Donald Trump said he will appoint Caroline Levitt as White House spokeswoman, AP reported, quoted by BTA .
27-year-old Levitt, a native of New Hampshire, will become the youngest person ever to hold the position. That record was previously held by Ronald Ziegler, who was 29 years old when he took the job in 1969 in the Richard Nixon administration.
"Caroline Levitt did a phenomenal job as national press secretary during my historic campaign, and I am pleased to announce that she will be White House press secretary,” Trump said in a statement. "Caroline is smart, tough and has proven to be an extremely effective communicator. I have every confidence that she will perform excellently at the podium and deliver our messages to the American people as we make America great again,'' he added.
Levitt was assistant spokeswoman for the White House in the period 2017-2021. She has endeared herself to Trump with her fervent defense of him in media interviews and her aggressive style, his advisers said, quoted by Reuters.
Trump also announced that Steven Chun, his chief spokesman during the 2024 election campaign, will take over the role of White House communications director, BNR reported.
Chun, who also worked on Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns, previously served as an adviser to the presidential transition team during Donald Trump's first term. He is also involved in efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election after Trump's loss.
Trump also named Sergio Gore, CEO of Winning Team Publishing, as assistant and director of the office of the president.
"I am thrilled to have them join my White House as we make America great again!”, Trump said.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said today that the House Ethics Committee should not release a report examining sexual misconduct allegations against Matt Goetz, Trump's nominee for attorney general. and Minister of Justice, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
Bipartisan congressmen on the Senate Judiciary Committee said they want to see the unreleased House Ethics Committee report on Goetz as part of the Senate's confirmation process for cabinet nominees. The procedure is expected to start next year with public hearings.
"I will strongly urge the ethics committee not to release the report because that is not the way we do things in the House of Representatives," Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, told the media.
Goetz, 42, who denies any wrongdoing, resigned from Congress on Wednesday, ending the ethics investigation two days before the committee released the document.
The former congressman was the subject of a nearly three-year Department of Justice investigation over allegations of trafficking a minor for sexual exploitation. His office said prosecutors told him in 2023 that no charges would be brought against him.
Johnson said he would urge committee chairman Michael Guest not to release the document. Former members of Congress are beyond the purview of the Ethics Commission, he stressed after returning from Trump's Florida estate this morning.
Johnson's position is a sharp change from his statement on Wednesday. He then told the media that the Speaker of the Chamber cannot participate in the decision whether to publish the report.
Gaetz is one of Trump's nominees whose biographies do not match the usual for such positions, Reuters notes. Several leading Republicans have expressed doubts about his candidacy.
Leaders of the US Muslim community, who backed Trump to protest President Joe Biden's administration's support for Israel's war in Gaza and attacks on Lebanon, are deeply disappointed in the officials the president-elect has chosen for his cabinet, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
„Trump won because of us, and we are not happy with his picks for secretary of state and other posts,” said Philadelphia investor Rabiul Choudary, who chairs the “Abandon Harris” campaign. in Pennsylvania and co-founded the association "Muslims for Trump".
Support for Trump among Muslims helped him win in Michigan and may have played a role in other swing states, strategists say.
Trump has chosen Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who is a staunch supporter of Israel, to be his secretary of state. Earlier this year, Rubio said he would not call for a cease-fire in Gaza and that he believed Israel should destroy “every element” from “Hamas”. “These people are cruel animals”, he added.
Trump also announced that he would nominate Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and hardline pro-Israel conservative who calls the two-state solution to the Palestinian issue “unworkable”, to be the next US ambassador to Israel.
Resinaldo Nazarco, executive director of the Muslim-American Network for Engagement and Empowerment, said Muslim voters had hoped Trump would pick cabinet members who would work for peace, and that there are no signs that has happened. .
„We are very disappointed,” he said. “This administration appears to be filled solely with neoconservatives and extremely pro-Israel and pro-war people, which is a failure by President Trump of the pro-peace, anti-war movement,”, he added.
Nazarco also said his community will continue to push for their voices to be heard after securing votes to help Trump win.