Tracking Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and administration (original) (raw)

The latest: President-elect Donald Trump has announced Wall Street banker Howard Lutnick as his commerce secretary and Linda McMahon, co-chair of his transition team, as his education secretary.

Donald Trump and his team are rapidly announcing key Cabinet and White House roles. Loyalty to the president is a top consideration, and in some instances, they are also taking an unorthodox approach to filling jobs, picking people with controversial backgrounds and little relevant policy experience.

Here are the people Trump has named to his incoming administration or the top contenders for unfilled roles based on our reporting. We will continue to update this article.

Vice president

J.D. Vance (United States Congress/United States Congress)

JD Vance

NAMED

Does not require Senate confirmation

The vice president is second-in-command, and unlike other Cabinet positions, it’s announced before the presidential election. Trump picked his VP during the Republican National Convention in July.

📝 About Trump’s pick

JD Vance, a one-term senator from Ohio, is one of the youngest vice presidents in history and a rising star in the Republican Party. A former Trump critic who wrote a best-selling memoir on his upbringing in rural Appalachia, he’s worked to more closely align himself with Trump over the years and is now one of his staunchest defenders.

Secretary of state

Marco Rubio (United States Senate/United States Senate)

Marco Rubio

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The secretary of state is America’s lead diplomat and will be the face of Trump’s foreign policy abroad. They are charged with being the principal interlocutor as the president reshapes alliances such as NATO, presses on Iran and seeks to encircle China. This secretary of state will inherit a far more dangerous world stage than existed in Trump’s first term, with raging conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. Trump has vowed to resolve both in his first days in office.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Marco Rubio is a Florida senator and hawk on China and Venezuela and has previously supported robust aid for Ukraine and advocates a robust U.S. presence in the world. Rubio ran for president in 2016 and clashed bitterly with Trump in the Republican primary, though they repaired their relationship and Trump considered Rubio as a potential running mate earlier this year.

Secretary of the treasury

Requires Senate confirmation

The head of the Treasury Department will play a key role in setting the economic agenda of the second Trump administration. The treasury secretary is the nation’s chief economic steward, responsible for helping set policy on taxation, trade, debt and financial regulation, while typically taking a leading role in negotiations over all economic policy with Congress.

📝 Potential picks

Scott Bessent, who had virtually no role during the first Trump administration, emerged as a key adviser to Trump over the course of the 2024 presidential campaign. Bessent is a longtime hedge fund executive who made a fortune working for George Soros, the billionaire investor hated by much of the right, and has also taught economics at Yale. Trump has praised him as “central casting.”

Secretary of defense

Pete Hegseth (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)

Pete Hegseth

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The defense secretary is the senior executive in the Defense Department, overseeing the U.S. military and Pentagon bureaucracy, and reporting directly to the president.

📝 About Trump’s pick

A combat veteran and Fox News host, Pete Hegseth has called for a more muscular approach to running the U.S. military. He was not widely expected to fill the role and is likely to undergo a tough Senate confirmation hearing. Hegseth, who served as an Army infantryman in Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of the MinnesotaNational Guard, has criticized the Biden administration’s approach to national security as weak. He has also written a book describing the military’s leadership as more focused on diversity than confronting global threats.

Attorney general

Matt Gaetz (United States House of Representatives/United States House of Representatives)

Matt Gaetz

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The attorney general heads the nation’s massive federal law enforcement agency, with more than 100,000 employees. The FBI is its principal investigative arm; other agencies that fall under the Justice Department include the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Prisons, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The department leads federal investigations and prosecutions, including criminal, civil and civil rights cases. Trump and his allies have vowed to reduce the agency’s independence from the White House and use its investigative powers to go after his political enemies.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Matt Gaetz, a Florida representative, has been named to one of the most consequential positions in the Trump administration. Gaetz, who has served in Congress since 2017, has been a loyal and outspoken supporter of Trump, defending the former president after a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to overturn the election results on Jan. 6, 2021. Upon being named to the position Gaetz resigned from Congress. The House Ethics Committee was set to vote this week on releasing a report about Gaetz, according to four people familiar with the matter. Gaetz is a divisive figure even within his party and could face a tough confirmation battle.

