President-elect Trump’s transition staff revealed on Friday the people who will comprise the four “landing teams” that have begun to facilitate changes at key federal agencies.
Those teams, which have respectively “landed” at the State Department, Justice Department, Pentagon and National Security Council, are made up mostly of area experts. Vice President-elect Pence told reporters inside Trump Tower that the teams arrived in Washington Friday morning.
Trump’s staff disclosed the current employer of each transition team member as well as how each is being paid, a move consistent with Trump’s promise to offer more transparency than the current administration. Some of the members are volunteers, some paid by the transition team and some whose funding source is listed only as “private.”
For example, Charles Glazer, former ambassador to El Salvador under President George W. Bush, is a State Department landing team member whose funding is private.
Other members of the State Department landing team include Ashley Bell from the Republican National Committee, who is paid by the transition operation, and Jackie Wolcott, former special envoy for nuclear nonproliferation under Bush. Wolcott is a volunteer.
The Pentagon landing team includes Keith Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general and foreign policy adviser to Trump during the campaign, and William Hartzog, a retired four-star Army general. Both are volunteers. It also includes Justin Johnson, a defense expert at the Heritage Foundation.
Marshall Billingslea, a member of the NSC landing team, is a State Department and Pentagon alum who works for Deloitte. Kiron Skinner, another NSC team member, is an international security expert at Carnegie Mellon University.
Trump’s aides unveiled the members of the Justice Department landing team shortly before they formally announced the selection of Sen. Jeff Sessions to lead the agency as attorney general. Brian Benczkowski, a member of that landing team, worked with Sessions as former staff director of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Here is the full list of the first four landing team members. Trump’s transition staff has said they will ultimately dispatch such groups to every federal agency.
State Department
Erin Walsh
Alexander Gray
Jackie Wolcott
Ashley Bell
Charles Glazer
Defense Department
Mira Ricardel
Keith Kellogg
Thomas Carter
Michael Duffey
William Hartzog
Justin Johnson
Earl Matthews
Bert Mizusawa
Sergio de la Pena
National Security Council
Marshall Billingslea
Mark Scraba
Thomas Higgins
Sven Kramer
Tera Dahl
Kiron Skinner
Justice Department
Brian Benczkowski
Zina Bash
Greg Katsas
James Burnham
William Cleveland
