President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he intends to nominate his two transition co-chairs to high-level positions in his administration.
Mr. Trump named Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary and Linda McMahon as education secretary.
The president-elect also picked television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as administrator for the Medicare and Medicaid programs, making him the third television personality to join Mr. Trump’s administration.
In a statement, Mr. Trump said Mr. Lutnick will lead his administration’s “tariff and trade agenda” with additional responsibility for the Office of U.S. Trade Representative.
“In his role as Co-Chair of the Trump-Vance Transition Team, Howard has created the most sophisticated process and system to assist us in creating the greatest administration America has ever seen,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Lutnick, a vocal Trump supporter, was under consideration for the role of treasury secretary, but reportedly fell out of favor for the job amid tension with another contender, investor Scott Bessent.
The Commerce Department is responsible for supporting U.S. businesses both at home and abroad. It often acts as an intermediary with other nations to negotiate trade deals and boost foreign investment. The commerce secretary often works side-by-side with other members of the president’s Cabinet to carry out his economic agenda.
There are 13 bureaus that make up the Commerce Department, including the Census Bureau, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Patent and Trademark Office.
Mr. Lutnick was CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald when radical Islamic terrorists slammed a pair of passenger jets into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
The company’s headquarters was immediately above where one of the planes hit and 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees were among the more than 2,700 people killed that day in the Twin Towers. He was not at the World Trade Center that day because it was his son’s first day of kindergarten.
Mr. Trump described Mrs. McMahon as “a fierce advocate for parents’ rights” and said she will spearhead his administration’s effort to return education back to the states.
“As Secretary of Education, Linda will fight tirelessly to expand ‘choice’ to every state in America, and empower parents to make the best education decisions for their families,” Mr. Trump said.
Mrs. McMahon is the former CEO of the WWE, which she co-founded with her husband Vince McMahon. The two oversaw its transformation from a regional wrestling promotion into a publicly-traded media empire. She stepped down as CEO in 2009.
She was also the chairwoman of the board at the America First Policy Institute and America First Works, two conservative advocacy groups, where she worked to achieve universal school choice in 12 states. In 2010 and 2012, Mrs. McMahon unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in Connecticut.
In his position leading the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mr. Oz will run the federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that administers the Medicare program and works with state governments to administer Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and health insurance probability standards.
“America is facing a healthcare crisis and there may be no physician more qualified and capable than Mr. Oz to make America Healthy Again. He is an eminent physician, heart surgeon, inventor and world-class communicator who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.
Mr. Oz hosted a syndicated daytime television show for 13 years which featured segments on health, wellness, medical information and celebrity interviews.
In 2022, Mr. Oz ceased production of the show to run as a Republican for the U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania.
Other television personalities picked by Mr. Trump for high-ranking positions in his administration are Pete Hegseth, who was chosen to be defense secretary and Sean Duffy, who was selected to serve as transportation secretary. Both men hosted shows for Fox News and/or its sister networks.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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