Now that Donald Trump is president-elect, he will begin the process of appointing his Cabinet, as well as his White House staff.
Yesterday, the Trump campaign announced that Susan Summerall Wiles will serve as his White House chief of staff. Wiles served as Trump’s 2024 campaign manager, having previously run his campaign in Florida in 2016 and served as a top adviser to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
“Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns,” President-elect Trump said in a statement. “Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”
Other top roles in the administration remain vacant as of Friday, including that of press secretary, who serves as the administration’s primary spokesperson. During his first term in office, Trump went through four press secretaries: Sean Spicer – who was fired after 6 months – Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham and Kayleigh McEnany.
But a new face could grace the White House press room come January 20.
Newsweek has rounded up who the contenders might be. The Trump campaign has been contacted for comment.
Alex Jones
In a post on X on Thursday, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wrote that he “formally accept[s] the offer to serve as President Trump’s new press secretary.” The post included a photo of Jones standing in front of a large four-wheeler holding a firearm. There has been no official confirmation that Jones has been approached by Trump or his team about the position of press secretary.
In late 2023, during an episode of his Triggered podcast, the president-elect’s son Donald Trump Jr. expressed his support for Jones as a potential White House press secretary should his father be re-elected.
“Alex Jones, for like a month, would put these people in his place. Because again, not saying he’s done everything right, but he’s been a lot more right over the last decade or so than anyone in our mainstream media,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a recent video posted to her YouTube channel, conservative commentator Candace Owens suggested that she would pay Jones’ salary as White House press secretary.
“Let me be very clear about Alex Jones. I will crawl over broken glass and give him everything I earn, if all he needs is someone to pay the salary, leave it to me. I’ll get a second job,” Owens said, adding that she would pay “whatever salary he wants.”
“If he is like ‘I want half a million dollars a year,’ leave it to me,” she said, continuing that it would be the “greatest troll” if Jones were made press secretary, and that he is “more than equipped” for the role because he has run his own show for decades. “The deep state hates Alex Jones with a vengeance,” Owens said.
Jones was previously sued by the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims for promoting a false theory that the massacre was a hoax, with a judge ordering him to pay $1.5bn to the families.
The ruling led to Jones filing for bankruptcy and he has so far failed to pay out any of the sum after he told his audience last year he was “officially out of money”.
Megyn Kelly
American commentator and media personality Megyn Kelly is another contender.
MAGA supporter and singer Jon Rich recently endorsed Kelly for the role of press secretary. “I nominate @megynkelly as Press Secretary for the Trump administration!” he wrote on X.
Kelly came out as a strong supporter of Donald Trump in this year’s election, including speaking at a rally in support of the GOP candidate on Monday.
However, Kelly has been critical of Trump. On an episode The Megyn Kelly Show last week, she criticized Trump’s Madison Square Gardens rally, at which comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage,” for it “brotastic atmosphere.”
Meanwhile, Kelly previously said that she won’t “run cover for Republicans.”
“I have no deal with Trump,” Kelly said in an interview with TheWrap. “I’m not on Trump’s staff. I’m an independent journalist calling it like I see it. That may not be your cup of tea, and that’s totally fine — or if it is your cup of tea, I think you’re a grown-up to the point where you can understand she’s supporting Trump, but she’s not a sycophant. She’s still going to tell me what she thinks when Trump does well and when he does poorly, she’s going to call him out.”
Karoline Leavitt
Leavitt currently serves as the national press secretary for Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
She previously served as an assistant press secretary and presidential writer in the first Donald Trump administration. In 2022, she ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in New Hampshire’s 1st district, becoming the second member of Generation Z to win a congressional primary. However, she lost the general election to incumbent Chris Pappas.
She has also served as communications director for U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik from New York.
Peter Doocy
There has also been speculation that Peter Doocy will be appointed as White House press secretary. Doocy is currently a senior White House correspondent for Fox News. He is the son of Steve Doocy, who is a co-host of of the morning show Fox & Friends.
Doocy has made a name for himself with pointed and at times heated questioning of Biden administration officials at briefings and other events. In 2021, he ruffled feathers when he asked what Biden would call his own COVID travel bans after calling Trump’s Mulsim travel ban “xenophobic.”
Then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded that the question wasn’t entirely a “fair articulation,” explaining that President Biden opposed the Muslim travel ban—which he recently reversed—viewing it as xenophobic. She added that Biden had also criticized the previous president’s coronavirus-related travel bans from China, describing them as an inadequate and stigmatizing response.
Meanwhile, earlier this year he butted heads with current press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, when he asked about a debunked claim made by Donald Trump that the White House doesn’t have the funds to support North Carolina hurricane victims because the money was used on services for immigrants and for international spending.
“The administration has money to send to Lebanon without Congress coming back. But Congress does have to come back to approve money to send to people in North Carolina. Do I have that right?” Doocy asked. Jean-Pierre responded by saying that the White House had taken a “whole of government” approach to Hurricane Helene, distributing over $200 million in aid so far. She noted, however, that “disinformation and misinformation” have made some people hesitant to seek help.
When asked by Doocy why there seems to be funding for Lebanon but not enough for North Carolina hurricane victims, Jean-Pierre pushed back, calling the question itself “misinformation” and clarifying that it’s incorrect to assume there’s no money available for hurricane relief.
Roseanne Barr
Actress, comedian, and writer Roseanne Barr has also offered her services. “Ok, I will do it,” she wrote on X in response to a post supporting her appointment as press secretary.
Barr has also been a vocal supporter of Trump. While making an appearance at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in 2023, Barr said: “I’m all in for President Trump. I just wanna say that, I’m just all in… Because I know if I ain’t all in they’re going to put my a** in a gulag. If he loses I know what they’re gonna do.”
“And I don’t wanna go to a reeducation camp and have to give all my money to a bunch of losers that never know how [to] get a job. I don’t care about them,” she went on. “If we don’t stop these horrible communists, do you hear me? I’m asking you to hear me.”
In May 2018, Barr was fired from her ABC her show, Roseanne, after she tweeted that the “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby,” referring to Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, who is Black.
Barr said at the time that she wouldn’t have tweeted the joke had she known Jarrett was Black, and that she would have apologized on air if she had not been fired.
Michael Knowles
American conservative political commentator, YouTuber, author, and media host Michael Knowles has also been suggested as a possible contender.
“My two cents: @michaeljknowles would make a SUPERB White House Press Secretary in the new administration. Whoever has the connections to run this up the food chain, please do so,” author and radio host Patrick Madrid posted on X.
He has worked for The Daily Wire since 2016.
Kayleigh McEnany
It is possible that McEnany could return as White House press secretary. She was known as one of Trump’s most loyal aides and staunch defenders, having served as the final press secretary of his first administration.
Since Trump’s first term ended, McEnany has worked for Fox News as a contributor. She and her former boss have occasionally butted heads, with Trump claiming in a May 2023 Truth Social Post that she misreported his lead over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after she said DeSantis was “narrowing the gap” with Trump since he officially launched his 2024 campaign.
“Kayleigh ‘Milktoast’ McEnany just gave out the wrong poll numbers on Fox News,” Trump wrote, incorrectly spelling the term milquetoast.
“I am 34 points up on DeSanctimonious, not 25 up. While 25 is great, it’s not 34,” he said. “She knew the number was corrected upwards by the group that did the poll. The RINOS & Globalists can have her. Fox News should only use REAL Stars.”
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