Meet Donald Trump's Cupboard, From Real World Alum Sean Duffy to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
TV stars, the aged head of WWE and a Kennedy (nonetheless no longer Elon Musk): Meet the officials who procure up President Donald Trump's Cupboard.
President Donald Trump’s Cupboard is tubby.
All 15 of his nominations—some more controversial than others—were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Secretary of Stammer Marco Rubio was the single one who obtained unanimous enhance from all aspects of the aisle, together with from 10 Democratic senators who didn’t vote in favor of any of Trump's other picks. Meanwhile, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth faced the rockiest road, within the discontinuance desiring Vice President J.D. Vance to solid a tie-breaking vote to substantiate him after the aged Fox & Associates Weekend host obtained zero Democratic enhance and three Republicans voted nay.
But Trump obtained his desired neighborhood your complete identical.
As established in Article II, Share 2 of the Constitution, the U.S. Cupboard is the fundamental authentic advisory physique to the president. This expose day it encompasses the vice president and the heads of 15 departments—who’re all often known as secretaries other than for the attorney well-liked, who oversees the Division of Justice. (And no, Elon Musk is no longer a Cupboard member.)
There are moreover 10 Cupboard-stage posts, some of which require Senate affirmation (CIA director, ambassador to the United International locations) while others (White House chief of team) invent no longer.
At the side of these officials to the bunch, Trump’s Cupboard is nearly tubby, the commander-in-chief having withdrawn Fresh York Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be U.N. Ambassador so as no longer to field her vacated seat in Congress to a special election.
While Trump has broken the mildew in a unfold of programs alongside with his skill to governing, the Cupboard has been around since the initiating place, in a single have or one more. (Let’s assume, in 1790 Thomas Jefferson became the principle Secretary of Stammer, beneath President George Washington, nonetheless there was no Division of Vitality unless President Jimmy Carter signed it into law in 1977.)
All over Trump's first time length, only two of his Cupboard picks—Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and HUD Secretary Ben Carson—served your complete four years, no longer leaving their posts unless President Joe Biden was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2021. Training Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao nearly stayed your complete time nonetheless both resigned on Jan. 7, 2021.
So, sooner than there's any movement on that entrance, here are the people of Trump's second Cupboard, in notify of succession to the presidency (minus Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and President Expert Tempore of the Senate Chuck Grassley, who approach after the vice president and sooner than Secretary of Stammer):
Vice President JD Vance
Ohio native JD Vance labored in mission capitalism sooner than penning the valid-promoting 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy and pivoting to politics.
The Yale-trained attorney and aged Marine was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 and, after no longer up to two years in workplace, was picked to be Donald Trump's 2024 operating mate.
As vice president, to boot to to being first in line to the presidency, Vance is on hand to be a deciding vote can have to Senate Republicans need a tie-breaker to pass legislation.
He has been married to law college sweetheart Usha Vance since 2014 and they share three kids.
Secretary of Stammer Marco Rubio
Feeble Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was a fierce critic of Trump after they both ran for president in 2016 nonetheless has since change into a supporter of his aged antagonist's agenda.
The Miami native, born to Cuban immigrant other folk, was the principle and only nominee for Trump's second cupboard to be confirmed by the Senate with unanimous bipartisan enhance, ninety 9 to 0. (Now aged Ohio Sen. Vance is the one-seat emptiness. Rubio was technically mild within the Senate then and so was in a local to vote for himself.)
Rubio (proven here with Canadian International Affairs Minister Melanie Joly) has been married to aged Miami Dolphins cheerleader Jeanette Dousdebes since 1998 and they share two daughters and two sons.
Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent
Scott Bessent's four an extended time of journey in world investment management consist of his time as CEO of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management and Chief Investment Officer of Soros Fund Management (as in prominent Democratic donor George Soros).
He moreover taught financial historical previous at his alma mater Yale and, alongside with his household, established the McLeod Rehabilitation Heart at the Shriners Kids’s Sanatorium in his dwelling negate of South Carolina.
