United States President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he wants to appoint a group of economic advisers to his administration, including international trade lawyer Jamieson Greer to be the US trade representative.
Greer served in Trump’s first administration as the trade representative’s chief of staff, and Trump said Tuesday that Greer played a key role in both imposing tariffs on China and creating a new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Trump said Kevin Hassett was his choice to lead the White House National Economic Council.
Hassett led the Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’s previous term. Trump said that in this new role, Hassett would work to “renew and improve” a package of tax cuts implemented in 2017 and “play an important role in helping American families recover from the inflation unleashed by the Biden administration.”
Trump also announced several health-related nominations on Tuesday, including his choice of health economist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health.
Bhattacharya has been a vocal critic of lockdowns and vaccination mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump said Bhattacharya would work with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “to lead the nation’s medical research and make important discoveries that will improve the health and will save lives. »
“Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to the gold standard in medical research by examining the underlying causes and solutions to America’s greatest health challenges, including our chronic disease crisis,” Trump said.
Another nomination announced Tuesday was Trump’s choice of former HHS official Jim O’Neill to be the agency’s deputy secretary.
Trump also said he was nominating private investor John Phelan for Secretary of the Navy.
Earlier Tuesday, the Trump transition team announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Biden administration on the process of beginning collaboration with federal agencies.
In a statement, Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, said: “This commitment allows our Cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations, including deploying landing teams to every department and agency, and complete the orderly transition of power. »
Wiles’ announcement says the transition will use only private funding and that donors will be publicly disclosed.
The Trump-Vance transition team will not use government offices or technology, Wiles said. She added that the transition features an existing ethics plan and “built-in information security and protection measures, meaning we will not need additional government and bureaucratic oversight.”
Signing the MOU means the transition teams will “rapidly integrate directly into federal agencies and departments with access to documents and policy sharing,” Wiles’ announcement said.
Some information on this story was provided by the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.