With the presidential election over, the next big question is: Who will staff the new Trump-Vance administration? It’s famously been said that “personnel is policy.” So it matters who’s hired — in terms of competence, policy direction, and signaling inclusion to the various segments of Trump’s coalition.
Trump has pleased Jewish supporters with three early Cabinet-level appointments. Trump chose New York Representative and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik to be his ambassador to the United Nations. There, Stefanik plans to advance “America First peace through strength leadership on the world stage.”
Stefanik has repeatedly spoken in support of Israel and Israeli hostages since October 7. However, she truly stood out and won many Jewish fans with her tough questioning of university presidents during the House’s campus antisemitism hearings last academic year. Given that Israel remains the United Nation’s idee fixe, and the institution remains awash in antisemitism, Stefanik should be well prepared for her new position.
Trump’s second appointment is also a New Yorker. Trump has tapped former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin, a Jewish Republican, to be his Environmental Protection Agency Administrator. Before New York’s Jewish Democrats — particularly the Orthodox — crossed over to vote for Trump this month, they voted for Zeldin when he ran for governor of New York as a voice of moderation, back in 2022. Zeldin posted on Twitter/X, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalise our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”
The third Cabinet-level appointment, by far the biggest name so far, is reported to be Florida Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. Rubio has represented Florida’s sizeable Jewish community in the Senate since his election in 2010. The New York Times characterised Rubio as “a foreign policy hawk, taking hard lines on China and Iran in particular.” Rubio is also knowledgeable about foreign policy, fluent in all the issues he would have to handle as Secretary. Finally, it’s worth noting that unlike others who could have been named as Trump’s Secretary of State, Rubio is not an isolationist and would immediately reverse Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s intense hostile-to-Israel energy. America’s allies abroad should be cheered by Rubio’s selection.
Beyond this, the identities of other cabinet positions remain a game of speculation. Among nominations that American Jews may be watching closely, though, the Department of Education remains high on the list. And it’s currently clear as mud who Trump wants as his Secretary of Education - or if he will pick nobody.
Trump has said that early on he’ll be “closing up the Department of Education and sending” education “back to the states.” Trump expects that devolving control of education back to the states will improve the quality of American public education and cut its costs for taxpayers.
Jay P. Greene, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, told me: “Dismantling the Department of Ed[ucation] would have no negative effect on Jews or programs. Almost all of the programs and functions of the Department existed before it was created in 1980. They were just consolidated in one place, largely as a payoff to the teachers unions for their support for [President Jimmy] Carter. Sure enough, spending has gone up on these pre-existing programmes but they have been no more effective.”
As for what closing the Department would mean for Jewish students concerned about civil rights violations in educational settings, Greene said, “having that [civil rights] function in the Department of Education rather than Justice has done nothing to help protect Jews. And moving it back will not hurt Jews.”
Whether closing the Department of Education would decrease the amount of woke, antisemitic indoctrination that’s currently pervasive in schools is unclear. That depends in part on what authorities at the state and local levels mandate schools teach and whether curricula change in the education schools that have trained educators in progressive ideology for decades.
There are still consequential positions like Secretary of Defense and Attorney General that remain unclaimed, but Trump is off to a strong start with his nominations. American Jews who supported Trump over concerns about antisemitism and Israel should feel comfortable that Trump sees them, and their concerns should be addressed by the incoming administration. Change is coming.
Melissa Langsam Braunstein is a writer based in Washington DC.
@slowhoneybee
