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Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday, the twenty first of November. I'm Harry, I'm Emma. Donald Trump takes office in January, but since his recent election win, the US President elect has been choosing who will join his future administration and cabinet. A range of senior White House positions have already been filled across areas like foreign affairs, environment,
border security, and health. Many of Trump's picks already have high profiles in the US, ranking from state senators to billionaires and a Fox News presenter and a politician from one of America's most influential families, the Kennedys. On the podcast today, we're going to take you through some of those appointments from what you need to know about their past and what they'll be responponsible for in the future.
Harry, I've been seeing all these names and faces popping up in the news over the last couple of weeks. It almost feels like a celebrity runway of people heading into the White House.
There's obviously as started lineup, you might say, and Dar.
Started line up, and there's obviously Harry still two months before Donald Trump is inaugurated, but he seems to be getting to work quickly. But I want to know straight off the bat, is this something unique to US politics, because I can't really remember there being this much hype around an Australian cabinet.
In recent years. Emma, I am so glad that you asked me, because there is nothing I love more than comparing Australian and American democracies. This is just like my niche area of interest. Well, thank god, it's my special topic on hard Quitz if I ever go on one day. So this is a moment I feel like we can
draw a really distinction between our two countries. So yes, it does feel like a bit of a casting process, a bit of a who's who, And that's because the American system allows for the president to choose basically whoever they want to fill top level cabinet and advisory positions.
I think it's also important to add a distinction that is different in America than in Australia, which is the way government works is Congress is separate to what's called the executive, So the president is the executive. That's the White House, and the department rolls within that Congress. We're talking Senate House of Representatives, so upper House, lower House, and they operate almost independently.
That's right, And so that means you don't have to be a politician in order to be in the executive team, which is the White House, whereas in Australia the executive team is made up of cabinet ministers who are MPs or senators. And in Australia we also have a prime Minister, not a president. So when we think about Australia, there's rarely any surprise because there are often high level politicians who are in opposition or in government who occupied those
senior positions in government. But in America, it's perfectly possible for someone like Elon Musk to enter the cabinet because you don't need to have a background in politics at all.
All right, let's talk then about some of these appointments, about the names we know that are going to be taking on those White House roles. Who is in the fold, Harry.
So Trump has been announcing a lot of appointments, and it's a list that's just been getting longer and longer by the day, even since we've been sitting here, Emma, there's been another announcement for his Education secretary and it's a top level executive of WWE, the wrestling competition. Really. Yes, she has crashed through to the cabinet team and more evidence as to why America's system is so unique compared to Australia.
Yeah.
So the first person that Trump announced after he was victorious at the election in November was his chief of staff, Susie wils She was Trump's campaign manager for this year's election and she's known as a savvy backroom operator. There's no real surprise there. And she'll also become the first woman to hold the role of White House chief of staff.
Now chief of staff for people who might not be familiar with that term. This is a role of someone who kind of like manages the rest of the team that work in the White House.
Right, that's right. And in America the chief of staff also sits with the cabinet and is in the room when these senior people are making big decisions. That's not really the way it works in Australia. The chief of staff is more of a role of organizing and setting the day to day schedules. Of a prime minister or a politician, but in America they have an even more formal role.
Okay, so that was the first announcement, Susie Wiles. What about Trump's pick for what's been called the Borders Are.
Yeah, it's such a funny term, that one, but it just means that someone who's overseeing a particular specialist area or field, So think like an education zar or a climate zar. Tom Homan was announced as Trump's pick for the Borders Are. He's a former policeman and the CEO of a not for profit border security organization called Border
nine to one one. He previously held a senior position in the Immigration Department under Barack Obama's administration, and he continued with that seniority in immigration in Donald Trump's first administration.
Okay, so someone who has worked in immigration at a high level across both sides of.
Politics, that's right, And so he's just no stranger to this field at all, and even outside politics, he is very active in this space.
You mentioned outside politics, Harry, and I know there are people in this cabinet who are aren't historically politicians or not career politicians.
Such as the WWA executive.
Well exactly, that's what I was thinking. But there are some who are already politicians.
Who are they So Trump's fielded some candidates who were also some of his potential picks for vice president that ultimately went to Ohio Senator Jdie Vance. But when we think about established politicians, there's South Dakota Governor Christy Nome who's been named as the head of one of the biggest departments, Homeland Security, and that employs about two hundred and sixty thousand people. It has a budget of about sixty billion US dollars, so that's nearly one hundred billion
dollars in Australian dollars. Big department, big big department. So there's also Florida Senator Marco Rubio who will be Trump's Secretary of State, and that is the top person in the field of foreign affairs. So his job will be representing the US overseas.
So this is a job that's like the counterpart to Australia's Penny won exactly.
