With the election of Donald Trump behind us, the political media and the punditocracy has been buzzing about with talk of Trump’s choices for certain cabinet positions. While he hasn’t yet named some of the most exciting of the Cabinet positions, such as Secretary of Defense and State, he has put forward his picks for several less publicized but nevertheless important secretary positions.

• First and foremost is the selection of Jefferson Sessions for Attorney General. As attorney general, Sessions will serve as Trump’s ambassador to the legal institutions and certain enforcement mechanisms in DC. Sessions will join in Trump’s effort, for example, to make war on sanctuary cities, or influence the Supreme Court to bring to fruition Trump’s schemes on abortion and hold strong on his positions on guns.
• He’s also selected school choice advocate Betty DeVos for Secretary of Education. As a wealthy outsider herself, she seeks to reform education policy with controversial school choice programs. However, her position on the politically poisonous Common Core standards is unclear, and it’s yet to be seen whether she will follow through on Trump’s promise of ending Common Core.
• Wilbur Ross, the billionaire investment banker, has been selected for Secretary of Commerce. Ross was an ally to Trump during the campaign, appearing on air to defend or soften Trump’s policies on trade.
• Trump has selected retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for his National Security Adviser. In that position, Flynn will shape the foreign policy of the Trump administration. National Security Advisers are more prominent than they are publicized, with the exception of the exceptional Henry Kissinger and perhaps Zbigniew Brzezinski. Flynn is a former Democrat who supports stronger ties with Russia; he was the highest ranking national security adviser to support Trump and was being considered for Vice President.
• For Health and Human Services, Trump has selected Tom Price, a Congressman who, while supporting Trump early in the campaign, is a vocal critic of Obamacare. His appointment indicates Trump’s seriousness in relation to his oft-repeated campaign promise of repealing Obamacare.
• Steve Mnuchin has been selected to serve as Secretary of the Treasury by President-elect Trump. He’s a veteran of the finance world, with 17 years of work at Goldman Sachs.

Trump also seems to have narrowed the list down for the highly prominent position of Secretary of State. To highlight the importance of the position, which is considered the stepping stone to the Presidency, Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State for President Obama.

• Trump is considering Mitt Romney, the loser of the 2012 election, as one of two finalists for this position. While Romney is an accomplished statesman, serving as a moderate Republican governor of Massachusetts, and winning the Republican nomination in 2012, there has been an open feud between Trump and Romney. Where Romney lambasted Trump at a speech at CPAC, calling him a con artist among other things, Trump counter-lambasted Romney with sexual innuendo, claiming, that, as a donor to Romney in 2012, Romney would’ve “dropped to his knees” if Trump asked him to.
• The other consideration for this position is Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City. While Giuliani has been an early and loyal supporter of Trump, serving as a speaker at his rallies, Giuliani has not held public office in 20 years. He has given speeches abroad for companies and countries. His competence is under scrutiny.

Trump also picked retired general James “Mad Dog” Mattis for Secretary of Defense. Mattis retired as one of the most revered generals in the marines. Mattis is known for a singular focus on military history, tactics and strategy, traits that, along with his unmarried status, led to his Warrior Monk nickname. He is said to have a personal library of 7,000 books and during deployments often took with him “Meditations of Marcus Aurelius,” quotes from the Roman emperor and philosopher.

In November 2001, as a brigadier general, Mattis commanded Task Force 58, the first Marine force to enter Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks.

Sophomore Max P., in reaction to the controversial comments Mattis has made about killing insurgents (“some a**holes just need to be shot”), says that “It doesn’t really matter what someone says as long as they know how to win wars and defend us.”