Donald Trump tipped to make Marco Rubio secretary of state as Lee Zeldin and Stephen Miller named in key roles

Donald Trump has named a number of high-profile loyalists for his second administration but all eyes are currently on leading GOP figure and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who has been tipped to become the President-elect’s secretary of state.

The New York Times first reported Trump’s plans for Rubio, who at one point firmed as the Republican candidate’s 2024 running mate before losing out to JD Vance, to become America’s top diplomat.

The story came as Trump showed he was ready to follow his pledges on illegal immigration with senior appointments for former Trump adviser Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, a former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who would serve as a “border czar”.

Trump also looks to make good on his election vow to free big business up from climate concerns with the appointment of longtime loyalist and former New York congressman Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

However, it is the hawkish Rubio, who shapes as Trump’s most controversial pick at the moment.

Elected to the Senate in 2010, Rubio is considered hawkish when it comes to foreign policy, particularly on Iran and China, and has backed Trump on his reluctance to continue military support for Ukraine, instead agreeing its conflict with Russia “needs to be brought to a conclusion”.

If Rubio is confirmed, he will likely be working closely with Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, who Trump has asked to be his national security adviser, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Once a rival to Trump in their 2016 battle for the Republican Party Presidential nomination, Rubio patched things up with him under the first Trump administration by helping as an informal foreign policy adviser and even helping him with his preparations for his 2020 Presidential debate against Joe Biden.

Hard liner returns on border

Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, dating back to his first campaign for the White House. He was a senior adviser in Trump’s first term and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration, including Trump’s move to separate thousands of immigrant families as a deterrence program in 2018.

Miller has also helped craft many of Trump’s hard-line speeches, and was often the public face of those policies during Trump’s first term in office and during his campaigns.

Since leaving the White House, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organisation 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.

Miller drew large cheers at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden during the race’s final stretch, telling the crowd that, “your salvation is at hand,” after what he cast as “decades of abuse that has been heaped upon the good people of this nation — their jobs looted and stolen from them and shipped to Mexico, Asia and foreign countries. The lives of their loved ones ripped away from them by illegal aliens, criminal gangs and thugs who don’t belong in this country.”

Because it is not a Cabinet position, the appointment does not need Senate confirmation.

Business over environment

Trump’s old slogan of “drill, baby, drill” appeared to be front of mind with the EPA appointment of Zeldin, who the President-elect announced would “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses”.

The statement said Zeldin, a Republican who mounted a failed bid for governor of New York in 2022, also will maintain “the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet”.

Trump’s statement misidentified the name of the agency Zeldin was picked to lead, labeling it the Environmental Protective Agency.

Zeldin, who left Congress in January 2023, was a surprising pick for the role. His public appearances both in his own campaigns and on behalf of Trump often had him speaking about issues such as the military, national security, antisemitism, US-Israel relations, immigration and crime.

He was among the Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election results. While in Congress, he did not serve on committees with oversight of environmental policy and had a lifetime score of 14 per cent from the League of Conservation Voters during his eight years in Congress.

In the 2022 governor’s race, Zeldin vowed to reverse a fracking ban imposed by Democrats.

In an interview Monday on Fox News Channel, Zeldin, 44, said that he will seek to ensure that the United States is able to “pursue energy dominance ... bring back American jobs to the auto industry and so much more.”

He’s excited to implement Trump’s economic agenda, Zeldin said, adding: “I think the American people are so hungry for it. It’s one of the big reasons why they’re sending him back to the White House.”

In 2016 Zeldin pushed to change the designation of about 150 square miles of federal waters in Long Island Sound to state jurisdiction for New York and Rhode Island. He wanted to open the area to striped bass fishing.

Zeldin said at the time that he wanted to restore local control and common sense to fishery management. He later pushed to allow striped bass fishing in an amendment to a federal spending bill. Environmental groups criticised the amendment, which they said risked overfishing in the area.

New York Republican chair Ed Cox said Zeldin’s surprise appointment was “a testament to President Trump’s commitment to revitalising the original mission of the EPA — an agency created ... under President Richard Nixon to protect our nation’s environment.”

A number of fellow Trump allies, such as Elise Stefanik, Waltz and Homan will help round out the administration for Team Trump 2.0.

Elise Stefanik, United Nations ambassador

Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump’s staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment.

Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticising Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership.

Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile.

If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the UN as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah.

Susie Wiles, chief of staff

Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager.

Wiles has a background in Florida politics. She helped Ron DeSantis win his first race for Florida governor. Six years later, she was key to Trump’s defeat of him in the 2024 Republican primary.

Wiles’ hire was Trump’s first major decision as president-elect and one that could be a defining test of his incoming administration considering her close relationship with the president-elect. Wiles is said to have earned Trump’s trust in part by guiding what was the most disciplined of Trump’s three presidential campaigns.

Wiles was able to help keep Trump on track as few others have, not by criticising his impulses, but by winning his respect by demonstrating his success after taking her advice.

Mike Waltz, national security adviser

Trump asked Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before Trump made a formal announcement.

The move would put Waltz at the forefront of a litany of national security crises, ranging from the ongoing effort to provide weapons to Ukraine and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah.

Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs.

He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its ongoing mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population.

Tom Homan, ‘border czar’

Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history.

Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign.

Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump’s policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to “run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.”

Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border.