Donald Trump Is Picking His
Cabinet: Here’s a Short List
By THE NEW YORK TIMES UPDATED NOV. 13, 2016

Donald J. Trump’s transition team, which was handed over to Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Friday and includes a host of corporate consultants and lobbyists in addition to independent experts, is moving quickly to assemble leaders of the new administration. Here are some possibilities for the cabinet and other key posts.

White House Chief of Staff
The chief of staff manages the work and personnel of the West Wing, steering the president's agenda and tending to important relationships. The role will take on outsize importance in a White House run by Mr. Trump, who has no experience in policy making and little in the way of connections to key players in Washington.

Reince Priebus Mr. Trump announced Sunday that he had chosen Mr. Priebus, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Stephen K. Bannon The right-wing media mogul and chairman of Mr. Trump’s campaign was also considered, but Mr. Trump instead named him chief strategist and senior counselor in the White House.

Secretary of State
Whether Mr. Trump picks an ideologue or a seasoned foreign policy hand from past Republican administrations, his challenge will be that the State Department is the centerpiece of the post-1945 experiment of alliance-building and globalism, which Mr. Trump said he would dismantle.

John R. Bolton Former United States ambassador to the United Nations under George W. Bush

Bob Corker Senator from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Newt Gingrich Former House speaker

Zalmay Khalilzad Former United States ambassador to Afghanistan

Stanley A. McChrystal Former senior military commander in Afghanistan

Treasury Secretary
The secretary will be responsible for government borrowing in financial markets, assisting in any rewrite of the tax code and overseeing the Internal Revenue Service. The Treasury Department also carries out or lifts financial sanctions against foreign enemies — which are key to President Obama’s Iran deal and rapprochement with Cuba.

Thomas Barrack Jr. Founder, chairman and executive chairman of Colony Capital; private equity and real estate investor

Jeb Hensarling Representative from Texas and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee

Steven Mnuchin Former Goldman Sachs executive and Mr. Trump’s campaign finance chairman

Tim Pawlenty Former Minnesota governor

Defense Secretary
The incoming secretary will shape the fight against the Islamic State while overseeing a military that is struggling to put in place two Obama-era initiatives: integrating women into combat roles and allowing transgender people to serve openly. Both could be rolled back.

Kelly Ayotte Departing senator from New Hampshire and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee

Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn Former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (he would need a waiver from Congress because of a seven-year rule for retired officers)

Stephen J. Hadley National security adviser under George W. Bush

Jon Kyl Former senator from Arizona

Jeff Sessions Senator from Alabama who is a prominent immigration opponent

Attorney General
The nation's top law enforcement official will have the authority for carrying out Mr. Trump's “law and order” platform, including his threat to “jail” Hillary Clinton. The nominee can change how civil rights laws are enforced.

Chris Christie New Jersey governor

Rudolph W. Giuliani Former New York mayor

Jeff Sessions Senator from Alabama

Interior Secretary
The Interior Department manages the nation’s public lands and waters. The next secretary will decide the fate of Obama-era rules that stop public land development; curb the exploration of oil, coal and gas; and promote wind and solar power on public lands.

Jan Brewer Former Arizona governor

Robert E. Grady Gryphon Investors partner

Harold G. Hamm Chief executive of Continental Resources, an oil and gas company

Forrest Lucas President of Lucas Oil Products, which manufactures automotive lubricants, additives and greases

Sarah Palin Former Alaska governor

Agriculture Secretary
The agriculture secretary oversees America's farming industry, inspects food quality and provides income-based food assistance. The department also helps develop international markets for American products, giving the next secretary partial responsibility to carry out Mr. Trump's positions on trade.

Sam Brownback Kansas governor

Chuck Conner Chief executive officer of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives

Sid Miller Texas agricultural commissioner

Sonny Perdue Former Georgia governor

Commerce Secretary
The Commerce Department has been a perennial target for budget cuts, but the secretary oversees a diverse portfolio, including the Census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Chris Christie New Jersey governor

Dan DiMicco Former chief executive of Nucor Corporation, a steel production company

Lewis M. Eisenberg Private equity chief for Granite Capital International Group

Labor Secretary
The Labor Department enforces rules that protect the nation’s workers, distributes benefits to the unemployed and publishes economic data like the monthly jobs report. The new secretary will be in charge of keeping Mr. Trump’s promise to dismantle many Obama-era rules covering the vast work force of federal contractors.

