SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The Trump administration is fast taking shape - a quick update on the latest round of picks. This afternoon, President-elect Donald Trump named Brooke Rollins as his pick for agriculture secretary. Rollins was a policy adviser in the first Trump administration and, in recent years, has headed a think tank closely aligned with Trump's agenda.
A few other names offer clues about how Trump will govern as well. He named Russ Vought to head the Office of Management and Budget, a key post for directing federal spending. Vought was a leading architect behind Project 2025, a conservative plan for a second Trump administration that Democrats tried to make a major campaign issue and that Trump repeatedly tried to distance himself from. Trump said in a statement that Vought will, quote, "dismantle the deep state," end quote.
Another noteworthy appointment is Sebastian Gorka, who's been nominated as the new senior director for counterterrorism. Gorka served in Trump's White House as a counterterrorism adviser back in 2017. And then, NPR reported that congressional Democrats alleged Gorka had connections with antisemitic groups in Hungary - something Gorka denied.
You can find more detailed coverage of the Trump transition at npr.org and in NPR podcasts, like Consider This and the new Trump's Terms podcast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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