Trump chooses former acting attorney general Matt Whitaker as Nato ambassador

President-elect Donald Trump says he has chosen former acting attorney general Matt Whitaker to serve as US ambassador to Nato.

Mr Trump, in a statement, said Mr Whitaker was “a strong warrior and loyal patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our Nato allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to peace and stability”.

The choice of Mr Whitaker as the nation’s representative to Nato is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy.

Mr Whitaker is a former US lawyer in Iowa and served as acting attorney general between November 2018 and February 2019, as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference was drawing to a close.

Before then, he was chief of staff to Mr Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, before being picked to replace his boss after Mr Sessions was sacked amid lingering outrage over his decision to withdraw from the Russia investigation.

Mr Whitaker held the position for several months, on an acting basis and without Senate confirmation, until William Barr was confirmed as attorney general in February 2019.

Mr Whitaker has been a relentless critic of the federal criminal cases against Mr Trump, which appear set to evaporate after Mr Trump’s election win. Mr Whitaker has used regular appearances on Fox News to join other Republicans in decrying what they contend is the politicisation of the Justice Department over the past four years.

During his 2016 campaign, Mr Trump alarmed Western allies by warning that the United States, under his leadership, might abandon its Nato treaty commitments and only come to the defence of countries that meet the transatlantic alliance’s defence spending targets.

Mr Trump, as president, eventually endorsed Nato’s Article 5 mutual defence clause, which states that an armed attack against one or more of its members shall be considered an attack against all members. But he often depicted Nato allies as leeches on the US military and openly questioned the value of the military alliance that has defined American foreign policy for decades.

In the years since, he has continued to threaten not to defend Nato members that fail to meet spending goals.

Mr Trump on Tuesday put forward billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be education secretary – overseeing an agency he has promised to dismantle.

He also selected Dr Mehmet Oz, a former television talk show host and heart surgeon, to head the agency that oversees health insurance programmes for millions of older, poor and disabled Americans, and named Wall Street executive Howard Lutnick to lead the Commerce Department.

Mrs McMahon headed the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019 during Mr Trump’s initial term and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the US Senate in Connecticut.

She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Seen as a relative unknown in education circles, she has expressed support for charter schools and school choice.

“Linda will use her decades of Leadership experience, and deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World,” Mr Trump said in a statement.

Mr Trump is rewarding a loyal backer of his movement who, along with Mr Lutnick, has helped lead his transition team. She was with him on Tuesday as he attended the launch of SpaceX’s Starship craft in Texas.

She is married to Vince McMahon, who stepped down as World Wrestling Entertainment’s chief executive in 2022 amid a company investigation into allegations that he engaged in sexual battery and trafficking.

He also resigned as executive chairman of the board of TKO Group Holdings this January, although he has denied the allegations.

If confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, she will be asked to bring the nation’s schools and universities in line with Mr Trump’s vision of education. He has made sweeping promises centered on removing what he sees as “left-wing indoctrination” in America’s schools.

Mr Trump has vowed to cut federal money for “any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children”. He has promised to fight university diversity initiatives, saying he will open civil rights investigations and fine colleges “up to the entire amount of their endowment”.

Dr Oz, who ran a failed 2022 bid to represent Pennsylvania in the US Senate, has been an outspoken supporter of Mr Trump and in recent days expressed support for Robert F Kennedy Jr’s nomination for the nation’s top health agency, the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Dr Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country,” Mr Trump said in a statement.

“He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”

As the administrator for the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services, he would report to Mr Kennedy, and be responsible for Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act which more than half the country relies on for health insurance.

Medicaid provides nearly-free health care coverage to millions of the poorest children and adults in the US, while Medicare gives older Americans and the disabled access to health insurance.

The Affordable Care Act is the President Obama-era programme that offers health insurance plans to millions of Americans who do not qualify for government-assisted health insurance, but do not get insurance through their employer.

Mr Trump has said he wants to overhaul the act, but has said he only has “concepts of a plan” for how that redesign would operate. During his first term in office, he tried unsuccessfully to scrap the programme altogether.

Last month, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson promised health care reform would be a big part of the second term agenda.

TV personality Oprah Winfrey helped launch Dr Oz into fandom and fortune. After years of appearing on her show as a health expert, he landed a talk show of his own that aired for 13 seasons.

He has been accused of hawking dubious medical treatments and products on his defunct TV show and during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, he pressured government officials to make hydroxychloroquine widely available, despite unresolved questions about its safety and effectiveness.

Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the chamber’s president pro tempore, said in a statement that the doctor, who has described himself as “strongly pro-life”, was unqualified for the position.

Mr Lutnick, meanwhile, will have a key role in carrying out Mr Trump’s plan to raise and enforce tariffs as commerce secretary, Mr Trump said.

He is a cryptocurrency enthusiast and head of brokerage at investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.

Making the announcement on his social media platform Truth Social, Mr Trump said Mr Lutnick “will lead our Tariff and Trade agenda, with additional direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative”.