Donald Trump Jr joining venture capital firm instead of father’s administration
President-elect Donald Trump’s eldest son has opted for a role out of his father’s administration, as the US ambassador to Israel is revealed. See Trump’s other picks.
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The eldest son of President-elect Donald Trump will not be a member of his father’s administration, and is instead joining a venture capital firm.
Donald Trump Jr. announced to a crowd of several hundred donors that he was joining 1789 Capital, an investment firm that includes Tucker Carlson’s media company in its portfolio.
He made the announcement at a conference hosted by the Rockbridge Network, a group of tech-oriented Republican donors co-founded by Vice President-elect JD Vance, who support Mr Trump.
1789 Capital, led by investment banker and Trump donor Omeed Malik, focuses on investing in companies and products popular with conservative audiences.
In addition to Mr Malik, the firm’s partners and backers include investor Rebekah Mercer, a prominent Republican donor, and Chris Buskirk, both of whom attended Rockbridge’s event in Las Vegas this week.
Two days after his father’s election win, Trump Jr told Fox News that he would be “heavily involved” in the transition process.
“I want to make sure now that we know who the real players are, the people who will actually deliver on the president’s message, the people who don’t think that they know better than the duly elected president of the United States,” Trump Jr said.
“I want to make sure that those people are in his cabinet. I want to make sure that those people are in this administration.”
US AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL
President-elect Donald Trump announced he had nominated Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel under his incoming administration, putting a stalwart supporter of that country’s government in a key role.
“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years,” Mr Trump said in a statement, referring to the Christian pastor-turned-politician.
“He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar quickly offered his congratulations to Huckabee, who has in the past said there was “no such thing as an occupation” when it came to Palestinian territories.
“I look forward to working with you to strengthen the bond between our peoples,” Minister Saar posted to Huckabee on X.
“As a longstanding friend of Israel and our eternal capital Jerusalem – I hope you will feel very much at home.”
Huckabee, 69, ran twice for the Republican Party presidential nomination, including in 2016 against eventual winner Trump, who Huckabee was quick to back after falling out of the race.
He has often spoken passionately about his Christian faith and his opposition to gay rights.
Huckabee, whose nomination requires confirmation by the US Senate, has travelled to Israel regularly since 1973, and has led numerous tours there.
In 2017, he was present in Maale Adumim for the expansion of one of Israel’s largest settlements in the West Bank, strongly suggesting he was in support of Mr Trump’s positions on Israel.
“There is no such thing as the West Bank – it’s Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee told CNN there at the time, using the Biblical terms for the area.
“There’s no such thing as a settlement; they’re communities, they’re neighbourhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation,” he added.
In December 2023 he visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where dozens of Israelis were massacred in the October 7 attack by Hamas militants, and said: “I wanted to be here to say I stand with Israel. I stand with the Jewish people.”
Huckabee was born in Hope, Arkansas, the same town that gave rise to Democrat Bill Clinton, who served as the state’s governor before he became president.
His daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the current governor of Arkansas. She also served as Mr Trump’s White House press secretary from 2017 to 2019.
HOMELAND SECURITY
South Dakota governor Kristi Noem will help US president-elect Donald Trump execute his hard line border plan to deport millions of illegal immigrants and strengthen security.
Ms Noem, 52, was named head of Homeland Security on Tuesday according to CNN.
Her appointment comes after she narrowly missed out to JD Vance on becoming Trump’s running mate after an excerpt from her memoir about shooting her puppy resurfaced.
The 14-month-old female pup Cricket was shot by the governor after the dog bit her and killed some chickens.
“I hated that dog,” Ms Noem wrote.
“At that moment I realised I had to put her down.”
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER
A China hawk who is supportive of the AUKUS defence pact has been named by Donald Trump as his new national security adviser.
Mike Waltz, a Florida congressman and former special forces soldier, will take on the influential role when the President-elect returns to the White House on January 20.
In an essay shortly before Mr Trump’s election victory, Mr Waltz called on the next president to urgently end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and “finally focus strategic attention where it should be: countering the greater threat from the Chinese Communist Party”.
While he was highly critical of President Joe Biden’s foreign policy decisions, he praised the AUKUS deal – which involves Australia buying at least three nuclear-powered submarines from the US in the 2030s – as one of his “positive steps on China”.
Mr Walz’s support for AUKUS looms as a crucial boost for the Australian government after Mr Trump’s son Donald Jr and conservative broadcaster Tucker Carlson convinced the President-elect to snub his former top diplomat Mike Pompeo, another AUKUS backer who had been angling to be his defence chief.
In another significant personnel shift in Washington DC, Republican senator Roger Wicker is set to chair the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.
Last year, he spearheaded a Republican rebellion against the laws required to deliver on the AUKUS pact, as he questioned whether the US Navy could afford to provide submarines to Australia while it was failing to keep pace with its own production targets.
But Senator Wicker later supported the legislation as long as the Biden administration boosted its investment in America’s submarine industrial base.
SECRETARY OF STATE
Mr Trump was also set to name Florida senator Marco Rubio — who was a runner-up to be his running mate — as his Secretary of State.
But the Wall Street Journal reported that he could still change his mind on who would be his top diplomat.
‘BORDER CZAR’
President-elect Donald Trump has announced that his former ICE director Tom Homan will oversee the largest deportation of immigrants in US history.
Mr Trump posted news of the appointment to his Truth Social account: “I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders ("The Border Czar” (sic)), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security.
“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders.
“Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin. Congratulations to Tom. I have no doubt he will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job.”
Mr Homan has said that Mr Trump will use the US Army to round up and deport illegal migrants in an unparalleled crackdown.