Secretary of interior

Doug Burgum (Office of the Governor, State of North Dakota/Office of the Governor, State of North Dakota)

Doug Burgum

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The Department of the Interior oversees hundreds of millions of acres of federal land and other natural resources that will be key to the Trump administration’s plans to boost U.S. oil and gas production.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Doug Burgum is governor of North Dakota and a staunch advocate of expanded fossil fuel production. Trump has also named Burgum to a newly created “energy czar” position (for more detail, jump to Other top administrative roles). He’s also a close ally of oil industry tycoon Harold Hamm. The two have been key advisers to Trump since Burgum dropped his own presidential bid and endorsed Trump. After Trump asked oil industry executives to help steer $1 billon toward his campaign, Burgum talked extensively with oil donors and CEOs, and he helped lead the campaign’s development of its energy policy. But unlike many others in Trump’s orbit, Burgum believes human activity is causing climate change. He has pushed plans in his state to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector, charting a path favored by oil and gas companies that relies on nascent technologies to lower the carbon footprint of energy production. Many climate experts, thought, warn it is not possible to meet crucial targets for slowing warming without cutting production. Burgum supports a vast expansion of oil and gas production.

Secretary of commerce

Howard Lutnick (Johnnie Izquierdo for The Washington Post)

Howard Lutnick

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The department oversees a broad array of federal policies, including on semiconductors, cybersecurity and patents. If confirmed, Lutnick would have considerable influence over the trajectory of the U.S. economy over the next four years, responsible for executing some of the promises central to Trump’s 2024 campaign.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Howard Lutnick serves as co-chair of Trump’s transition team and is the CEO and chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment firm. As commerce secretary, Lutnick would play a leading role in implementing the president’s economic and trade agenda.

Secretary of labor

Requires Senate confirmation

The labor secretary oversees pressing issues impacting American workers and employers, ranging from artificial intelligence and workplace safety to child labor and overtime regulations. Trump’s pick is expected to enact a pro-business agenda that unwinds labor-friendly policies promulgated by the Biden administration.

📝 Potential picks

Andrew Puzder is a former chief executive of the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s and was Trump’s early nominee for the position in his first administration. Puzder withdrew his nomination in 2017, despite widespread support from the business community. Republican senators at the time expressed deep concern amid revelations that Puzder had hired an undocumented housekeeper and faced abuse allegations from his ex-wife. He has opposed minimum-wage increases and expanding overtime coverage.

Patrick Pizzella, who is a favorite among conservative employment policymakers, served as deputy secretary of labor during the first Trump administration and has a long record of pushing for pro-business interests from within agency. Pizzella is currently the mayor of Pinehurst, N.C., a storied golf resort town that hosts U.S. Opens.

Johnny C. Taylor Jr. is the chief executive of the Society for Human Resource Management, one of the world’s largest human resource associations, and served as chair of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities during Trump’s first term.

Secretary of health and human services

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Joel Angel Juarez/The Washington Post)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The Department of Health and Human Services, with a nearly $2 trillion budget, oversees health insurance programs such as the Affordable Care Act, which Trump has pledged to run even though he has said he would prefer to overhaul it. HHS and its subagencies are also responsible for administering Medicare and Medicaid; leading the federal response to public health emergencies and outbreaks such as the coronavirus pandemic; and approving medical treatments, vaccines and devices, among numerous other functions. Regulations linked to abortion medication, drug-price negotiations and protections for transgender patients are among the flash points expected under Trump.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a former Democrat and independent 2024 presidential candidate, whom Trump has named to run the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy threw his support to Trump in August. His “Make America Healthy Again” agenda targets chronic disease and childhood illness; he also founded a prominent anti-vaccine group and has a history of promoting debunked claims about vaccine safety. He recently said the Trump administration would push to get fluoride out of drinking water. Republican advisers have cautioned that Kennedy could face a difficult path to winning Senate confirmation to lead HHS, given his past statements on drugs and vaccines that are not based in science, and his many personal entanglements — a reality that Kennedy and his advisers have acknowledged.

Secretary of housing and urban development

Requires Senate confirmation

The secretary of housing and urban development helps direct and steer policies around fair housing, which can include promoting homeownership, protecting the supply of affordable rental units and eliminating discriminatory housing practices. Housing issues played a major role in the 2024 presidential election, and Trump’s pick to run HUD will be key to forwarding the administration’s goals, especially around affordability.

📝 Potential picks

Ben Carson could return for a second stint as HUD secretary, according to housing experts and others close to the incoming administration. The retired neurosurgeon had no government experience when he was confirmed to lead the department during Trump’s first term. He has since stayed in Trump’s good graces and now runs the American Cornerstone Institute, which he founded to promote conservative ideas.

Brian Montgomery served as deputy HUD secretary under the first Trump administration and also led the Federal Housing Administration under President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama and Trump. He is also a founding partner of Gate House Strategies, an advisory firm for financial services, mortgage lending and the housing sector.

