President-elect Donald Trump has tapped retired Marine Gen. John Kelly to lead his Department of Homeland Security, putting yet another high-ranking military officer into a key national security post, according to the Washington Post.
Trump has already made Marine Gen. James Mattis his defense secretary and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn his national security adviser, and he is considering retired Army Gen. David Petraeus for secretary of state.
Kelly, 66, is not expected to face difficulty being confirmed, according to the Post. He is viewed as a border security hawk who will please Trump backers looking for the president-elect to follow through on vows to limit immigration.
"Kelly is a very accomplished and patriotic American… who understands the security threat to the U.S. and would bring a lot of knowledge of tactical deterrence [and] the use of physical structures to deter illegal migratory flows across the border," Dan Stein, president of the conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the Washington Examiner ahead of Kelly's anticipated appointment.
If confirmed by the Senate, the former head of U.S. Southern Command would bring four decades of military experience with him to the sprawling agency, which is sure to play a major role in implementing the next administration's ambitious immigration program. Trump has promised to immediately deport two to three million criminal illegal aliens once he takes office, a task that would largely fall to DHS, and to erect a massive 2,000-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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01.12.2025