Trump announced the nomination of Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida to be attorney general

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he will nominate Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida to be his attorney general, putting a loyalist in the role of the nation’s top prosecutor.

In selecting the congressman, Trump passed over several more established lawyers who had been mentioned as candidates for the job.

“Matt will end military government, protect our borders, dismantle criminal organizations and restore Americans’ badly damaged faith and trust in the Department of Justice,” Trump said in a statement.

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT UPDATE. Below is an earlier AP story.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – President-elect Donald Trump has selected Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congressional member and presidential candidate, as director of national intelligence, continuing to stock his cabinet with faithful figures to complement his own rather than long-term specialists in the required areas.

“As a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, she enjoys broad bipartisan support – now she is a proud Republican!” – Trump said in a statement. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her distinguished career to our Intelligence Community, defending our constitutional rights and ensuring peace through strength. Tulsi will make us all proud!”

Gabbard, who served in the National Guard for more than two decades, serving in Iraq and Kuwait, has taken on the role of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 after several years in a series of top national security and intelligence positions.

Gabbard has not worked directly in the intelligence community except on House committees, including two years on the Homeland Security Committee. Like Trump’s other picks to lead his agency, she was one of his most popular political surrogates and often drew enthusiastic responses from crowds as she campaigned for him in the final months of the campaign.

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT UPDATE. Below is an earlier AP story.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – President-elect Donald Trump named Sen. Marco Rubio on Wednesday of Florida as his nominee for secretary of state, nominating a one-time critic who turned into one of the president-elect’s fierce defenders and then the country’s top diplomat.

The conservative lawmaker is a known hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist this summer to be Trump’s running mate.

On Capitol Hill, Rubio is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He pushed for a tougher stance on China and targeted the social media app TikTok because its parent company is Chinese. He and other lawmakers say Beijing can demand access to user data whenever it wants.

“He will be a strong champion for our nation, a true friend to our allies and a fearless warrior who will never concede to our adversaries,” Trump said in a statement about Rubio.

Trump made the announcement on a flight back from Washington to Florida after meeting with President Joe Biden.

The selection is the culmination of a long and complicated history between both men. During the tight race for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2016, Rubio was particularly outspoken in his criticism of Trump, calling him a “fraud” and “the most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency.”

He tried to match Trump’s often crude attacks by joking about the size of Trump’s hands, alluding to his masculinity. Trump responded by calling Rubio “little Marco” – a nickname that has stuck with the senator over the years.

But like many Republicans who have struggled to maintain their relevance in the Trump era, Rubio has changed his rhetoric. As speculation grew that Trump might choose him as his running mate, Rubio sought to ease the tension that surrounded him in 2016, suggesting that the harsh tone simply reflected the intensity of the campaign.

“It’s like asking a boxer why he punched someone in the face in the third round,” Rubio told CNN when asked about his previous comments. “It was because they were boxing.”

Rubio was first elected to the Senate in 2010 as part of a wave of Tea Party Republicans that swept into Washington. He quickly gained a reputation as someone who could embody a more diverse, welcoming Republican Party. He was a key member of the group working on the 2013 immigration bill, which provided a path to citizenship for millions of people in the country illegally.

But that legislation stalled in the House of Representatives, where more conservative Republicans held control, signaling a edged shift to the right that the party — and Rubio — would soon take over. Now Rubio says he supports Trump’s plan to deploy U.S. military forces to illegally deport people in the country.

“We’re going to have to do something, unfortunately, we’re going to have to do something dramatic,” Rubio said in a May interview with NBC.

It also repeats many of Trump’s attacks on his opponents, as well as his false or unproven theories about voter fraud. After Trump was convicted of 34 crimes amid New York prosecutors’ accusations of conspiracy to illegally influence the 2016 election, Rubio wrote a column for Newsweek in which he claimed that Trump was “held hostage” in court in connection with a “sham political show trial like like the one the communists used against their political opponents in Cuba and the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, Trump has backtracked on his insistence during his presidency that TikTok be banned in the United States, and recently opened his own account on the platform.

A bill that would require Chinese company ByteDance sell TikTok or face a ban in the US was supported by Rubio even as Trump expressed opposition to the effort.

Rubio’s Democratic counterpart on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Chairman Mark Warner of Virginia, praised the pick.

“I have worked with Marco Rubio for more than a decade on the Intelligence Committee, especially closely over the last few years as vice chairman, and while we do not always agree, he is bright, talented and will be a forceful voice for American interests around the world.” Warner said in a statement.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump announced that longtime adviser Dan Scavino will serve as deputy without naming a specific portfolio, campaign political director James Blair will serve as deputy for legislative, policy and public affairs, and Taylor Budowich will serve as deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel. All of them will have the rank of assistant to the president.

Trump also officially announced that Stephen Miller, a hardliner on immigration, will become deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser. This was previously confirmed by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance on Monday.

Blair was political director of the Trump campaign and, when Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee, political director of the Republican National Committee. He previously worked on Trump’s Florida 2020 campaign and was a top advisor to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Scavino was a senior adviser to the Trump campaign and served as social media director during his first term in the White House.

He began working for Trump as a caddy at one of his golf courses and was part of a small group of staffers who traveled with the president around the country throughout the campaign. He frequently posts memes and videos online from his Trump campaign tour, cataloging the campaign from the inside on social media.

Before joining the campaign, Budowich worked for the pro-Trump super PAC, Maga Inc., and after Trump left office, Budowich was his spokesman, working for Trump’s political action committee, Save America.

“Dan, Stephen, James and Taylor were ‘best-in-class’ advisors during my successful campaign, and I know they will honorably serve the American people in the White House,” Trump said in a statement. “They will continue to work hard to Make America Great Again in their new roles.”

Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving advisers, dating back to his first White House campaign. He was a senior adviser to Trump during his first term and played a key role in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration, including Trump’s 2018 decision to separate thousands of immigrant families as part of a deterrent program.