Dana Wade also served as FHA commissioner during Trump’s first term. She also worked at the White House Office of Management and Budget in 2018 and 2019, where she led budget oversight of agencies focused on financial services, including HUD.

Secretary of transportation

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - NOVEMBER 16: Rachel Campos-Duffy and Sean Duffy speak onstage during the 2023 FOX Nation Patriot Awards at The Grand Ole Opry on November 16, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images) (Terry Wyatt/Getty Images)

Sean P. Duffy

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The secretary oversees the funding of roads, bridges and rail lines, as well as the running of the aviation system. The post has typically been low-profile, but the current secretary, Pete Buttigieg, has elevated the role, as did the passage of a huge infrastructure funding law early in Biden’s term.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Sean P. Duffy, a former congressman and Fox Business host, was an early reality television star in the 1990s, appearing on MTV’s “The Real World: Boston,” before entering politics. He served as district attorney of Ashland County, Wisconsin, before being elected to Congress as part of the Republican wave in 2010. With responsibility for vehicle safety and space launches, the transportation secretary will be a key player in the relationship between the government and tech billionaire Elon Musk, a close ally of Trump who has been tasked with leading a panel to slash the federal government.

Secretary of energy

DENVER, CO - JANUARY 17: Liberty Oilfield Services CEO Chris Wright at Liberty January 17, 2018. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post/Getty Images) (Andy Cross/Denver Post/Getty Images)

Chris Wright

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The Energy Department oversees energy production in the United States and will be key to the Trump administration’s plans to boost oil and gas output.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Chris Wright is the head of fracking company Liberty Energy and a skeptic of mainstream science on global warming who argues the “climate crisis” is a myth. The oil executive runs a foundation focused on dispelling the conventional wisdom on climate change and promoting expanded fossil fuel production as a solution to many of the world’s problems, an approach others say would drive dangerous levels of warming. Wright will also serve on Trump’s newly created National Energy Council.

Secretary of education

Linda McMahon (Susan Walsh/Susan Walsh)

Linda McMahon

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The secretary of education, the administration’s leading voice on schools, typically has a K-12 background, though much of the job deals with higher education, including administering the $1.6 trillion student loan program. The secretary is responsible for enforcing civil rights laws that bar discrimination on the basis of race, sex and other factors in schools. And it runs grant programs that aid high-poverty K-12 schools and subsidize the cost of educating students with disabilities. Trump paid scant attention to education issues during his first term, but campaigned vigorously on the issue this year.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Linda McMahon serves as co-chair of Trump’s transition team, is a major GOP donor and retired World Wrestling Entertainment executive. The role would be McMahon’s second round of service under Trump. During the first two years of his first term, McMahon led the Small Business Administration. In recent years, she has chaired the board of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank that sought to lay the groundwork for a second Trump term. McMahon is not particularly known for work on education policy or practice, though she served for two years on the Connecticut state board of education.

Secretary of veterans affairs

Douglas A. Collins (John Bazemore/AP)

Douglas A. Collins

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The Department of Veterans Affairs, the government’s second-largest agency with more than 450,000 employees, oversees health care, disability and other benefits as well as burial services for millions of former service members. Its health-care system is the largest government-run health system in the country. Donald Trump and his allies have pledged to increase the agency’s reliance on private medical care for veterans and have long been critical of the government-run system.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Douglas A. Collins, an Iraq War veteran who is now a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Command, has been tapped to run the Department of Veterans Affairs. Collins served in the House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021 and resigned to run an unsuccessful campaign for the Senate. He emerged as a strong loyalist during Trump’s first impeachment inquiry, when he was the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. Collins also represented Trump in his efforts to contest the 2020 election results in Georgia. During the new Trump administration, Veterans Affairs is likely to focus heavily on increasing veterans’ options to seek health care from private doctors, a costly policy that Denis McDonough, the current secretary, has tried to curtail.

Secretary of homeland security

Kristi Noem (Office of the Governor, South Dakota/Office of the Governor, South Dakota)

Kristi L. Noem

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The homeland security secretary oversees a sprawling federal bureaucracy with a $60 billion budget and more than 230,000 employees. This role is key to Trump’s domestic policy agenda, especially given his pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and his promise of a harsh crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Kristi L. Noem has served as the governor of South Dakota since 2019 and was an active supporter of Trump on the 2024 campaign trail. She previously served as the state’s at-large member of the U.S. House and in the state legislature. Noem brings less relevant experience to the Cabinet job than recent homeland security secretaries, including those who served during Trump’s first term.

