Now that Donald Trump has managed to win the 2016 US presidential election, the formidable task of forming a new administration has arisen, the Russian online newspaper Gazeta.ru reported, referring to at least eleven politicians who may be part of Trump's team.
Mike Pence
Unlike Trump, US Vice President-elect Mike Pence has substantial political experience.
He is currently serving as the 50th Governor of Indiana. A member the Republican Party, Pence was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 2000.
He is considered a tough conservative, a supporter of the "Tea Party", a right-wing political movement, and an opponent of abortion. According to the political rating site FiveThirtyEight, Pence is poised to become "the most conservative US Vice President in the past 40 years."
Rudy Giuliani
The charismatic former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani successfully fought crime, and after the 9/11 attacks he showed his best professional and human qualities when organizing aid to the victims, Gazeta.ru recalled.
His political career started in 1981, when Giuliani was nominated Associate Attorney General during the Reagan administration. In 2008, Giuliani tried to take part in the presidential race, but his campaign proved to be a flop.
NBC News cited its own sources as saying that Giuliani may be appointed Attorney General by the Trump administration. During his term as New York Mayor, he was accused of corruption, and in October 2016 allegations that he had obtained information from the FBI regarding charges against Clinton, which he then used to help the Trump campaign, provoked a scandal in the security services.
Steven Mnuchin
Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive and film producer, is expected to become head of the US Treasury, something that was mentioned by Donald Trump back in July.
Despite the fact that earlier Mnuchin was listed among Hillary Clinton's donors, this year he joined the Trump election campaign to hold a post of fundraiser.
According to US media, Mnuchin had collected up to 600 million dollars for the Trump campaign by November 2016.
Chris Christie
Chris Christie is a member of the Republican Party and has been the 55th Governor of New Jersey since January 2010.
He was nominated for the Republican primaries, but quit the race due to low ratings. After that, he started to actively campaign for Trump.
During his term as governor, New Jersey demanded $8.9 billion from the oil company ExxonMobil in compensation for natural resource damage to more than 600 hectares of wetlands according to the New York Times; the company had maintained refineries in the state. In the end, the multinational paid a mere 225 million dollars to the Garden State, a mere 3 percent of the amount requested by lawyers.
Christie opposed the legalization of gay marriage in his state, but his veto was rejected by the New Jersey Supreme Court. He paid the price for his decision to support Trump, Gazeta.ru said referring to Christie's plummeting approval ratings and several influential newspapers' call for Christie to resign.
Earlier, Trump offered Christie to be a head of the transitional US administration, but now it is unclear whether Christie will receive any important post in the new administration.
Michael Flynn
Flynn is a retired US Army lieutenant general who served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency between July 24, 2012 and August 7, 2014. He is believed to be one of the most prominent high-ranking military officials to support Trump.
Media reports pointed to Flynn's spat with the Pentagon due to his stance that the US should become Syrian President Assad's ally in the fight against Islamist groups in Syria.
Flynn has more than once called for strengthening ties with Russia, and in an interview with the Washington Post, he acknowledged receipt of a fee for his visit to Moscow in 2015, according to Gazeta.ru. During the Moscow trip, he gave a speech at an RT corporate party, where he reportedly sat at the table next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Newt Gingrich
In 1994, Gingrich was a co-author and architect of the "Contract with America", a document that detailed the actions the Republicans promised to take if they became the majority party in the United States House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years.
In 1995, Time named him "Man of the Year" for "his role in ending the four-decades-long Democratic majority in the House."
Gingrich's authority and political weight is so significant that he could be considered for a cabinet position, such as Secretary of State.
Gazeta.ru recalled in this regard that former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld actively consulted with Gingrich on issues related to US foreign policy strategy.
Jeff Sessions
Sessions, a junior US Senator from Alabama, was touted by Trump as a smart politician who is highly respected by Washington.
Sessions was among the first to support Trump and served as his adviser on migration policy and national security. He is expected to become the new US Defense Secretary because Michael Flynn cannot be nominated without getting the approval of the Senate.
Ben Carson
A prominent African-American neurosurgeon, Carson was Trump's rival during the primaries and later he supported Trump's candidacy.
Like Trump, he is known for his almost complete lack of communication with the political establishment and his name is often cited by the press.
Carson is one of the most consistent opponents to the 1973 US court decision to legalize abortion. He has argued that the role of human activity in the process of climate change is irrelevant, and believes that the world was created in six calendar days.
Ben Carson stated in 2012 that the big bang theory was among the "fairy tales" pushed by "highfalutin scientists" and that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was encouraged by the devil, according to MSNBC. There are good chances that the political maverick could be tapped to become the next Minister of Health and Social Welfare, according to Gazeta.ru.
Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Bannon, Rience Priebus
Conway started to work as Trump's campaign manager on August 17, 2016, and on November 8 she became the first woman to have managed a victorious presidential campaign in US history.
An American businessman and conservative filmmaker, Bannon was designated the chief executive officer of the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump in August 2016.
As for Priebus, he is an American attorney and politician who is currently the chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Given that the three actually became the real creators of Trump's unexpected presidential victory, they will almost certainly hold posts in the new US Administration, Gazeta.ru said.
