Trump cuts a swath through DC

Criticism of some of Donald Trump’s appointments to his new administration as “outside the norm” – notably that of 44-year-old Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth to run the US’s biggest department, Defence, with three million employees and a $US850bn ($1.3 trillion) budget – are inevitable. But the US president-elect is doing what his stunning victory entitles him to do in seeking to build a governing team in his own MAGA image. Americans are getting what they voted for.

Mr Hegseth, a veteran of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, may not have what The New York Times huffily described as the “traditional” qualifications to be the US defence secretary. But as Mr Trump said: “Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down.” It applies, hopefully, to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Other appointments so far also are surprising convention, such as Mr Trump’s regular golf buddy Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor and campaign donor, as special envoy to deal with the complexities of the crisis in the Middle East. Likewise gruff, tough-talking former police officer Tom Homan, a strident proponent of separating children from their parents as a means of deterring illegal migration, as border tsar charged with overseeing the mass deportation of the 11 million migrants Mr Trump has pledged to expel. Mr Homan has warned Democrat governors who try to block the mass deportations “to get the hell out of the way”.

But US allies should take heart from the inclusion of senator Marco Rubio, who is expected to fill the key role of secretary of state. As chief international correspondent Cameron Stewart wrote, Senator Rubio is a sensible pick who is a staunch ally of Australia, especially on China, and no isolationist. Senator Rubio believes Australia and the US must work together to head off the global push by China to undermine the West. He is also hostile to Iran and fiercely pro-Israel.

Likewise the tough former Green Beret Mr Trump has appointed to the crucial role of national security adviser, Florida congressman Mike Waltz. A fierce critic of Joe Biden’s ignominious abandonment of Afghanistan, Mr Waltz has dismissed calls for a Gaza ceasefire and argued for Israeli military retaliation against Iran’s oil exports and nuclear facilities. He also backs Mr Trump’s demand that US allies do more to “invest in their own security” and cease expecting US taxpayers to go on paying the bill. Complementing them, unusually, as an ordained Southern Baptist minister in a post normally filled by a member of the Jewish faith, will be former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel.

With forceful pro-Israel, anti-Iran hawks in the key foreign policy roles in the new administration, the Washington landscape confronting Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and our misspeaking ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd could hardly look more different to what it has been under Mr Biden.

Another key player is former New York congressman Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Instead of voicing fears about climate change, Mr Zeldin has pledged to implement Mr Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” mantra. No less important will be the appointment of the world’s richest man, Tesla founder Elon Musk, and Mr Trump’s competitor for the Republican nomination Vivek Ramaswamy, another tech billionaire, to run a new department of government efficiency charged with streamlining bureaucracy and cutting spending – a task described by Mr Trump as “the Manhattan Project of our times”. The president-elect is wasting no time using his mandate to give Americans what they voted for.