Donald Trump’s Cabinet, much like that of any other President in the history of the United States, is made up of a wide range of people who are selected to lead various departments and then advise the President accordingly on what action to take regarding concerns the specific questions concerning them.
Since becoming president, Trump’s cabinet has taken many different forms, with some members being fired and resigning as well as others being hired to replace them. As of February 2019, these are the current members of Donald Trump’s cabinet.
Current members of Donald Trump’s cabinet
1. Mike Pence – Vice President
Mike Pence took office with President Trump on January 20, 2017, as the 48th Vice President of the United States. Prior to taking office, he served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2003 and then 50th Governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017. He attended and graduated from Hanover College before earning a degree from Indiana University Robert H McKinney School of Law. He has previously worked as a radio and television show host.
2. Mike Pompeo – Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo was appointed Secretary of State on March 13, 2018. He was later confirmed on April 23 by the Senate. He was appointed to replace Rex Tillerson.
Prior to his new role, Pompeo was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, from January 23, 2017 until he became Secretary of State. One of his most significant accomplishments as director of the CIA was leading negotiations for the 2018 North Korea-US summit.
For his education, he attended Los Amigos High before enrolling in the United States Military Academy at West Point and later serving in the United States Army. He obtained a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
3. Steven Mnuchin – Secretary of the Treasury
Steven Mnuchin was appointed United States Secretary of the Treasury by Trump on November 30, 2016, and was confirmed on February 13, 2017. Prior to his appointment, Mnuchin worked with Goldman Sachs and Hedge funds, while also running his own business. More so, he had a career as a film producer, serving as executive producer of films of The Lego Batman Movie Fist Fight, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and Wonder Woman.
4. Patrick M. Shanahan – Secretary of Defense
Patrick M. Shanahan became acting US Secretary of Defense in 2019 after retired General James N. Mattis resigned. Between 2017 and 2019, he served as Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Prior to becoming a member of the United States Department of Defense in 2017, Shanahan was a member of Boeing’s Executive Council. He holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington and a Master of Science (MS) in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
5. Matthew Whitaker – Attorney General
From the moment Donald Trump began slamming Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Muller investigation, it was clear his days as attorney general were numbered. It finally ended after the 2018 midterm, when he was removed from office by the president.
In his place, Trump has brought in Matthew Whitaker, who sits on an interim basis. He served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa from 2004 to 2009. From that time he engaged in private practice.
6. David Bernhardt – Interior Secretary
David Bernhardt is a lawyer and lobbyist who has worked since 2001 for the US Department of the Interior. From 2006 to 2009, he was counsel for the ministry. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on April 28, 2017 to become the United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior, under then-Secretary Ryan Zinke. After Zinke resigned in 2019, Bernhardt became acting interior secretary.
7. Sonny Perdue – Secretary of Agriculture
Sonny Perdue was nominated by President Trump on January 18, 2017, to serve as Secretary of Agriculture. He was later confirmed to the post on April 24 of the same year.
Perdue is a veterinarian, businessman, and politician who served as a member of Georgia’s 18th District Senate from 1991 to 2002. Between 2003 and 2011, he served as Georgia’s 81st governor. Before joining politics, he served in the US Air Force and attained the rank of captain.
8. Wilbur Ross – Secretary of Commerce
Wilbur Ross is an American investor and billionaire. He was appointed by the US President as Secretary of Commerce on November 30, 2016, and took office on February 28, 2017.
Prior to his appointment, Ross was a banker who made a name for himself by successfully restructuring failed companies in the steel, coal and telecommunications sectors, among others. Ross made it clear that he was going to support Trump to get the United States out of bad trade deals. He has since been an advocate for tariffs on China.
9. Alex Acosta – Secretary of Labor
Alex Acosta was appointed by Trump on February 16, 2017, and took office on April 28, 2017. Prior to his new position, he served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Department of Justice and also held various positions in the administration of President George W. Bush.
Acosta is Donald Trump’s only Hispanic cabinet. He was named as the successor to former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but his name was later removed from the list after his role in approving a controversial plea deal for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, which gave him immunity from federal criminal charges for abusing sex crimes.
10. Alex Azar – Health and Human Services Secretary
Following the departure of Tom Price in September 2017, Trump nominated Alex Azar as Secretary of Health and Human Services on November 13, 2017, and he was confirmed on January 31, 2017. Under President George W. Bush, Azar has served as assistant secretary of health and human services from 2005 to 2007. Between 2012 and 2017, he served as president of the pharmaceutical company’s U.S. division; Eli Lilly and Company.
