President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he will appoint South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in his upcoming administration.

Noem, who was once considered a potential running mate for Trump, has served as governor of the Mount Rushmore State since 2019. Before becoming governor, Noem was South Dakota’s at-large congresswoman from 2011 to 2019.

The DHS oversees U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Sources previously told Fox News Digital that Trump would select Noem to lead the DHS.

In a statement released on Tuesday night, the Trump transition team said the South Dakota governor has a ‘very strong’ track record on border security.

‘She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times,’ the statement reads. 

‘She will work closely with ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan to secure the Border, and will guarantee that our American Homeland is secure from our adversaries.’

On X, Noem wrote that she was ‘honored and humbled’ by the appointment.

‘I look forward to working with Border Czar Tom Homan to make America SAFE again,’ the Republican wrote. ‘With Donald Trump, we will secure the border and restore safety to American communities so families will again have the opportunity to pursue the American Dream.’

Noem’s forthcoming appointment to the position came as one of many bombshell announcements on Tuesday. The Trump transition team also announced that Pete Hegseth will be nominated to serve as secretary of the Department of Defense and that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the new Department of Government Efficiency.

Speaking to ‘Your World’ host Neil Cavuto, Noem said last week that Trump has spoken to her personally about his focus ‘on big things.’

‘He knows he only has four years, and he wants to hit the ground running,’ Noem said. ‘And he said anybody that I want around me needs to be thinking big, too.’

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.

President-elect Trump announced that billionaire Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the Department of Government Efficiency.

Trump said that the pair will work together to ‘dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.’

‘It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time,’ the announcement on Tuesday evening said. ‘Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time.’

The president-elect said that Musk and Ramaswamy will provide ‘advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.’

Trump said that the agency will be focused on creating a more efficient U.S. government that looks to make ‘life better for all Americans.’

‘Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending. They will work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to ‘WE THE PEOPLE.” Trump said. 

‘Their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026 – A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. I am confident they will succeed!’

In a X post, Ramaswamy reacted to his appointment.

‘We will not go gently, Elon Musk,’ he wrote in the post.

Ramaswamy has been a vocal supporter of Trump after he suspended his presidential campaign in Jan. 24.

Similarly, Musk has been a key component to Trump’s campaign – with the tech entrepreneur crisscrossing key battleground states leading up to the 2024 election.

In response to his position in Trump’s White House, Musk wrote: ‘Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!’

The world’s richest man, who said he voted for former Democratic presidential candidates including President Biden in the past, endorsed Trump this summer following the first assassination attempt on the 45th president on July 13. 

The slew of Trump Cabinet positions came quickly after the president-elect’s landslide victory against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump has selected top Republicans, with the president-elect expected to select Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to serve as his Secretary of State and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as secretary of Homeland Security. 

In addition, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., has been tapped for United Nations ambassador and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel.

John Ratcliffe, who served as President-elect Trump’s principal intelligence advisor during his first presidential term, will serve as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency when Trump moves back into the White House.  

Ratcliffe is one of several appointees announced in the past week who will fill key positions during Trump’s second term. 

‘From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBI’s abuse of Civil Liberties at the FISA Court, John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American Public,’ Trump said in a statement. ‘When 51 intelligence officials were lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop, there was one, John Ratcliffe, telling the truth to the American People.’

Trump honored Ratcliffe in 2020 with the National Security Medal, the highest honor for distinguished achievement in the field of intelligence and national security.

Ratcliffe previously served under Trump as Director of National Intelligence (DNI). 

‘In that role, Ratcliffe served as the leader of the U.S. intelligence community and principal intelligence advisor to President Trump. Before that role, Ratcliffe served in Congress for over five years as the U.S. representative for the 4th Congressional District of Texas.

William McGinley is returning to the Trump White House to serve as his White House Counsel, President-elect Trump announced.

‘I am pleased to announce that William Joseph McGinley will serve as my White House Counsel,’ the appointment announcement noted. ‘Bill is a smart and tenacious lawyer who will help me advance our America First agenda while fighting or election integrity and against the weaponization of law enforcement.’

The White House Counsel typically plays a key behind-the-scenes role in vetting Supreme Court candidates and nominees.

Having already picked three Supreme Court justices in his first term, Trump will have appointed a majority of the court if he lands two more in his second term.

McGinley served in the first administration for Trump as the White House Cabinet secretary as well as serving as General Counsel at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. 

Prior to his political appointments, he was a partner at two international law firms.

Fox News’ William Mears Jr. contributed to this report.

President-elect Trump has appointed a longtime ally, New York businessman Steven Witkoff, as his Special Envoy to the Middle East.

Witkoff is a real estate investor, landlord, and the founder of the Witkoff Group, which he started in 1977.

In his announcement, Trump said that Witkoff would be an ‘unrelenting Voice for PEACE’ in the highly-contentious region.

‘Steve is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy, who has made every project and community he has been involved with stronger and more prosperous,’ the announcement on Tuesday evening said. ‘Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud.’

Justice Samuel Alito has no plans to retire from the Supreme Court anytime soon, a source close to the justice told the Wall Street Journal, halting a flurry of speculation among some Republican leaders that Alito, 74, could vacate the bench to make room for a younger, more conservative jurist.

Rumors about Alito’s retirement began swirling almost immediately after Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, which also saw Republicans set to take back control of the Senate and retain control of the House in January.

With no filibuster allowed on Supreme Court appointments, the GOP majority would allow Trump to face little if any resistance in confirming his picks for high court justices, should the court’s two oldest conservative justices, Alito and Clarence Thomas, retire.

Alito, for his part, has made clear he has no plans to do so. 

‘Despite what some people may think, this is a man who has never thought about this job from a political perspective,’ a person close to Alito told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news of his intention to remain on the bench. 

‘The idea that he’s going to retire for political considerations is not consistent with who he is,’ this person added.

Alito was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2006 by President George W. Bush. 

At 74, Alito is the second-oldest justice on the bench behind Justice Clarence Thomas, 76, who was appointed to the court by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. Sonia Sotomayor, appointed by President Obama in 2009, is 70.

But pressure for Alito and Thomas to step aside to make way for younger, Trump-picked candidates could prove to be deeply polarizing at a time when public approval of the Supreme Court is in the mid 40s, according to a Gallup survey in September.

Conservatives currently hold a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court. Trump named three justices to the Supreme Court during his first term, preserving its conservative majority. President Biden, for his part, most recently named Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the court in 2022 after the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer.

If Alito and Thomas were to retire from the bench, Trump could become the first president since Eisenhower, also a Republican, to name a majority of the justices of the Supreme Court.