Senate confirmation hearings: Who’s who among Donald Trump’s top picks for the Cabinet and the White House

The spotlight will shine on their ties to the Kremlin, their lobbyist powers, apparent conflicts of interest and controversial personal views

Trump's team are a lot like him - rich, pro-Russia and anti-Muslim (Reuters)

Donald Trump is inches away from cementing the team that will surround him and shape his policies for the next four, if not eight, years, as the week of senate confirmation hearings begins.

During a frenzy of confirmation hearings - the last step before the nominees enter the White House - Democrats and lawmakers have pushed to delay the hearings, citing concerns with improper vetting of candidates and a lack of paperwork for the Office of Government Ethics.

His cabinet has been reported as the least educated and the richest in US political history, their combined wealth standing at more than a third of US households.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told the Democrats to "grow up".

"All of these little procedural complaints are related to their frustration that having not only lost the White House, but having lost the Senate. I understand that. But we need to sort of, grow up here and get past that," he told CBS.

Jeff Sessions, attorney general

One of the most controversial senate picks is Mr Sessions, the Alabama politician who was once deemed too racist to be a federal judge.

He has made jokes about the Ku Klux Klan, called a black lawyer “boy” and suggested that civil rights groups were “un-American”. He will now rule over the country’s justice system.

Rex Tillerson, secretary of state

Rex Tillerson, chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, has been named the new US Secretary of State (Rex Features)

The ExxonMobil CEO has worked in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and he has a rather close relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, having received Russia’s Order of Friendship. Mr Tillerson is a vocal opponent of sanctions against Russia.

He was recently discovered to be a director of the Russian subsidiary of ExxonMobil, registered in the Bahamas.

His shares in his company, worth at least $180 million, will provide him a golden parachute before he steps into the White House.

John Kelly, secretary of homeland security

Mr Kelly was the head of US Southern Command, which involved overseeing Guantanamo Bay prison, and will soon be the heavyweight in the arena of border security, the Mexican “wall” and reforming the way the US deals with terrorism.

The prison base in Cuba was accused over the years of abusing human rights and carrying out torture methods like force-feeding and waterboarding, which Mr Trump approves of.

The 66-year-old ex-marine is the third retired general to be appointed to the cabinet.

Ben Carson, housing and development secretary

Weeks after Mr Carson and his spokesman both said he would feel like a "fish out of water" if he ran a federal agency, the retired neurosurgeon accepted a government position.

The Christian doctor and former presidential candidate was seemingly rewarded for his loyalty - a very strong qualification in Mr Trump’s eyes - ever since he dropped out of the race last March.

Scott Pruitt, Environmental Protection Agency

(Picture: screengrab (Picture: screengrab)

The pro-life Oklahoma attorney general once tried to sue the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of his energy company clients; now he will be running the EPA.

Mr Pruitt, a climate change denier, has also ardently pushed back against Mr Obama’s climate change policies. His position is dangerous, say critics, as he could help push Mr Trump more firmly in the same direction as him. Mr Trump once said climate change was a hoax invented by the Chinese.

The appointment has been widely slammed by scientists.

Betsy DeVos, education secretary

Ms DeVos met with Mr Trump over the weekend (AP)

Ms DeVos has been criticised for never working in a classroom. She is a billionaire education reformer, strongly in favour of school choice, which critics say would divert funds from free schools.

She has also funded pro-life groups.

Senator Bernie Sanders and other Democrats urged her to pay the $5.3 million worth of election fines accrued by her former school choice political action committee.

Mike Flynn, national security adviser

Mr Flynn has been accused of spreading fake news 16 times in the last few months, including conspiracy theories about Mr Obama and Hillary Clinton being involved in “child sex trafficking”.

He has compared Islam to a “cancer” and said fear of Muslims was “rational”.

His deputy will be KT McFarland, a Fox News host, once recommended Mr Putin receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She has made a litany of controversial comments, including that being politically correct about Muslims is “getting us killed”. She held national security posts under Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan administrations.

Mike Pompeo, CIA

Mr Pompeo’s hearing is likely to be dominated by questions about Russia. The Kansas GOP representative will likely be asked about Mr Trump’s relationship with intelligence agencies after the president-elect largely dismissed their findings that Russia exerted an influence campaign over the US election.

He is a hard line Republican in favour of waterboarding and is notorious for pursuing Hillary Clinton for her alleged wrongdoing in Benghazi.

He was elected to Congress in 2010 during the Tea Party wave, and he once suggested Muslim leaders were complicit in terrorist attacks if they did not denounce radical jihads.

Elaine Chao, transportation secretary

Chao oversaw a Department of Labor which was opposed to LGBT anti-discrimination protections. (Getty)

Ms Chao served as secretary of labour under president George W Bush. In that position, she oversaw a labour department which was opposed to anti-LGBT discrimination protections.

She was also deputy secretary of transportation under George H W Bush’s government.

She is married to senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

James Mattis, defense secretary

General James Mattis (Getty)

“Mad Dog” Mattis is known for telling a veteran conference that it was “a lot of fun to shoot some people”. He led the Battle of Fallujah in Iraq.

In 2015 at another conference, he also joked about his colleague having grown a beard, and reminded him that they “used to shoot people who looked like that”, prompting loud laughs.

Wilbur Ross, commerce secretary

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross arrives in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York. The US President-elect Donald Trump is holding meetings at Trump Tower as he continues to fill in key positions in his new administration (EPA)

The New York-based billionaire businessman is in line to have a massive impact on US trade policy and negotiating existing trade deals, a central issue of Mr Trump’s campaign.

Mr Ross has expressed support for the Trans Pacific Partnership, but said the first thing he would do in office is rip up NAFTA.