Washington: President-elect Donald Trump has made a few more controversial choices in picking people for his administration.
He chose Linda McMahon, 68, former chief executive of professional wrestling company World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and wife of wrestling kingpin Vince McMahon, to head Small Business. Trump has taken part in WWE events in the past and has close ties to the McMahons. Trump is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame and has made a cameo appearance in an event.
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Trump picks wrestling magnate for cabinet
US President-elect Donald Trump has selected WWE head Linda McMahon to lead his Small Business Administration.
McMahon, a Republican, ran for the Senate in 2010 but lost. Her many on stage appearances include a match of "fantasy WWE" where she famously kicked her husband in the groin.
Trump also picked a fossil fuel industry defender as his top environmental official, another retired general as homeland security chief and Iowa's governor as US ambassador to China in choices at odds with some of his recent pronouncements.
Trump, continuing to build his cabinet as he prepares to take office on January 20, said Oklahoma Attorney-General Scott Pruitt, 48, would be nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
Pruitt is suing the EPA in a bid to undo a key regulation under outgoing President Barack Obama that would curb greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change, mainly from coal-fired power plants.
Trump tapped retired Marine Corps General John Kelly, 66, for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which controls immigration. Kelly, the third retired general named by Trump to a senior administration post, last year told Congress that a lack of security on the US-Mexican border posed a threat to the United States.
Trump's transition team said Republican Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, 70, who has boasted of close ties to Beijing's leaders and is considered a friend of President Xi Jinping, was picked as US ambassador to China.
![Linda McMahon talks after a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York.](/web/20161208203903im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/i/s/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt6hj5.png/1481177451544.jpg)
All four posts require Senate confirmation.
Pruitt's selection came despite a softer tone Trump has struck on environmental regulation since his November 8 election. He has stepped back from casting climate change as a hoax, signalled he might be willing to allow the United States to continue participating in the Paris climate change deal aimed at lowering world carbon emissions, and met former vice-president Al Gore, a leading environmental voice.
![Iowa Governor Terry Branstad on Tuesday.](/web/20161208203903im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/g/w/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt6hj5.png/1481177451544.jpg)
Pruitt's selection brought a quick rebuke from Democrats.
"The head of the EPA cannot be a stenographer for the lobbyists of polluters and Big Oil," House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said of Pruitt.
![Terry Branstad, right, with then Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Iowa in 2012.](/web/20161208203903im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/i/9/i/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt6hj5.png/1481177451544.jpg)
Trump talked tough during the campaign about deporting all of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US and building a wall along the Mexican border. But since the election he has softened his comments on deportation and referred to some illegal immigrants "terrific people".
Kelly would work in tandem with Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump's pick for attorney-general who is a leading advocate of cracking down on illegal immigration.
![President-elect Donald Trump with retired Marine General John Kelly, right, on Sunday.](/web/20161208203903im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/i/q/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt6hj5.png/1481177451544.jpg)
Kelly would head a department in charge of securing borders against illegal immigration, protecting the president, responding to natural disasters and coordinating intelligence and countre-terrorism.
He formerly headed the Southern Command, responsible for US military activities and relationships in Latin America and the Caribbean. He was a proponent of keeping open the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
![Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.](/web/20161208203903im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/i/p/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt6hj5.png/1481177451544.jpg)
Trump previously picked retired Marine Corps General James Mattis as defence secretary and retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as national security adviser.
Branstad has been an eager trading partner with China, helping Iowa sell agricultural goods to the Asian powerhouse. His choice came after Trump rattled the world's second-largest economy with tough talk on trade and a telephone call with the leader of Taiwan.
Some experts fear Trump will spark a trade war with Beijing given his threats to slap steep tariffs on Chinese goods and label China a currency manipulator in order to unfairly sell its products to the United States.
Trump has more key appointments to make in coming days, including the high-profile job of secretary of state. His team said former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a fierce Trump critic during the campaign, is still under consideration for a diplomatic job.
Aside from the personnel announcements, Trump basked in being named Time Magazine's "person of the year", telling NBC's Today show, "It's a great honour, it means a lot."
In an interview with Time, Trump continued to take on corporate America, promising to bring down drug prices and causing shares of US pharmaceutical and biotech companies to fall.
Reuters
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