​

After winning the 2024 presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump's next big step is to fill his Cabinet with the right leaders who will strengthen his agenda over the next four years.

There are multiple rumored candidates for each position, but the following people are the most talked about contenders for the top positions:

Foreign Minister

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who was a top candidate on Trump's shortlist for vice president, was nominated for the role of secretary of state.

Rubio currently serves as vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence and senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, leading various initiatives to strengthen national security.

The Florida senator did not rule out taking a position in government during an interview after the election.

“I'm always interested in serving this country,” Rubio told CNN. “I have not had firm discussions with anyone in the Trump administration. Either way, I plan to work with them, whether in the Senate, which is an important place, or in some other capacity.”

The name of Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., is also being considered as a potential Cabinet nominee. Hagerty was a former ambassador to Japan under Trump and pushed back on the Biden-Harris administration's foreign policy.

Trump's former national security adviser Robert O'Brien is also applying for the role, Fox News Digital said. After leaving the Trump administration, he co-founded the international political consulting firm American Global Strategies.

Minister of Defense

The campaign-decorated Green Beret Representative Mike Waltz from Florida could be tapped to lead the US defense agency.

Waltz, who was previously CEO of defense contractor Metis Solutions and director of defense policy at the Pentagon under Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates, is a member of the House China Task Force, which coordinates policy toward China and works to reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese minerals reduce.

Walz is chairman of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee and a member of the Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could take over the leadership of the defense agency again after Trump's first term in office.

This is an excerpt from an article by Aubrie Spady and Elizabeth Elkind of Fox News