Trump Expected to Pick Gen. John Kelly as DHS Secretary

Trump has said the construction would be easy, but experts say the structure would face numerous obstacles, such as environmental and engineering problems and fights with ranchers and others who would resist giving up their land.

Kelly would become the latest former top general to join the nascent Trump administration, following his fellow Marine retired James Mattis, whom Trump has nominated to run the Pentagon, and former Army Lt. Gen. Trump, his assistants said, needed individuals on his national security group who saw actually the risks of sending Americans into battle.

Hunter said Kelly “crossed” the Obama administration over closing Guantanamo Bay, the military detention center in Cuba, and opening the Marine Corps infantry to women. He then was an aide to defense secretaries Leon Panetta and Robert Gates.

“Let’s not throw away a success story”, Kelly said during a Pentagon news conference in January, speaking about Colombia’s partnership with the U.S.in fighting drug trafficking, according to an article published by the Defense Department. Kelly now serves on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, which makes recommendations to the secretary. His son died serving while in combat in Afghanistan in 2010.

Known as an outspoken but loyal commander, Kelly will be first to lead the department who is not a lawyer and the fifth overall. The department was formed after the 9/11 terror attacks in order to help foil future attacks on the American homeland.

“Terrorist organizations could seek to leverage those same smuggling routes to move operatives with intent to cause grave harm to our citizens or even bring weapons of mass destruction into the United States”, Kelly said, according to the New York Times.

If confirmed by the Senate, Kelly would take over the nation’s newest federal agency.

Gen. Kelly’s views on immigration and tightening the border were likely to have appealed to Mr. Trump.

“Now more than ever, we need someone at the helm of DHS who will ensure the United States is protected from any threats, whether domestic or foreign”, Diaz-Balart said.

Stein urged Trump to consider Kobach for a major role in immigration enforcement, such as running U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The appointment marks the third big military name to be appointed by President-elect Trump.

He worked under Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary retired Gen. James Mattis during the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003, led US troops in western Iraq and served as a special assistant to the NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe.

She also poured $100 million of her fortune into two unsuccessful bids for a U.S. Senate seat in CT in 2010 and 2012 and has become an influential Republican donor – including to the Trump campaign. “I used to think, when I’d go to all of my trips up to Bethesda, Walter Reed, I’ll go to the funerals with the secretaries of defense, that I could somehow imagine what it would be like”, said Kelly. I really like him.

“We’ve done a pretty good job overall since the department was created, but the threat is very real, present and unsafe”. His choice came after Trump rattled the world’s second-largest economy with tough talk on trade and a telephone call with the leader of Taiwan.

President-elect Donald Trump is adding former wrestling executive Linda McMahon to his Cabinet as leader of the Small Business Administration.