Consistent with his authorities bio, he and his husband and two kids split their time between Washington, D.C., and Charleston, S.C.
“In a particular geographic negate at a particular financial stage, being homosexual is no longer a scenario,” he told the Yale Alumni Magazine in 2015 sooner than the U.S. Supreme Court's likelihood that legalized identical-intercourse marriage nationwide. “What’s nice is now, of us within the rest of The US, whether blue collar or white collar, have access to all the pieces. Ought to you had told me in 1984, when we graduated, and of us were demise of AIDS, that 30 years later I’d be legally married and we can have two kids by surrogacy, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth
Navy Nationwide Guard faded Pete Hegseth had been serving as cohost of Fox News' Fox & Associates Weekend since 2017 when Trump tapped him to be Protection Secretary.
Past controversial statements about diversity and women folk within the navy, a 2017 sexual assault allegation (which Hegseth has vehemently denied), reports of ingesting on the job (moreover denied) and a 2018 electronic mail from his mother (that she later disavowed) calling him “an abuser of ladies folk” threatened to derail his nomination. But he was narrowly confirmed by the Senate with out a Democratic votes and three Republicans dissenting.
Hegseth shares three kids with second ex-spouse Samatha Deering and has a daughter with third spouse Jennifer Rauchet Hegseth, a aged producer on Fox & Associates. They tied the knot at Trump Nationwide Golf Club in Colts Neck, N.J., in 2019.
Criminal legit Standard Pam Bondi
After Trump's well-liked make a choice, scandal-plagued aged Rep. Matt Gaetz, withdrew himself from consideration, the then-president-elect went with aged Florida Criminal legit Standard Pam Bondi—a member of his protection crew within the future of his first impeachment trial—to lead the U.S. Division of Justice.
She spent 18 years as a prosecutor with the Hillsborough County Stammer Criminal legit’s Place of work sooner than turning into Florida's first feminine attorney well-liked in 2011. Toward the tip of her tenure she cohosted Fox News' The 5 for three days in 2018, sparking questions in regards to the ethics of doing so while mild an elected authentic.
“She is in most cases on nationwide news,” a spokesperson told the Tampa Bay Instances, noting that she wasn't paid for her internet internet hosting gig. “The attorney well-liked is continually working. She is on the market 24/7 and works even when out of the negate.”
Twice-divorced, Bondi has been romantically linked to Varner Wakefield Equity Partners founding fundamental John Wakefield since 2017. He has three kids from a outdated relationship.
Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum
One other 2024 presidential hopeful became Trump supporter, billionaire utility entrepreneur and mission capitalist Doug Burgum served as governor of North Dakota from 2017 unless he was picked to head up the Division of Interior, which is accountable for the management of roughly 480 million acres of federal land, balancing handy resource development and conservation.
After growing up in diminutive Arthur, N.D., population 325, Burgum attended North Dakota Stammer and started a chimney sweeping industry that he credits for helping him procure into Stanford's industry college.
“The [college] newspaper wrote a tale about me as a chimney sweep and ran a photograph of me sitting on top of an cool chimney in below-freezing climate in Fargo,” he told Forbes in 2017. “The tale made the AP wire provider. I was later told it brought about rather a hump within the Stanford admissions workplace.”
Burgum shares three kids with ex-spouse Karen Stoker and has been married to Kathryn Helgaas since 2016.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins
Glen Rose, Texas, native Brooke Rollins has a stage in agricultural development from Texas A&M and obtained her JD from College of Texas College of Regulations.
All around the principle Trump administration she was director of the Home Coverage Council and Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives within the White House.
Sooner than being picked to lead the Division of Agriculture, Rollins was CEO and president of the The US First Coverage Institute, a think tank she founded in 2021 to promote Trump's public policy agenda.
Consistent alongside with her authorities bio, she and husband Designate Rollins spend most of their free time at dwelling in Castle Price “taxiing their four very active kids to baseball games, cattle presentations, piano classes, and Aggie soccer games.”