Mr Homan, who led immigration enforcement during part of Mr Trump’s first administration, appeared at the Republican National Convention in July, telling supporters: “I got a message to the millions of illegal immigrants that Joe Biden’s released in our country: You better start packing now.”
Mr Homan said he would revive Mr Trump’s “remain in Mexico” program, in which Mexicans would have their asylum applications processed on their side of the border.
In an interview on 60 Minutes last month, he said: “I hear a lot of people say, ‘The talk of a mass deportation is racist. It’s threatening to the immigrant community,’” he said, while adding it should only ‘be threatening to the illegal immigrant community.’
Mr Trump has vowed to tackle migrant gangs using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the federal government to round up and deport foreigners belonging to enemy countries – as part of a mass deportation drive he named Operation Aurora.
Aurora is the town in Colorado where armed Latinos were seen on video rampaging through an apartment block in footage that sparked fears of illegal immigrants and violent gangs infiltrating America.
Mr Trump also named top immigration adviser Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff for policy in an administration zeroing in on an unprecedented border crackdown, according to reports.
Mr Miller was the architect of Mr Trump’s immigration plan during his first term in office.
Meanwhile, Mr Homan appeared on Fox News and declared he didn’t care what people thought of the president-elect’s hard line policy on immigration.
“Frankly, I don’t care what people think about me, especially in the left,” Mr Homan said when asked how he planned to handle criticism of the border policy.
“When you create a crisis this big, all these other bad things happen. That’s why we have to secure the border.
“I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat or independent for border security is national security. We should all be on the same side on that.
“I’ve been clear. President Trump’s been clear. Public safety threats and national security threats will be the priority because they have to be, they pose the most danger in this country,” he said.
Mr Homan had earlier insisted that ICE would carry out the mass scale deportations in a “humane manner”.
This is Mr Homan’s second time coming out of retirement for Mr Trump, after having planned to retire in 2017 having worked under Barack Obama.
The 30-year veteran of immigration enforcement kicked off his law enforcement career as a police officer in West Carthage, New York, before moving on to the Border Patrol, the defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service and then ICE.
Mr Homan is also listed as a contributor to the controversial Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” a blueprint of that organisation’s vision of a conservative government.
UN AMBASSADOR
Mr Trump has been announcing a handful of policy staffers, nominating House GOP Conference chair Elise Stefanik as Ambassador to the United Nations.
Stefanik, 40, has little foreign policy experience but she does have a reputation as a leading champion of Israel, having repeatedly criticised the UN for its reproach of the country’s military response to last year’s attacks by Hamas, The Hill notes.
In September, she accused the UN of being infected by “anti-Semitic rot.”
EPA ADMINISTRATOR
Former New York Representative Lee Zeldin has been appointed to serve as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, an organisation that
“I am deeply honoured to have been asked by President Trump to serve in his Cabinet,” Mr Zeldin said in a statement to The New York Post.
When he was last president, Mr Trump made changes to more than 100 environmental rules and vowed to only leave a “little bit of the EPA” left “because you can’t destroy business”, The Guardian notes.
“As EPA Administrator, we will restore American energy dominance, revitalise our auto industry to bring back American jobs, make the United States the global leader of Artificial Intelligence advancement, and slash the red tape holding back American workers from upward economic mobility, Mr Zeldin said of his new appointment.
SECURITY ADVISER
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Trump has also asked Representative Mike Waltz, who served in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa, to be his White House national security adviser.
The job includes co-ordinating among all the top national security agencies, briefing the president and executing his policies.
‘ICE MAIDEN’ APPOINTED WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF
Donald Trump’s first appointee was his campaign manager, who became the first woman to serve as the White House chief of staff.
The president-elect confirmed he had chosen Susie Wiles, dubbed the ‘Ice Maiden’ by some, to take charge after she helped him “achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history”.
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected,” he said of the 67-year-old grandmother from New Jersey in a statement.
“Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well deserved honour to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”
JD Vance said Ms Wiles’ appointment was “great news”.
In a post on Twitter, he added: “Susie was a huge asset to President Trump on the campaign and will be a huge asset in the White House. She’s also just a really good person. Onward!”.
Mr Trump’s high-profile transition team also includes Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, who led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, as well as Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr., Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and Vice President-elect JD Vance. According to the New York Post, Mr Trump is tipped to make his own decisions about the high profile positions over following the recommendations of others. He has previously claimed the latter resulted in having people on his team who resisted or defied his orders.
Mr Trump has already indicated that billionaire Elon Musk and controversial politician Robert F. Kennedy Jnr. will have important advisory roles on his team.
Billionaire founder of Key Square Capital Management and leading Trump fundraiser Scott Bessent appears to be positioning himself a candidate for Treasury Secretary.
However, The Financial Times quoted a well place source as saying Mr Bessent is “measuring the drapes prematurely”.
When asked he would consider joining the cabinet by CNBC on Wednesday, Mr Bessent responded: “I’m going to do whatever President Trump asks.”
Three names are also believed to be in the hat for the Attorney-General role, including former acting Attorney-General Matthew Whitaker, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt.
This will be a particularly important appointment, as the Post reported it would “pave the way for the dismissal of two federal criminal cases against him and potentially defend him against criminal cases in New York and Georgia”.
Senators Marco Rubio and Bill Hagerty are understood to be frontrunners for the Secretary of State position, while former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf also could return to the same job.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy are being reported as favourites of Mr Trump and up for the Secretary of Energy/Interior roles.
Originally published as Donald Trump Jr joining venture capital firm instead of father’s administration
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