Trump Strengthens His Cabinet with Hardline Advocates

Loyal, anti-immigration, and staunch defenders of Israel. These are the common traits of all those chosen so far by Donald Trump to be part of his cabinet. Hardliners among the hardliners, some by vocation and others by necessity of the script.

As proof that he will not hesitate to do whatever is necessary, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem boasted in her biography of having shot her fourteen-month-old puppy for being unmanageable. This is the woman he will put in charge of all domestic policy as Secretary of Homeland Security, on which border security depends.

The nearly 2,000 kilometers separating Sioux Falls (South Dakota) from El Paso (Texas) have not prevented her from becoming one of Trump's main voices during the campaign in denouncing the "invasion" of Mexicans the country is suffering. According to her, the United States is a country "at war" with drug cartels, where immigrants "are changing the demographics."

Her goal will be to end what she describes as an "open borders" policy. She lacks experience in national affairs, beyond what she has acquired as governor of the fifth least populated state in the country, which is also one of the poorest, with almost 60% Anglo-Saxon population, among whom German is still spoken, thanks to the high number of Mennonites and Lutherans who arrived in the 19th century to inhabit its prairies.

However, she has been one of Trump's staunchest defenders. She aligned with him as early as September 2023, ahead of the primaries in the Iowa caucuses. Everyone there bet on her as a future vice president, but it was not yet time to be so tough and provincial. The general elections had to be won, and now her reward comes.

Trump has also confirmed former Congressman Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor. Another hardliner among the hardliners, who worked at the Pentagon and was a counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney. Those would be the moderate times, in the current context, because this Green Beret who served in Afghanistan has also become a staunch advocate of closing the borders, not only to immigrants entering through Mexico but also to goods coming from China and even to Afghan refugees, whom he has asked to revoke their temporary status, in addition to confronting the threat Iran may pose to Israel.

If there is one thing he agrees on with Florida Senator Marco Rubio, whom U.S. media speculate as the next Secretary of State, it is in confronting the Asian giant to prevent its military leadership. While the president-elect confirmed some key appointments on his Truth Social account, such as Waltz and Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, Rubio's name remained in the air, pending his will. Huckabee has been a staunch critic of the anti-nuclear deal with Iran and a great advocate of the advancement of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, to the point of leading tours of Christian evangelicals to Israel to demonstrate the virtues of this democracy in a land of savages.

In all this, they agree with the Florida senator, who in 2016 faced Trump in the party primaries but ended up becoming one of his unofficial advisors on foreign policy for Latin America. He has given voice to the hardline policy against the regimes of Venezuela and Cuba, his personal black beasts as the son of anti-Castro exiles. Over time, he has distanced himself from his affinity with the traditional hawks of the Republican Party to blend in with the MAGA movement, which has not celebrated his rapprochement with the president and even less his possible appointment as head of U.S. diplomacy.

The only thing that more radical environment saw with good eyes was the possibility that his Senate vacancy would be filled by Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law, who was a Fox presenter and did an efficient job organizing the conservative party's convention as chair of the Republican National Committee, for which she was appointed in March when Trump won the primaries. Her arrival in the Senate is a possibility suggested by Senator Katie Britt, who reassured State Department officials, uneasy with Richard Grenell's militaristic alternative.

Another character known for his anti-immigrant sentiments, a hardliner with China, and a staunch defender of Israel returning to the White House with Trump is his advisor Stephen Miller, who in the second term is believed to be deputy to his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and therefore the closest man to the president in his government decisions.