11. Ben Carson – Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
The former neurosurgeon was announced as a member of Donald Trump’s cabinet as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development on December 5, 2016. He took office on March 2, 2017. Prior to his appointment, Ben Carson had never held any political post, although he frequently commented on political issues and sought to land the Republican presidential nomination ahead of the 2016 US presidential election. He later abandoned his ambition to support Trump’s candidacy.
12. Elaine Chao – Transportation Secretary
Elaine Chao was Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. On November 29, 2016, she was nominated by Trump to become Secretary of Transportation and was confirmed on January 31, 2017. She is the first American to Chinese descent in U.S. history as well as the first Asian American named to the President’s Cabinet.
13. Rick Perry – Energy Secretary
While seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2011, Rick Perry promised he would ax the Department of Energy if he ever made it to the White House. On December 14, 2016, however, he was appointed by Trump to lead the same department and took office on March 2, 2017.
Perry was a member of the Texas House of Representative for the 64th District from 1985 to 1991 and then in 1999 he became the 39th Lieutenant Governor of Texas until 2000. He served as the 47th Governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015.
14. Betsy DeVos – Education Secretary
School choice campaigner Betsy DeV was narrowly confirmed as Education Secretary on February 7, 2017, after a highly partisan screening. Prior to this position, DeVos, daughter of Edgar Prince, founder of Prince Corporation, and brother of Erik Prince, a former US Navy SEAL officer who founded the private military company Blackwater USA, held various positions within the Republican Party., including the Republican National Committee for Michigan and Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.
15. Robert Wilkie – Secretary of Veterans Affairs
David Shulkin was the first U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs in Donald Trump’s cabinet, however, was fired on March 28, 2018, and replaced by Robert Wilkie, who was previously the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and readiness under the same administration, serving from November 30, 2017, to July 30, 2018.
16. Kirstjen Nielsen – Secretary of Homeland Security
Of all the positions in Donald Trump’s cabinet, the Department of Homeland Security has seen the most change. When Trump took office, he appointed John F. Kelly who served from January 2, 2017, to July 31, 2017, before being replaced by Elaine Duke, who served until December 6, 2017.
Kirstjen Nielsen was announced Homeland Security Secretary on October 12, 2017, and took office on December 6, 2017. Under Donald Trump, she previously served as the White House’s Principal Deputy Director and then Chief of Staff to John F. Kelly when he was Homeland Security Secretary..
Cabinet-level officials
17. Mick Mulvaney – Chief of Staff
Under the Donald Trump administration, Reince Priebus served as the first White House Chief of Staff from January 20, 2017 until July 31, 2017, when he resigned and was replaced by John F. Kelly.
After Kelly, Mick Mulvaney became the actor Chief of Staff on January 2, 2019. He is also Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). From November 2017 to December 2018, he served as Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
18. Robert Lighthizer – US Trade Representative
Robert Lighthizer served under the Ronald Reagan administration as the 1st Deputy United States Trade Representative, from 1983 to 1985. He was appointed by Donald Trump on January 3, 2017 and took office on May 15, 2017.
19. Dan Coats – Director of National Intelligence
Dan Coats was a member of the United States House of Representatives for Indiana’s 4th district from 1981 to 1989. He later served as United States Ambassador to Germany during the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005. He is became a U.S. senator from Indiana from 2011 to 2017.
20. Gina Haspel – Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
On March 13, 2018, Trump announced Gina Haspel, who was the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, as the new director of the CIA. She took over the office that was vacated by Mike Pompeo who was named head of the State Department. Haspel took office on May 21, 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the position.
21. Andrew R. Wheeler – Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
Andrew R. Wheeler was first appointed by Donald Trump as deputy administrator of the agency in October 2017. He was reappointed again in January 2018 before being confirmed in the position in April 2018. Following the resignation of its boss Scott Pruitt, the lawyer and former coal lobbyist became acting administrator.
22. Linda McMahon – Administrator of the Small Business Administration
Linda McMahon was nominated on December 7, 2016, and she took office on February 14, 2017. She was a former professional wrestling executive before leaving World Wrestling Entertainment to run for a U.S. Senate seat from Connecticut under the Party republican. She lost, however, to Richard Blumenthal of the Democratic Party.