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US President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to re-enter the White House after beating the Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election has started selecting key members of his cabinet. The former president picked Republican Representative Mike Waltz as his national security adviser, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday (Nov 11).

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Waltz has been a Trump loyalist and has served in the National Guard as a colonel. He has been a critic of Chinese activity in the Asia-Pacific and has voiced the need for the United States to be ready for a potential conflict in the region.

Waltz will be responsible for briefing Trump on key national security issues and coordinating with different agencies.

As per a CNN reporter's post on X on Monday (Nov 11), Trump is also expected to tap immigration adviser Stephen Miller as White House deputy chief of staff for policy. 

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Miller's appointment would place the architect of Trump's restrictive first-term immigration agenda in a top position.

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Miller was a White House senior adviser for policy during Trump's 2017-2021 presidency and the driving force behind the Republican's wide-ranging immigration crackdown. Policies included the construction of a wall on the US - Mexico border, banning people from certain Muslim-majority nations and elsewhere, and a contentious 2018 border policy that separated thousands of migrant families.

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Trump, who takes office in January, said in a social media post that the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from his first administration would be in charge of the country's borders in his new administration starting Jan 20.

The president-elect made cracking down on illegal immigration the central element of his campaign, promising mass deportations. He is expected to mobilise agencies across the US government to help him deport record number of immigrants in an operation that Vice President-elect JD Vance has said could remove an estimated 1 million people per year.

US Senator Marco Rubio

Further, Trump selected US Senator Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state, sources said in November, putting the Florida-born politician on track to be the first Latino to serve as America's top diplomat once the Republican president-elect takes office in January.

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Rubio was arguably the most hawkish option on Trump's shortlist for secretary of state, and he has in past years advocated for a muscular foreign policy concerning America's geopolitical foes, including China, Iran and Cuba.

However, over the last few years he has softened some of his stances to align more closely with Trump's views. The president-elect accuses past US presidents of leading America into costly and futile wars and has pushed for a more restrained foreign policy.

The new administration will confront a world more volatile and dangerous than it was when Trump took office in 2017, with wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East and China aligning itself more closely with US foes Russia and Iran.

Ukraine Crisis High on Rubio's Agenda

The 53-year-old has said in recent interviews that Ukraine needs to seek a negotiated settlement with Russia rather than focus on regaining all territory that Russia has taken in the last decade. 

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He was also one of the 15 Republican senators to vote against a $95 billion military aid package for Ukraine, which was passed in April this year. 

By selecting Rubio for a key policy role, Trump may help consolidate gains among Latinos and make clear that they have a place at the highest levels of his administration.

(With inputs from agencies)