A guide to key figures in Donald Trump's orbit

WASHINGTON (AP) Donald Trump will return to the White House with a team of longtime friends and aides as well as some flashy new allies.

The Republican president-elect has barely begun naming key figures in his administration, but he has kept a rotation of associates with him, on and off the campaign trail, in recent weeks, who joined him on stage Wednesday morning as he proclaimed his victory.

Here's a look at some key figures in Trump's orbit as he prepares to once again occupy the White House.

Susie Wiles

For the second time, Trump wins the White House with a woman leading his campaign. Wiles, who joined his 2024 effort early, actually served as his campaign manager and was named his new chief of staff on Thursday. He is credited with being a steady, quiet power behind Trump's third White House campaign, running a largely disciplined and ultimately winning operation.

Wiles is a longtime Florida-based Republican strategist who managed the Trump campaign in the state in 2016 and 2020. Before that, she managed Rick Scott's 2010 campaign for Florida governor and briefly served as director of former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman's 2012 presidential campaign.

Wiles is the daughter of the late NFL player turned broadcaster Pat Summerall.

Lara Trump

Both in business and in government, Trump has always kept those close to him in key roles. If physical proximity is a sign of power, it's worth noting that the person standing next to Trump at his victory party was Lara Trump.

She is married to the former president's second son, Eric, and since the spring she was chosen by Donald Trump to become co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

Lara Trump, a former television producer, was a prominent campaigner for her father-in-law and was considering her own 2022 campaign, considering a run for Senate in her home state of North Carolina before deciding against a bid .

At the RNC, she defended the former president on television and was responsible for boosting fundraising, expanding voter awareness and the party's election integrity initiative. She has also explored a side hustle as a singer, releasing several songs, which sometimes feature political imagery.

Dana White

White is the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a longtime friend of Trump. They date back to 2001, when White hosted a UFC fight at the Republicans' former Trump Taj Mahal hotel-casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Trump has appeared at UFC matches over the years with White, particularly during his 2024 campaign as he sought to appeal to young male voters.

White, in turn, spoke at the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Republican conventions and appeared on stage at Trump's victory party on Wednesday, even briefly addressing the crowd.

Linda McMahon

McMahon, who is the other co-chair of the president-elect's transition team, is a longtime friend of Trump.

She and her husband, Vince, founded World Wrestling Entertainment, making the organization a powerhouse. Trump has appeared at some WWE events over the years, and McMahon was one of his most generous benefactors during his 2016 campaign.

Trump tapped her to run the Small Business Administration during his first term. She left to work on his reelection campaign and spent the years since her departure as one of the leaders of the America First Policy Institute strategizing for another Trump term.

Howard Lutnick

Lutnick, CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, is the co-chair of Trump's transition team, which is helping find the team that will work in the next administration.

Lutnick has donated to both Democrats and Republicans in the past, once appeared on Trump's NBC reality show, The Apprentice, and became part of the president-elect's inner circle. He shared the stage with Trump at events in the final days of his campaign, including the rally at Madison Square Garden.

He came under fire in the final days of the campaign for an interview with CNN in which he repeated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s debunked criticisms of vaccines.

Boris Epshteyn

Epshteyn is a lawyer who has coordinated with various Trump legal teams and a longtime Trump aide who was a key surrogate in his 2016 campaign. Epshteyn briefly served as an adviser in the Trump White House and as a political analyst at the screen for Sinclair Broadcast Group.

After Trump refused to accept his defeat in 2020, Epshteyn worked with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to try to overturn the result. He was accused of running a scheme with Giuliani to submit fake voters to Trump in Arizona and obstruct Congress' certification of the results. He has pleaded not guilty to nine criminal charges in Arizona related to the case.

Epshteyn also appeared alongside Trump during his court appearances.

Stephen Miller

Miller served as a senior advisor during Trump's first term and was a central figure in many of the former president's policy decisions, including his decision to separate thousands of immigrant families as a deterrence program in 2018. Miller contributed in the development of many of Trump's radical speeches and plans. on immigration.

Since Trump left office, Miller has served as president of America First Legal, an organization of former Trump advisers designed as a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union, challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others on issues such as freedom. of speech, religion and national security.

He is expected to play a leading role in Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration and has promised the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

Richard Grenell

Grenell is Trump's former ambassador to Germany and former acting director of national intelligence, who remained a key foreign policy adviser and political aide. He is expected to be at the top of Trump's list to serve as secretary of state.

Throughout the campaign, Grenell played a role in events featuring Trump's wife, Melania Trump, and Log Cabin Republicans. He has been a key conduit in Trump's outreach efforts to Arab Americans in Michigan and joined Trump in September when he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Grenell developed a reputation as a pro-Trump antagonist in Berlin. Trump joked about how happy former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was when he removed Grenell from his ambassadorship and placed him in the intelligence post.

Elon Musk

One of the most powerful figures in Trump's orbit these days is Musk, the billionaire who heads automaker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX.

Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and turned it into X, strengthening conservative and far-right voices on the platform. After supporting President Barack Obama, Musk moved to the right and became a leading voice for American conservatives. He supported Trump after the Republican survived an assassination attempt in July and invested more than $119 million to support Trump's campaign, including a million-dollar-a-day sweepstakes in Pennsylvania .

Trump frequently praises Musk and speaks to crowds about his awe over SpaceX rocket landings. Trump said he would give Musk, a major government contractor, a role in his administration leading an efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy, an anti-vaccine and environmental activist, is a Democratic Party scion whose rise into Trump's orbit was one of the surprises of the 2024 presidential campaign.

Kennedy entered the race as the Democratic nominee, left the party to run as an independent before dropping his candidacy, then endorsed Trump with a promise to make an impact on health policy in a future administration.

In recent weeks, he has floated the possibility of taking control of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or gaining the power to reorganize federal health agencies. He said Trump, upon taking office, would push local water systems to eliminate fluoride from drinking water, one of the great public health achievements of the last century, and allow him to 'investigate the safety of vaccines, on which he has long defended debunked theories.

Brooke Rollins

Rollins is another longtime associate who is seen as a potential hire in the new administration. She is Trump's former domestic policy chief and served as president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute.

The America First policy has gone unnoticed by the Heritage Foundation, which spearheaded the 2025 Project that Democrats have frequently attacked much to the chagrin of the Trump campaign, which insisted that the 2025 Project and Heritage were not talking in his name.

Rollins previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and headed a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

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Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard contributed to this report.

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