Victoria A. Lipnic Equal Employment Opportunity commissioner and work force policy counsel to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce

Health and Human Services Secretary
The secretary will help Mr. Trump achieve one of his central campaign promises: to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The department approves new drugs, regulates the food supply, operates biomedical research, and runs Medicare and Medicaid, which insure more than 100 million people.

Dr. Ben Carson Former neurosurgeon and 2016 presidential candidate

Mike Huckabee Former Arkansas governor and 2016 presidential candidate

Bobby Jindal Former Louisiana governor who served as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals

Rick Scott Florida governor and former chief executive of a large hospital chain

Energy Secretary
Despite its name, the primary purview of the Energy Department is to protect and manage the nation’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.

James L. Connaughton Chief executive of Nautilus Data Technologies and former environmental adviser to President George W. Bush

Robert E. Grady Gryphon Investors partner

Harold G. Hamm Chief executive of Continental Resources, an oil and gas company

Education Secretary
Mr. Trump has said he wants to drastically shrink the Education Department and shift responsibilities for curriculum research, development and education aid to state and local governments.

Dr. Ben Carson Former neurosurgeon and 2016 presidential candidate

Williamson M. Evers Education expert at the Hoover Institution, a think tank

Secretary of Veterans Affairs
The secretary will face the task of improving the image of a department Mr. Trump has widely criticized. Mr. Trump repeatedly argued that the Obama administration neglected the country's veterans, and he said that improving their care was one of his top priorities.

Jeff Miller Retired chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee

Homeland Security Secretary
The hodgepodge agency, formed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has one key role in the Trump administration: guarding the United States’ borders. If Mr. Trump makes good on his promises of widespread deportations and building walls, this secretary will have to carry them out.

Joe Arpaio Departing sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz.

David A. Clarke Jr. Milwaukee County sheriff

Michael McCaul Representative from Texas and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee

Jeff Sessions Senator from Alabama

E.P.A. Administrator
The Environmental Protection Agency, which issues and oversees environmental regulations, is under threat from the president-elect, who has vowed to dismantle the agency “in almost every form.”

Myron Ebell A director at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a prominent climate change skeptic

Robert E. Grady Gryphon Investors partner who was involved in drafting the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990

Jeffrey R. Holmstead Lawyer with Bracewell L.L.P. and former deputy E.P.A. administrator in the George W. Bush administration

U.S. Trade Representative
The president’s chief trade negotiator will have the odd role of opposing new trade deals, trying to rewrite old ones and bolstering the enforcement of what Mr. Trump sees as unfair trade, especially with China.

Dan DiMicco Former chief executive of Nucor Corporation, a steel production company, and a critic of Chinese trade practices

U.N. Ambassador
Second to the secretary of state, the United States ambassador to the United Nations will be the primary face of America to the world, representing the country’s interests at the Security Council on a host of issues, from Middle East peace to nuclear proliferation.

Kelly Ayotte Departing senator from New Hampshire and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee

Richard Grenell Former spokesman for the United States ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration

C.I.A. Director / Director of National Intelligence
Mr. Trump takes over at a time of diverse and complex threats to American security. The new C.I.A. director will have to decide whether to undo a C.I.A. “modernization” plan put in place this year by Director John O. Brennan, and how to proceed if the president-elect orders a resumption of harsh interrogation tactics — which critics have described as torture — for terrorism suspects.

Michael T. Flynn Former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency

Peter Hoekstra Former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee

Mike Rogers Former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee

Frances Townsend Former homeland security adviser under George W. Bush

National Security Adviser
The national security adviser, although not a member of the cabinet, is a critical gatekeeper for policy proposals from the State Department, the Pentagon and other agencies, a function that takes on more importance given Mr. Trump's lack of experience in elective office.

Michael T. Flynn Former director of the Defense Intelligence