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick
Sooner than joining Trump's cupboard, Howard Lutnick was CEO and president of monetary companies agency Cantor Fitzgerald, where he rose by the ranks after being employed as a younger broker in 1983.
The Fresh York-headquartered company infamously lost 658 workers within the 11th of September, 2001, terrorist assaults when one amongst four hijacked planes hit the World Trade Heart's North Tower.
“I went to twenty funerals a day for 35 days,” Lutnick, whose brother Gary was among these killed, told BBC News in 2006. “So there were cases I couldn't even whisk to my substantial chums' funerals. In some unspecified time in the future, my most sharp friend's brother was being buried at the identical genuine time as my roommate from college's brother. So my spouse went to one and I went to one.”
Asked how he was in a local to pass forward, he mentioned, “I’d list it esteem being on a surf board on a massive wave, and that within the event you ever looked encourage, the wave would procure you and perchance I wouldn't be in a local to operate.”
Lutnick has four kids with spouse Allison Lambert.
Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer
Lori Chavez-DeRemer served as mayor of Cheerful Valley, Ore., from 2011 to 2019 after which became the principle Republican lady to be elected to Congress from her negate in 2022.
She lost her declare for re-election, on the opposite hand, leaving the California native—and pro-union daughter of a Mexican-American Teamster dad—originate to serving in Trump's second cupboard.
Chavez-DeRemer is a mother of twin daughters alongside with her high college sweetheart husband Dr. Shawn DeRemer. Marking their Thirty third marriage ceremony anniversary in 2024, she wrote on Instagram, “The years wing by because we’re spicy to be committed to a 'substantial worship' that’s constantly worth fighting for.”
Lower than two weeks after she was confirmed as Labor Secretary on March 11, 2025, the DeRemers became grandparents.
Secretary of Health and Human Companies and products Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Lifelong Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threw his enhance within the encourage of Trump after his have 2024 candidacy fizzled.
The third of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy's 11 kids, the environmental attorney who's now overseeing the so-known as “MAHA” (procure The US wholesome all over again) movement, has been known more in present years for questioning the safety of vaccines and psychotropic medications and prompting the ire of his have household.
While sister Kerry Kennedy slammed his “inexplicable effort” to “desecrate” their father's memory by endorsing Trump, cousin Caroline Kennedy known as him a “predator” in a January 2025 originate letter urging the Senate to no longer confirm him as HHS secretary.
On the inner most entrance, Kennedy is a father of six: Two kids from his first marriage, to Emily Dim, and 4 kids with unhurried second spouse Mary Richardson, who died by suicide in 2012. He has been married to Curb Your Enthusiasm alum Cheryl Hines since 2014.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Constructing Scott Turner
Feeble NFL player Scott Turner represented Texas' Thirty third district in Congress from 2013 to 2017 sooner than Trump appointed him director of the White House Quite quite so a lot of and Revitalization Council in 2019.
“My mother and pa and my godparents constantly taught me to encourage others,” he mentioned in a 2016 NFL Participant Engagement interview. “They constantly instilled in me to peek out for other of us and to work onerous and to have a substantial faith…It’s demanding; you appropriate have to procure up in your suggestions that’s what you’re going to invent.”
Also an entrepreneur and Baptist pastor, he has been married to spouse and fellow College of Illinois alum Robin Turner since 1995. In 2009 the couple adopted Scott's nephew Solomon, who conducted soccer at Baylor and Hawaii sooner than walking on at Illinois.
“Had it no longer been for my uncle and my aunt, I don’t know where I would possibly be,” Solomon told Big Ten news role Saturday Custom in 2022. “Personally, it appropriate approach the enviornment to me, no longer appropriate for him to be my father make a choice, nonetheless to approach encourage here and invent this section, it’s nearly esteem I’m giving encourage to him esteem a thank you.”
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy
Sean Duffy first made a name for himself in 1997 as a housemate on The Real World: Boston.