CIA director

John Ratcliffe (Office of the Director of Intelligence/Office of the Director of Intelligence)

John Ratcliffe

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The director of the CIA manages the government’s premier agency tasked with the acquisition of foreign intelligence through human sources, analyzing all sources of intelligence and conducting covert action.

📝 About Trump’s pick

John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman and federal prosecutor, has been named as the new director of the CIA. He served as director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021 in the first Trump administration. He is viewed as a stalwart Trump loyalist.

White House chief of staff

Susie Wiles (Jabin Botsford/TWP)

Susie Wiles

NAMED

Does not require Senate confirmation

The chief of staff is often considered the president’s gatekeeper, shaping his schedule and presidential access to him. They serve as a close adviser and also oversee White House staffing.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Susie Wiles, was Trump’s campaign manager, leading his operation since 2021, and played a big role in charting his comeback. She will be the first female White House chief of staff.

Council of Economic Advisers chair

Requires Senate confirmation

The White House Council of Economic Advisers is primarily responsible for providing analyses about the effect of administration proposals on the economy. The council, led by a chair, is traditionally viewed as a safeguard against ideas from other parts of the administration that could prove harmful to the economy.

📝 Potential picks

Casey Mulligan is a University of Chicago economist who served in Trump’s first administration. He is a conservative and strident critic of President Joe Biden’s administration and has been floated by some officials as a potential choice for the post. He also published a book in 2020 about the “untold successes and failures” of Trump’s first administration.

Kevin Hassett, who was chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’s first term, may be returning to the position in the second administration as well. An economist most recently at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Hassett also served as an outside adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Environmental Protection Agency administrator

Lee Zeldin (Eric Connolly/United States House of Representatives)

Lee Zeldin

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The EPA chief will play a central role in the Trump administration’s rollbacks of the Biden administration’s environmental rules. Under Trump, the agency is expected to weaken or scrap dozens of protections for the nation’s air, water and climate, including strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and power plants. The EPA boss will oversee a workforce of nearly 15,000 employees at the headquarters in Washington as well as 10 regional offices.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman who ran a failed campaign for New York governor in 2022, is a lawyer by trade and does not have an extensive background in environmental issues. During his time in Congress, he sought to protect the Long Island Sound from dredge sediment dumping. But he also voted to end Clean Air Act standards and has a 14 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group, for his votes against many environmental bills, with the notable exception involving a measure to protect ecologically and culturally significant areas. He has been a strong defender of Trump, especially during his first impeachment and after he lost the 2020 election.

Director of national intelligence

Tulsi Gabbard (Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)

Tulsi Gabbard

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The director of national intelligence serves as the head of the U.S. intelligence community, acting as principal adviser to the president on intelligence matters related to national security and overseeing a budget of $76.5 billion.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Tulsi Gabbard is a former Democratic representative from Hawaii who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and later became a Republican. Gabbard, a military veteran, is a critic of foreign wars and helped Trump throughout the campaign – even preparing him for the debate. Trump indicated in his announcement that he thinks Gabbard’s history as a Democrat could help her win Senate confirmation, but she is still likely to face tough questions from members of both parties over her unorthodox foreign policy views.

Ambassador to the United Nations

Elise Stefanik (United States House of Representatives/United States House of Representatives)

Elise Stefanik

NAMED

Requires Senate confirmation

The U.N. ambassador is the United States’ America’s representative at the United Nations, and meets regularly with the representatives of other countries to advance U.S. priorities and relationships on the world stage.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Elise Stefanik, a congresswoman from New York, is the fourth most senior Republican in the House, as chair of the House Republican Conference, and has been an outspoken defender of Trump in recent years. Stefanik has been deeply hostile to the United Nations, referring to it in recent months as “corrupt, defunct, and paralyzed”; “a cesspool of antisemitism” and as a entity that “rewards barbaric Iranian terrorists while punishing Israel for defending itself,”; and she has called U.N. Secretary -General António Guterres “an absolute disgrace.” Stefanik recently proposed withdrawing U.S. membership from the United Nations, should the body resist certain changes reform sought by the Trump administration.

Border czar

Tom Homan (Lev Radin/Sipa USA via AP)

Tom Homan

NAMED

Does not require Senate confirmation

This is a new senior official position in the Trump White House that is intended to help oversee the U.S. border and the deportation of undocumented immigrants.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Tom Homan is a former police officer, Border Patrol agent and special immigration agent investigating fraud and other crimes. Homan has years of experience running deportation operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he served as the agency’s acting director under Trump from January 2017 to June 2018. He won praise for deporting serious criminals under President Barack Obama but faced criticism for separating migrant families under Trump. The Senate never confirmed Homan, and he later became a Fox News analyst.