So he is effectively going to be the person that's involved in negotiating America's position in areas like Israel and in Ukraine. So those are two big conflicts going on at the moment, and the US Secretary of State has had quite an active role in that. So Senator MARKA. Rubio is going to take on a key role in some of those areas. So his background is interesting. He's taken a hardline stance against China and Iran, and he'll be tasked with delivering Trump's plan to resolve the conflicts
between Ukraine and Russia quite quickly. Yeah.
So Trump famously told supporters on the campaign trail that he would resolve that conflict in one day.
So big job Marco Rubio.
Yeah, I imagine there's going to be a lot of attention on Rubio in that process as he takes on that role and steps up to the challenge that Trump has set when it comes to Ukraine and Russia. I do want to talk about some other names that have emerged, some maybe arguably the controversial figures, some celebrities who are they.
I'd say a lot of the media coverage has focused on four other picks. So that's Elon mask Robert F. Kennedy, Junior, Pete Hexeth, and Matt Gates. So let's start with Elon Musk. He won't be in the executive Cabinet, but he's been appointed as the co head of DOGE, which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency. Any Internet slew out there
will very much appreciate that reference. But that's a role he'll share with biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswami, who was also in line to become Trump's vice president.
So won't be in the executive cabinet. But these are kind of like senior advisor roles. What does government efficiency actually mean? These are kind of vague terms. What will Elon Musk be doing?
Well, it's vague because it doesn't really exist yet, and it's going to be a new department. Well we know from Trump's team so far is that it will be a department that's dedicated to cutting regulations, dismantling some of the red tape of the federal government, and what Trump himself has described as getting rid of wasteful government spending. The department is temporary. They've actually been given an end date.
This is Elon mask and Vivek Ramaswami. They'll be in those positions until the fourth of July twenty twenty six, which just coincides symbolically with the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I'm not so sure what that means about government efficiency, but they've been given that end date as sort of a marker of when they will exit the White House, Senior Roles, I.
Suppose it's a bit of a statement on efficiency to give those co heads an end date or a deadline to be efficient by.
I suppose I actually didn't quite think of it like that. There we go. My productivity probably needs to work. Trump.
I've done a lot of work on this one, Harry, we appreciate you. Let's move on to Robert F. Kennedy Junior.
So he's often referred to as RFK Junior, So I'm going to stick with that practice, and it's a little easier to say. He's the nephew of former Democrat President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in Texas in nineteen sixty three.
JFK.
Yeah, very well known person right across the world. RFK Junior's dad is Robert F. Kennedy, who, like his brother, was also assassinated, and he was shot dead whilst campaigning to become president in nineteen sixty eight.
We'll be back with more of today's deep dive right after this. So RFK Junior really hails from this family that is so recognizable around the world, these historical figures, one of the most influential families in US politics. But they're famous for being Democrats. They're famously Democrat politicians that we're talking about. So how does RFK Junior end up in a senior role for a republic president.
Well, he actually campaigned as a Democrat for the twenty twenty four presidential race. So he went up against Joe Biden in the primary race initially, but then he dropped out of that and became an independent. And he then suspended his own campaign and backed Trump for president leading into polling day. Before RFK Junior got into politics, he
was an environmental lawyer. He sued some major companies for polluting, and he also became a prominent voice in the anti vaccine movement in the US in the early two thousands. He chays what's called the Children's Health Defense, which is an anti vax group. He's now been named the health
secretary of Trump's new team. He's promised to intervene in what he called the quote revolving door between industry and government in the space of health, and public health experts have already come out expressing a little bit of concern about RFK Junior's views in leading the US Health Department.
Well, I was going to ask you about this because, you know, regardless of his politics, I suppose there's a lot of attention being paid to someone being appointed to Health Secretary, which is a very senior role in the White House, who is someone who has campaigned on, platformed on is famous for being anti vaccine. So what has that response looked like.
Yeah, well, there have been no shortage of people who are experts in public health really dialing up the concern and saying that someone like RFK Junior's views are really worrying in this space because ultimately he'll be overseeing things like the Center for Disease Control and the approval of medicines. So it's a big role in health. It's probably about as big as it gets in the United States, and
he's going to be leading that. But it is important to mention here that RFK Junior has responded to some of these concerns directly. When he was running for president, he said on his website that he does support voluntary vaccines.
Okay, So I guess that speaks to the heart of a lot of this administration or future administration's political views, which often have a lot to do with protecting freedoms or this perceived protection of Americans independents to make their own choices, to decide what is right for them, rather than the idea of having governments dictate what is right for them or telling them what they should do.
It's embedded into their national identity. America is the cradle of liberty to Americans, and that's what the whole constitution is built off. So yeah, without getting into the loftiness of that language, it's absolutely true, and I think ultimately, yeah, it is so interesting to see that idea of freedom expressed in these kind of formats.
