On the evening of December 10, the BBC cited NBC reports that "sources close to Mr Trump [were] ... saying that Mr Tillerson is likely to be named next week" and that former UN ambassador John Bolton "will serve as his deputy". On December 12, "The New York Times" reported that he had been chosen. On December 13, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump announced that Tillerson would be his nominee for Secretary of State.
On January 11, 2017, Tillerson's congressional confirmation hearing was held. Tillerson was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 23, 2017, to be Secretary of State when it voted 11-10 to send his nomination to the full Senate. The Senate confirmed Tillerson as Secretary of State on February 1 2017. The Senate voted 56 to 43, with all Republicans in support and 42 Democrats voting against him.
On March 13, 2018, Trump fired Tillerson as Secretary and nominated Director of the CIA Mike Pompeo of the position. His term ended on March 31, 2018.
Tillerson is married to Renda St. Clair. They have four children. He resides in Irving, Texas.
John F. Kelly
John Francis Kelly (born May 11, 1950) is a retired United States Marine Corps General. He was the 28th White House Chief of Staff from July 31, 2017 to January 2, 2019. Kelly was the 5th United States Secretary of Homeland Security, serving from January through July 2017.
He is the former Commander of United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). Kelly last served as the commanding general of the Multi-National Force—West in Iraq from February 2008 to February 2009, and as the commander of Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North in October 2009.
Kelly was born on May 11, 1950 in Boston, Massachusetts, into an Irish Catholic family.
He served for one year as a United States Merchant Marine. Kelly initially enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1970, and was discharged from active duty as a sergeant in 1972.
Kelly received a Master of Science degree in National Security Studies from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in 1984. He also studied at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
On December 7, 2016, it was reported that then-President-elect Donald Trump nominated Kelly to be the fifth United States Secretary of Homeland Security.
On January 20, 2017, Kelly was confirmed as Secretary of Homeland Security by the United States Senate with a vote of 88-11. On that evening he was sworn in by Vice-President Pence.
On July 28 2017, he was appointed to replace Reince Priebus as White House Chief of Staff.
Early into his tenure, media outlets such as "The New York Times", "The Washington Post" and FiveThirtyEight speculated that Kelly would bring moderation and discipline to the White House. In August 2017, early into Kelly's tenure, the "Washington Post" wrote that Kelly had "left no discernible imprint on the White House's philosophy" and that it was unclear if he would bring calm and rigor to the White House.
On December 8, 2018, Trump announced that Kelly would be leaving the position by the end of the year. He left the office on January 2, 2019.
Kelly is married to Karen Hernest. They have three children.
In 2010, Kelly’s 29-year-old son, First Lieutenant Robert Kelly, was killed in action when he stepped on a landmine while leading a platoon of Marines on a patrol in Sangin, Afghanistan. Robert Kelly's death made John Kelly the highest-ranking military officer to lose a son or daughter in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Scott Pruitt
Edward Scott Pruitt (born May 9, 1968) is an American lawyer and Republican politician from the state of Oklahoma. Scott was the 14th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from February 17, 2017 until his resignation on July 6, 2018.
He was the Oklahoma Attorney General serving from 2011 through 2017. Pruitt was a State Senator, representing Tulsa and Wagoner counties from 1998 until 2006.
On December 7, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump selected Pruitt to be his nominee as the next Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. On February 17, 2017, the Senate confirmed Pruitt's nomination, by a vote of 52-46.
While critics, such as Senator Bernie Sanders, described him as a climate change denier, he believes that the climate is changing and human activity is responsible to climate change.
Pruitt was born in 1968 in Danville, Kentucky, but moved to Lexington, Kentucky when he was young. He studied at Georgetown College earning his Bachelor of Arts degree and at the University of Tulsa earning his Juris Doctor degree.
Pruitt represented Tulsa and Wagoner Counties in the Oklahoma Senate from 1998 until 2006. In 2006, Pruitt launched an unsuccessful campaign to receive the Republican nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma.
In 2010 Pruitt was elected Attorney General of Oklahoma. In that role, he supported religious freedom laws and fought against abortion rights, gay marriage, the Affordable Care Act, and environmental regulations as a self-described "leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda".
On September 9, 2014, in "Pruitt v. Burwell", the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma ruled against the IRS.
On December 7, 2014, The New York Times published a front-page story highlighting that Pruitt had used his office's stationary to send form letters written by energy industry lobbyists to federal agencies during public comment.
In April 2015, Pruitt wrote a letter to school superintendents stating that schools can lawfully allow the dissemination of religious literature on campus.
In May 2016, Attorneys General Pruitt and Luther Strange authored an op-ed in the National Review criticizing other state attorneys general for "acting like George III" regarding the ExxonMobil climate change controversy, writing "global warming has inspired one of the major policy debates of our time. That debate is far from settled. Scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind."
On December 7, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump announced his plans to nominate Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The nomination was reviewed during hearings held by the members of the Environment and Public Works Committee. He then passed to the full Senate for a vote. On February 17, 2017, the United States senate confirmed his nomination with a 52-46 vote. He was sworn-in the next day by Vice President Mike Pence.
During his tenure, Pruitt has been accused of corruption for misusing the EPA's money for his personal gain. Many Senators and other politicians called for Pruitt's resignation.
Under fire since his appointment, Pruitt resigned on July 5, 2018, leaving Andrew R. Wheeler as the acting head of the agency.
Pruitt married Marlyn Pruitt in 1992. They have two children.
Linda McMahon
Linda Marie McMahon (née Edwards; born October 4, 1948) is an American professional wrestling magnate and politician. She is the 25th Administrator of the Small Business Administration serving from February 14, 2017 to April 12, 2019. McMahon was active with the WWE (WWF until 2002) from 1980 to 2009. She has been married to Vince McMahon since 1966.
McMahon was born Linda Marie Edwards in New Bern, North Carolina, the daughter of Evelyn and Henry Edwards. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from East Carolina University.
McMahon was active with the WWE from 1980 to 2009. During this time, the company grew from a small regional business in the North East to a large multinational corporation.
As President and later CEO of the company, she created the company's civic programs, "Get REAL" and "Smackdown Your Vote". She occasionally made on-screen appearances, most notably in a wrestling "feud" with her husband which climaxed at WrestleMania X-Seven. McMahon and her husband became wealthy through WWE's success, and the McMahon family name is now synonymous with the professional wrestling industry.