Energy czar

Doug Burgum (Office of the Governor, State of North Dakota/Office of the Governor, State of North Dakota)

Doug Burgum

NAMED

Does not require Senate confirmation

This is a new role in the Trump administration that is intended to help repeal climate rules, scrap clean-energy subsidies and boost oil and gas production on millions of acres of federal lands nationwide.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Doug Burgum is governor of North Dakota and also Trump’s pick to lead the Department of the Interior. Trump has said that, as “energy czar,” Burgum would lead a new National Energy Council comprising all agencies and departments involved in the production, regulation and transportation of energy in the United States. In this role, Burgum could address a number of Trump’s priorities on energy, including plans to revoke limits on planet-warming pollution from cars and power plants, end a “pause” on new exports of liquefied natural gas, and abdicate America’s leadership role in global climate negotiations. Two Democratic presidents, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, also had a top White House climate and energy adviser that did not serve in the Cabinet.

National security adviser

Michael Waltz (United States Congress/United States Congress)

Michael Waltz

NAMED

Does not require Senate confirmation

The role and power of the national security adviser vary from president to president. Officially, the adviser coordinates among the members of the National Security Council — the secretaries of state and defense, and the heads of other security agencies — to formulate options for the president on security issues and strategies, and sees that presidential decisions are carried out. But the adviser, based just steps from the Oval Office, has often been a powerful influence on those decisions.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Michael Waltz, a Florida congressman and retired Special Forces officer, has been tapped to be Trump’s national security adviser. Waltz advised George W. Bush’s administration on defense at the Pentagon and the White House, and in Congress, he is known as a China hawk. He serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Intelligence Committee.

White House press secretary

Karoline Leavitt (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Karoline Leavitt

NAMED

Does not require Senate confirmation

The press secretary is the president’s most visible spokesperson. Traditionally, they hold regular briefings for reporters — which grew especially combative and less frequent in Trump’s first term. Past press secretaries for Trump include Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now the governor of Arkansas, and Sean Spicer, who famously began his tenure by insisting, inaccurately, that Trump drew the largest-ever audience to witness a presidential inauguration.

📝 About Trump’s pick

Karoline Leavitt was a national press secretary for Trump’s 2024 campaign who handled inquiries from reporters and played a highly visible role on TV. An alum of the first Trump administration and a former congressional candidate, she shares Trump’s criticisms of the press. “I have the great pleasure of fighting the fake news media all day, every day,” she said in a warm-up speech at one of Trump’s rallies.

Other senior White House roles

There are a number of senior White House roles, but here are a few of the key positions that will likely play an outsized role in shaping the president’s agenda:

NAMED

James Blair, deputy chief of staff: Blair wasthepolitical director on Trump’s presidential campaign and as a deputy chief of staff will focus on legislative, political and public affairs.

Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staff: Budowich ran Trump’s main super PAC, MAGA Inc., before joining the campaign. He is a trusted lieutenant of Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and will focus on communications and personnel.

Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff: Scavino was a senior adviser on Trump’s presidential campaign and a longtime top social media aide and confidante to Trump.

Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff: Miller was also a senior advisor on Trump’s presidential campaign and is his top immigration adviser and speechwriter. Miller will focus on homeland security.

Steven Cheung, communications director: Cheung was a top communications adviser on Trump’s presidential campaign and will now serve as his communications director in the White House.

William McGinley, White House counsel: McGinley previously served as the White House Cabinet secretary under Trump and as general counsel to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. This role is expected to be central in the incoming president’s plan to expand executive authority.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director

Requires Senate confirmation

The mission of the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director is to protect the public’s health through disease prevention, health promotion, and preparedness. For the first time, the position will require Senate confirmation.

📝 Potential picks

Casey Means is a Stanford-trained physician and entrepreneur who became an adviser to Kennedy. Means has argued that incentives in America’s food and health systems have rewarded private industry and encouraged unhealthy behaviors, and her recent book on causes of chronic disease has been passed around by Trump transition staff.

Surgeon general

Requires Senate confirmation

The role, frequently invoked as America’s doctor, has a large bully pulpit, if limited federal resources. Recent surgeons general have used their perch to warn about the dangers of opioids, social media and loneliness. The surgeon general also oversees the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, a cadre of uniformed medical personnel who help provide care in rural and isolated parts of America.

📝 Potential picks

Joseph Ladapo, the Florida surgeon general is close to with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who battled with Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, but has fans such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Ladapo also has drawn criticism from public health leaders for his skepticism of vaccines and rejection of traditional strategies to fight a measles outbreak in his state.