Trump Season 2: 'Casting' his TV Cabinet

As President-elect Donald Trump goes about assembling the Cabinet for his second administration, a pattern has emerged: nominating television personalities for key posts.

The former reality television star of “The Apprentice,” Trump has gone out of his way to tout the television experience for some of his nominees when announcing them through social media posts. “He won nine Daytime Emmy Awards hosting ‘The Dr. Oz Show,’ where he taught millions of Americans how to make healthier lifestyle choices,” Trump said of Dr. Mehmet Oz, his pick to oversee Medicaid and Medicare. That has led former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who headed up Trump’s 2016 transition team, to offer an observation.

"He's casting," Christie said Tuesday during a call set up by the Council on Foreign Relations, the Associated Press reported.

As the makeup of the picks for his new administration attests, Trump prizes nominees who are practiced at making their case to television audiences. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (U.S. ambassador to Israel), former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan (“Border Czar”) and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii (Director of National Intelligence) are regulars on Fox News, the network Trump frequently watches. But they all got their start in government positions.

During his first term, Fox News host Sean Hannity had frequent conversations with Trump, blurring the line between cable news and government.

"For decades, Trump had essentially been a cable-news channel in human form: loud, short of attention span, and addicted to conflict," New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik wrote of Trump's relationship with television news, adding that when he won in 2016, "he and cable had achieved the singularity, a meshing of man and machine into a symbiotic consciousness, the perturbation of each amplifying the other."

Here’s a look at the people Trump has selected for his second administration who both share his ideology and entered the public eye thanks to their television appearances.

Pete Hegseth

When Trump announced he had selected Fox News host Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Defense, he noted that Hegseth “has been a host at FOX News for eight years.” In that role, Hegseth has regularly espoused views that align with Trump’s. Hegseth has no prior governing experience, though he did serve as a reserve officer in the U.S. National Guard and was twice awarded the Bronze Star.

Mehmet Oz

A regular guest on Oprah Winfrey’s television program before going on to host his own show, Oz gained notoriety by dispensing health and wellness advice to viewers. In 2022, he tried to parlay his fame into a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Trump endorsed him, but he ended up losing to Democrat John Fetterman. Trump announced this week he was nominating Oz as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.”

Linda McMahon

The former chief executive of the scandal-plagued professional wrestling empire WWE used to be was featured in its fictitious storylines on television. In 2009, she served for a year on the Connecticut Board of Education. She failed to defeat two incumbent Democrats in separate campaigns for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut, though she served as administrator of the Small Business Administration during Trump's first term. She has also served as the chair of the pro-Trump think tank America First Policy Institute. Trump has nominated her to lead the Department of Education, a branch of government that Trump has vowed to shutter.

Sean Duffy

Duffy rose to prominence on MTV reality shows “Real World: Boston” and “Road Rules: All Stars.” He went on to become a commentator on ESPN and serve as co-host on the Fox Business show “Bottom Line.” Duffy entered politics in 2002, when he was appointed Ashland County District Attorney in his home state of Wisconsin. In 2010, he was elected to Congress and resigned nine years later to help care for his child, who was born with birth defects. After being nominated by Trump to be Transportation Secretary, Duffy announced he was resigning from Fox Business.