President-elect Donald Trump has chosen to appoint Catholics to several key Cabinet and senior advisory roles. It's led some to claim that as a result this could prove to be the "most Catholic" Cabinet and administration in the history of US politics.
The Biden administration was also noted for appointing a significant number of Catholics to high office. However, Trump’s appointments represent a departure from the liberal Catholics of Biden’s era to ones with a more conservative, pro-life outlook.
Trump’s 2024 nominations also mark a shift from his 2016 appointments, when Protestants were rewarded for their loyalty and dominated the top positions. While a significant proportion of Trump’s 2024 appointees remain Protestant, in 2016 the positions of the Vice President, Secretary of State and Secretary of Health and Human Services were all held by Protestants. In 2024, those positions will be filled by practicing Catholics.
JD Vance, the Vice President-elect, will become only the second Catholic to hold the office and the first Catholic Republican Vice President. Vance has proved a popular choice among Catholics due to his countercultural convictions and his reasoned, St. Augustine-inspired conversion to the Catholic faith.
For many, Vance is representative of a younger, more traditional Catholic who has not inherited his faith by default but has instead witnessed the wreckage of the modern age and concluded that Catholicism is the antidote.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is nominated to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, is a practicing Catholic who has <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/cna/robert-f-kennedy-jr-talks-catholic-faith-abortion-title-ix-in-exclusive-ewtn-interview"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">described</mark></a> his faith as "the centrepiece" of his life growing up. He credits his faith as playing a central role in his recovery from drug addiction and helping him remain sober for more than 40 years.
Marco Rubio, a practicing Catholic, is nominated to serve as Secretary of State, and the first to come from a Latino background. Despite a previously hostile relationship with the president-elect – Trump famously called him “Little Marco” during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries – a political friendship has since formed, with Rubio supporting many of Trump’s policies.
Rubio has had a dynamic relationship with his faith, having twice left the Church and twice returned to it. As a child, his family began attending services at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; however, young Rubio demonstrated a keen interest in Catholicism and is credited with bringing his family back to the Church. He later married in a Catholic church, though his faith lapsed during the early years of his professional success.
In subsequent years, Rubio began to feel a return to his Catholic roots and a strong desire to receive the Eucharist, which he <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/marco-rubios-crisis-of-faith-213553/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">described</mark> </a>as the “sacramental point of contact between the Catholic and the liturgy of heaven". He has since been an active member of his parish, the Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables, Florida.
Rubio is a firm advocate of pro-life policies, <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/florida-playbook/2022/08/26/rubio-spells-out-his-position-on-abortion-00053875"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">stating</mark></a>, “I am in favour of laws that protect human life. I do not believe that the dignity and the worth of human life are tied to the circumstances of their conception.”
Staunchly pro-Israel Elise Stefanik is set to serve as the US Ambassador to the United Nations. She is Catholic by descent, though she does not regularly discuss matters of faith. Her stance on social issues has not always aligned with Catholic teachings; for example, she was one of 39 House Republicans who joined Democrats to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified the right to same-sex marriage into federal law.
Her appointment appears to be, at least in part, due to her loyalty to Trump. The president-elect has <a href="https://stefanik.house.gov/2024/11/statement-on-accepting-president-donald-j-trump-s-nomination-to-serve-in-his-cabinet-as-ambassador-to-the-united-nations"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">said</mark></a>: “She was the first member of Congress to endorse me and has always been a staunch advocate." He added that she “led the charge against antisemitism on college campuses" and "she will be an incredible ambassador to the United Nations, delivering peace through strength and America First national security policies".
While the US Ambassador to the United Nations has not always been a Cabinet-level position, Trump has confirmed that it will be in his administration, saying, “I am honoured to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as US ambassador to the United Nations.”
Former television personality Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation nominee, is a devout Catholic. He and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, have nine children, and in 2019 he resigned from Congress to care for their ninth child, who was born with health complications.
Duffy began his political career as the Ashland County District Attorney in 2002 and has been a strong advocate of pro-life policies, notably introducing the Equal Right to Life Act (2019), which proposed extending 14th Amendment protections to unborn children; the bill did not pass.
Other notable non-Cabinet positions have gone to Catholics such as Tom Homan, as the US's so-called Border Czar, and to Karoline Leavitt as White House Press Secretary.
In his 2020 book, <em>Defend the Border and Save Lives</em>, Homan described a devout Catholic upbringing. Leavitt, who will serve as the youngest White House Press Secretary, has credited her Catholic schooling for instilling pro-life values, discipline and the importance of public service.
Trump has also nominated John Ratcliffe, another practicing Catholic, to serve as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
<em>Photo: Then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets Senator Marco Rubio of Florida during a campaign rally at the J.S. Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, 4 November 2024. (Photo by RYAN M. KELLY/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