Yeah, for sure. You mentioned Harry also a Fox News presenter who's been appointed to Trump's cabinet. Who is that and what do we need to know about them?
So his name is Pete Hegseth, who's been named as the Defense Secretary. He served in the US military during multiple conflicts, so Iraq and Afghanistan, for instance, and he's worked at Fox since twenty fourteen as a contributor and presenter on various TV segments.
Fox News, just for those who aren't across, is the conservative US news outlet backed by Rupert Murdoch and has proven itself to be quite influential in Republican politics over the last I guess, you know, eight.
Years or so. Yeah, Like the closest thing that we have here in Australia is Sky News, also Murdoch run. It's recently emerged that Pete Hegseth was investigated for sexual assault in twenty seventeen, allegedly occurred at a hotel in California following a Republican women's conference. He wasn't charged or arrested, and the accusation only came through in recent days, and Trump's team was reported to have been quite blindsided by the reports, but they are saying that they're pressing on
with his nomination. So the final person that I want to speak about is this Florida Congressman Matt Gates. Trump's chosen him as the Attorney General, and for anyone who's unfamiliar, that's the top law officer in the US. So if you think about the Secretary of Health being the top
health person, the Attorney general's a top law person. Now this is interesting because Matt Gates has been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations for alleged sex trafficking and for allegedly having sex with a seventeen year old girl. There weren't criminal charges pressed against Matt Gates, but for the last few years he's been facing a committee investigation in the House of Representatives, and that's the chamber that he sits in.
Okay, So this is kind of like a parliamentary inquiry that we might have here.
Yeah, exactly, same concept, same idea, And they've been looking into these allegations against that also includes things like his supposed use of illegal drugs at certain events over the years.
So Gates denies any wrongdoing. There haven't been criminal charges leveled against him, as you mentioned, But what do these allegations mean for his political future? Will this influence his ability to work in the White House.
It's a really interesting issue with Gates because the House committee that I mentioned earlier, it has a report that it'll consider releasing into Gates's alleged behavior, and this could impact his selection process because it isn't set in stone yet. He needs to go through what's known as a Senate confirmation process. And that's an important distinction when talking about some of these people, because all the cabinet team need to go through this Senate nomination, whereas some advisors don't
have to go through that. So like Elon Musk, Elon Musk doesn't need to go through this, but Matt Gates will. Now, the Senate process is important because it provides a bit of a check and balance on some of the White House nominees.
So this process is kind of like I guess a second job interview. Trump names these people, he says, you know, this is the person I want to be in charge of this department, and then the Senate has to kind of vet them.
Yeah, and it's a job interview with one hundred people on the panel, which is one hundred sence.
That's a big panel, and the Senate can hypothetically block one of Trump's picks. Is that right?
Exactly right? But it doesn't happen very often. And there is a great advantage for Trump in his selection process because the Senate after he becomes president will have a Republican majority because they won a majority of seats at the election. And the Matt Gates report is going to be really interesting because some Republican senators have already asked to see it. Now, the House will decide next week
if it's going to release that report. So we don't quite know yet what's going to happen in that space.
But what we do know is that some republic have indicated they're not going to make their mind up on this confirmation until they see that report.
Yeah, and that in turn raises a few questions about Matt Gates's future and whether he will be able to become the attorney general. So if Matt Gates is blocked, Trump will have to name someone else, but if not, Gates will become the leading legal figure in the country.
Okay, So, Harry, you've painted us a great picture of the who's who in this future cabinet. When will that new look Trump cabinet and those advisors actually be confirmed and start these jobs. We know Joe Biden still has two more months left in the job as president. Trump has to be inaugurated on January twenty, So is that when these appointments will be locked in.
Yeah, So, at this stage, all these appointments are just announcements. Trump first has to become president and then he will bring in his new cabinet. They will go through the Senate process and that can take quite some time, so Joe Biden about sixty days to confirm his entire cabinet, and it looks like with the Gates report that raises questions as to whether that can all be done and dusted within a clean two months or so.
So it could be a little while longer before we know for sure who the attorney general will be.
That's right, but given the way that things work in the US, it's very likely that these are the people that we are going to see leading Trump's new team. So we'd be quite confident in that. And the few questions around Matt Gates will be a really interesting development and it's something that we will be definitely staying across.
Harry, Thank you so much for looping us into that one today. Really complicated story and as you mentioned, changing all the time, but we, as you said, will keep our audience updated on the new look Trump administration when it all changes. Thank you so.
Much, Harry, Pleasure, Thanks Emma, thank you for.
Listening to today's episode. If you learned something, feel free to share it with a friend, subscribe, leave us a comment, or if you're over on our YouTube channel. Don't forget to subscribe there. We will be back again later on today with the evening headlines before another deep dive tomorrow. Have a good one.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Calcoton woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.