmer in the 1991 biopic The Doors, wrote on social media: “You’ll always be my Jim. See you on the other side my friend.”
More from Ents & Arts
Michael Mann, who directed Kilmer in 1995’s Heat, also paid tribute in a statement, saying: “I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character.
“After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news.”
Instagram
This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Instagram cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Instagram cookies for this session only.
Heat co-star Danny Trejo also called Kilmer “a great actor, a wonderful person, and a dear friend of mine” on Instagram.
Instagram
This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Instagram cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Instagram cookies for this session only.
Cher, who once dated the actor, said on X that “U Were Funny, crazy, pain in the ass, GREAT FRIEND… BRILLIANT as Mark Twain, BRAVE here during ur sickness”.
Lifelong friend and director of Twixt, Francis Ford Coppola said: “Val Kilmer was the most talented actor when in his High School, and that talent only grew greater throughout his life.
“He was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know – I will always remember him.”
Instagram
This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Instagram cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Instagram cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Instagram cookies for this session only.
The Top Gun account on X also said it was remembering Kilmer, who starred as Iceman in both the 1986 original and 2022 sequel, and “whose indelible cinematic mark spanned genres and generations”.
X
This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow X cookies for this session only.
No one expected penguins to bear the brunt of Liberation Day.
But among the barrage of tariffs set out by Donald Trump, the US also took aim at uninhabited islands, talked up American beef and turned its nose up at plastic eggs.
Here is what you might have missed in the US leader’s expansive announcement.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
5:07
What the numbers behind Trump’s tariffs really mean
Tiny territories hit with big tariffs
At first glance, newly imposed tariffs on countries such as China, the European Union, India and the UK stand out – ranging from 34% to 10% respectively.
But the president also imposed tariffs on dozens of tiny territories – some of which don’t even have human inhabitants.
One of those was the Heard and McDonald Islands, an external territory of Australia in the Antarctic that is inhabited only by penguins and seals.
Image: All of Australia’s external territories that have been hit with US tariffs
Despite having no human residents – or imports and exports – the island now faces a 10% tariff for any goods bound for the US.
According to export data from the World Bank, the US imported $1.4m (£1m) of mainly “machinery and electrical” products from Heard Island and McDonald Islands in 2022.
Australian territory Norfolk Island, a volcanic island 600 miles east of Queensland, was also hit with a hefty 29% tariff on exports to the US. That’s much higher than mainland Australia, which had a 10% tariff imposed.
The news was met with confusion by some of Norfolk Island’s 2,188 residents.
“Norfolk Island is a little dot in the world,” Richard Cottle, owner of a concrete-mixing business on the island, said on Thursday.
“We don’t export anything. It was just a mistake”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
3:27
How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Although the island does ship a modest amount of Kentia palm seeds abroad, this is typically worth less than $1m (£760,000) a year, with the products mostly going to Europe.
According to US government data, America has recorded trade deficits with Norfolk Island for the past three years.
Other tiny nations and territories were also hit with 10% tariffs, including Tokelau, a dependent territory of New Zealand, with a population of around 1,600 people, and the Cocos Islands, another territory of Australia, with a population of around 600 people.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters he had no explanation for the tariffs, calling them “unexpected” and “a bit strange”.
Image: We have a feeling the seals won’t welcome Trump for his next holiday to the Heard Island… Pic: AP
‘Our beef is beautiful, theirs is weak’
After announcing a 20% tariff against the European Union, Mr Trump’s secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick spoke to Fox News to try to explain what was behind the decision.
In a brief but bizarre rant, Mr Lutnick spoke about the bloc’s ban on imported chicken from the US.
“I mean European Union won’t take chicken from America,” he said.
“They will take lobsters from America… they hate our beef because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak.”
The EU has a ban on chicken washed in chlorine – a practice that is approved by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Although US beef is not completely prohibited in Europe, any beef that has been treated with artificial growth hormones – which is legal in the US and common among producers – is banned by the EU.
Why was Russia exempt?
Russia was not on Mr Trump’s tariff list, despite his threat to introduce some on Russian oil imports last week.
The US president made the threat after telling NBC’s Kirsten Welker he was “very angry” and “pissed off” after Vladimir Putin criticised the credibility of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as fragile peace negotiations are ongoing.
Mr Trump said that if Russia was unable to make a deal on “stopping bloodshed in Ukraine” – and Mr Trump felt that Moscow was to blame – then he would put secondary tariffs on “all oil coming out of Russia”.
“That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States. There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25 to 50-point tariff on all oil,” he said.
Axios reported that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the publication on Wednesday that Russia was left off the tariffs list because US sanctions already “preclude any meaningful trade”.
Russia ran a $2.5bn goods trade surplus with the US in 2024, according to the US Trade Representative’s office, falling from $35bn in 2021 as a result of sanctions put in place due to the war in Ukraine.
World’s poorest nations face highest tariffs
Many of Mr Trump’s tariffs have targeted the world’s poorest countries.
Lesotho in southern Africa, listed as the 22 poorest country in the world, has been slapped with the highest duty of 50%. It primarily exports diamonds and garments, with the US as one of the top five exporting destinations, Sky News’ US partner network NBC News reported.
The second-highest tariff went to Cambodia at 49%, even though the US is Cambodia’s largest single-country export destination.
Madagascar in east Africa, the world’s ninth poorest country, will face 47% reciprocal tariffs. It primarily exports vanilla, cloves, and garments, with the US among the top five countries it exports to, according to NBC.
‘Huge complexities’ for Northern Ireland and the Republic
Image: Deputy premier Simon Harris said the difference in tariffs between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland will cause complexities. Pic: Cillian Sherlock/PA Wire
Under the 10% tariff imposed on the UK, Northern Irish goods will also be covered at the same rate.
Whereas the Republic of Ireland will subject to a 20% tariffs – which Mr Trump imposed on the entirety of the EU.
Reacting to the announcement, Ireland deputy premier Simon Harris said the tariff difference would create “huge complexities” for products that need to be carried across the cross-border dimension during production.
He said the issues were similar to those at play during the Brexit debate around maintaining a frictionless land border on the island of Ireland.
Mr Harris said it was on the US to “outline their understanding” on how the 10% differential between Northern Ireland and Ireland will play out.
Trump defines groceries
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:16
Trump says ‘groceries’ is a ‘beautiful term’
As has become common when delivering major addresses, the US president repeatedly deviated from his script.
At one point, he took time to define the word groceries: “It’s a bag with a lot of different things in it.”
He went on to describe the word as “old-fashioned” but “beautiful”.
‘Could you use plastic eggs?’
In another part of his wide-ranging speech, Mr Trump got onto the topic of eggs – the price of which reached an all-time high earlier this year in the US due to the outbreak of bird flu.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump confirmed that the annual White House tradition of rolling around 30,000 Easter eggs across the South Lawn is expected to proceed, and will use real eggs, despite pleas for plastic ones to be used instead.
“They were saying that for Easter ‘Please don’t use eggs. Could you use plastic eggs?’ I say, we don’t want to do that,” Mr Trump said.
He did not clarify who was telling him not to use real eggs.