Donald Trump picks ex-US spy John Ratcliffe as CIA chief, Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel

US President-elect Donald Trump, currently in the process of choosing his brand new cabinet, nominated former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Donald Trump has also chosen former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as the ambassador to Israel and staunch loyalist Steven Witkoff as the special envoy to the Middle East.

In a flurry of announcements, Donald Trump named Bill McGinley, his Cabinet secretary in his first administration, his White House counsel. The president-elect is working at a fast pace to pick his cabinet, ahead of the Inauguration Day on January 20, 2025.

Who is John Ratcliffe?

John Ratcliffe, who served as a Republican congressman from Texas, was the director of national intelligence in the final few months of the first Trump administration, leading all the US spy agencies during the Covid-19 pandemic. John Ratcliffe’s appointment as the CIA chief will have to be approved by the Senate and he is a more traditional pick than some of the other candidates Trump was considering.

As an intelligence director, Ratcliffe was criticised by Democrats for declassifying in the final days of the 2020 presidential election Russian intelligence alleging damaging information about Democrats during the 2016 race, even though he acknowledged it might not be true.

Who is Mike Huckabee?

Mike Huckabee, the new ambassador of Israel, has been vocally defending Israel since the beginning of the tensions in the Middle East. Huckabee’s intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align US foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

David Friedman, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Israel in his first term, said he was “thrilled” by Trump’s selection of Huckabee.

Steven Witkoff, nominated to be a special envoy to Middle East, is a Florida real estate investor who is serving as a chair of Trump’s inaugural committee. He is one of Trump’s oldest friends, and spent has known him since his days in the New York real estate market.

(With inputs from AP)