He shares 9 kids with The Real World: San Francisco alum Rachel Campos-Duffy, whom he met competing on Avenue Rules: All Stars in 1998 and married the following 300 and sixty five days.
Duffy spent eight years as Ashland County District Criminal legit in his dwelling negate of Wisconsin sooner than serving in Congress from 2011 to 2019. He resigned from workplace that August, citing his yet-to-be-born ninth puny one's health components.
“After she’s born, whether it’s two to six months after existence, she’s going to need originate-heart surgical procedure,” he defined on Fox & Associates. “They gotta crack her originate and fix the center.”
Duffy added, “I in actuality esteem politics, nonetheless I in actuality esteem my household, and I have confidence it’s constantly a stability. The schedules are grueling. I’m out in D.C. four days per week, after which I’m encourage with Rachel.” Touring around his district assembly of us, he mentioned, “we procure beat up a bit of bit as people of Congress. We’re a popular punching win.”
On The Real World, “I was forced to are living with of us that were so assorted than me,” he told NCTA in Also can 2019. “After I first obtained there, I observed the stark variations I had with my roommates. But when I left, I realized I had skill more in well-liked with them than I ever imagined.”
He when compared the journey to crossing the aisle in Congress: “It's fantastic the roughly legislation that you can even work on together and what number of components of agreement you with out a doubt have.”
Secretary of Vitality Chris Wright
Self-described “energy nerd” Chris Wright is the founder of Pinnacle Technologies, which, based utterly utterly on his Vitality Division bio, “created the hydraulic atomize [a.k.a. fracking] mapping industry.”
Sooner than his cupboard nomination, he served as CEO of Liberty Vitality, the United States' second-most sharp fracking company.
Wright—”a passionate father, grandfather, skier, bicycle proprietor, climber, and out of doorways fanatic,” per his bio—and spouse Liz Wright lived in Colorado sooner than relocating to D.C.
Secretary of Training Linda McMahon
Linda McMahon (née Edwards) was 17 when she married 21-300 and sixty five days-outdated skool husband Vince McMahon in 1966, after she finished high college. She studied to be a French teacher nonetheless ended up co-operating the household industry, World Wrestling Entertainment, from 1980 unless 2009.
McMahon served as Administrator of the Itsy-bitsy Industrial Administration from 2017 to 2019 within the future of Trump's first time length. After he was elected all over again in 2024, the grandmother of six co-chaired his transition crew and was picked to head up the U.S. Division of Training—which Trump needs to dismantle.
“I'm in actuality concerned in regards to the president’s mission, which is to approach training to the states,” McMahon told the Fresh York Instances. “I factor in, as he does, that the valid training is closest to the puny one.”
While they're mild married, McMahon's attorney confirmed in November 2024 that the aged WWE executive and her husband are separated, based utterly utterly on the Washington Publish. Their son Shane McMahon and daughter Stephanie McMahon are both aged legit wrestlers and son-in-law Paul “Triple H” Levesque is chief stammer material officer of WWE.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins
U.S. Air Force Reserve Col. Doug Collins is a attorney and aged Georgia Stammer House representative, congressman and navy chaplain.
But, based utterly utterly on his VA bio, he's “fundamental a husband to Lisa and father to daughter Jordan and sons Copelan and Cameron.”
Secretary of Hometown Safety Kristi Noem
Governor of South Dakota since 2019, Kristi Noem was rumored to be on the brief list of doable operating mates for Trump in 2024, unless she wrote about taking pictures her household's unruly dogs in her memoir No Going Again.
Unfazed by controversy, Trump picked Noem, who moreover served in Congress from 2011 to 2019 and sat on the House Armed Companies and products Committee, to head up the Division of Hometown Safety, which is accountable for safeguarding the United States from inner and exterior threats.
The onetime South Dakota Snow Queen married husband Bryon Noem in 1992 and they share three kids.
Source credit : eonline.com