CABINET

President George Washington created the Cabinet by having meetings with three advisers, but James Madison gave the group its enduring name. Today, the President’s Cabinet has expanded from three to fifteen, including the Vice President. Cabinet members determine the order of succession should the President pass away or be unable to serve — the Secretary of State, for example, follows the Vice President, Speaker of the House, and President pro tempore of the Senate — but they are also heads of their own Executive Departments. Cabinet members are nominated by the President and require a majority vote from the Senate to be confirmed. While the EPA Administrator is not a part of the Cabinet, the position has Cabinet-level rank, and also has regulatory power.

Here are some of the key players on President Trump’s team when it comes to climate 

• Lee Zeldin is Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, responsible for crafting fuel-efficiency standards for the nation’s cars and trucks, overseeing emissions from power plants and oil and gas facilities, and cleaning up the country’s most polluted sites. In March 2025, Zeldin presented what he described as the "largest deregulatory announcement in U.S. history" wherein he reframed the purpose of the EPA towards deregulation and energy production and announced plans to repeal dozens of major environmental regulations, including protections for wetlands, limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks, and the endangerment finding, the legal basis for regulation of greenhouse gases. Under Zeldin, the agency additionally announced plans to cut agency jobs, eliminate its scientific research arm, and reduce the EPA's budget by 65%.
• Doug Burgum is the Secretary of the Department of the Interior, an agency which oversees public and federal lands and their natural resources, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. He told a House committee in May that the U.S. has “plenty of time to solve the climate crisis” as he focuses on slashing spending on national parks, historic preservation, and other key interior department programing. 
• In February, 2025, Burgum was additionally appointed to lead Trump’s newly established National Energy Dominance Council which will oversee all U.S. regulatory and permitting agencies with an eye toward fast-tracking everything from oil and gas drilling to renewable projects. The Council will advise the President on strategies to achieve energy dominance. 
• Burgum is also the first Interior Secretary to sit on the National Security Council.  His appointment to the NSC reflects the increasing importance of energy and environmental issues in national security discussions, according to The New York Times. 
• Chris Wright is Secretary of the Department of Energy. A former CEO of North America’s largest hydraulic fracturing company, he is charged with carrying out U.S. Energy policy and the nuclear weapons and energy programs including oversight of research, energy policies, and clean energy technology. February 5, 2025, two days after his confirmation hearing, he signed his first Secretarial Order “unleashing American Energy in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders.” He defends and explains those orders to the Senate in May. You can view on YouTube.
• Scott Bessent is the U.S. Treasury Secretary. In April, 2025, he urged the IMF and the World Bank to drop their climate work. Bessent's views on climate change are consistent with the broader policies of the Trump administration, which has downplayed the severity of climate change and prioritized deregulation and fossil fuel production.