Trump Names Susie Wiles As White House Chief Of Staff

US President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named his campaign manager Susan Wiles as his White House chief of staff, making her the first woman ever to hold this powerful position in any administration.

"Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again. It is a well-deserved honour to have Susie as the first-ever female chief of staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud," Trump said.

Wiles was the campaign manager for Trump's highly successful 2024 Campaign for President. "Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns," Trump said.

"Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected," said the president-elect.

Global leaders congratulate Trump

The verdict of US voters was more decisive than most pollsters and pundits had predicted. Now the world waits to see whether the election of Donald Trump as president for a second time will prove as destabilising as many American allies fear.

Trump secured victory on Wednesday when he surpassed the 270 electoral college votes needed to win. In a victory speech before the official declaration, he vowed to "put our country first" and bring about a "golden age" for America. Trump's first term saw him insult and alienate many of the United States' longstanding allies.

His return to the White House, four years after losing office to President Joe Biden, has huge consequences for everything from global trade to climate change to multiple crises and conflicts around the world.

Trump has pledged to ramp up a tariff feud with China, the United States' growing economic and strategic rival. In the Middle East, Trump has pledged, without saying how, to end the conflicts between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah. He has also vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office - something Ukraine and its supporters fear would be on terms favorable to Moscow.

Here's how leaders and others around the world are reacting: NATO is nervous and Ukraine is anxious NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte congratulated Trump, saying, "I look forward to working with him again to advance peace through strength through NATO" in the face of "a growing number of challenges globally," including "the increasing alignment of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran."

Trump was a strong critic of the North Atlantic military alliance during his first term, accusing its other members of failing to pull their weight. Earlier this year he said the United States would not defend NATO members that don't meet defence spending targets. Trump wants European allies to boost their own military spending to rely less on US deterrence, but some European leaders and diplomats have expressed fears that he fundamentally lacks commitment to NATO.

Rutte emphasised the positive, praising Trump for his work persuading member states to ramp up defence spending and saying NATO was now "stronger, larger, and more united." America's allies are - belatedly, some say - grappling with what to do if they cannot depend on the US for their defence.

"The existential concern for Europeans has been what happens to Ukraine, what happens to Europe's security, what happens to America's commitment to NATO?" said Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the US and Americas program at the think tank Chatham House. "Will America be there for Europe?" The US is by far Kyiv's biggest military backer as it battles Russian invasion, though the Biden administration resisted pressure from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to do even more.

Zelenskyy, like Rutte, said he welcomed Trump's "peace through strength" approach. "This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer," Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

"I am hopeful that we will put it into action together. We look forward to an era of a strong United States of America under President Trump's decisive leadership." Zelenskyy later wrote that he had spoken to Trump and congratulated him on "his historic landslide victory - his tremendous campaign made this result possible. I praised his family and team for their great work. We agreed to maintain close dialogue and advance our cooperation."

No congratulations were forthcoming from Moscow, where President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, declared that Russia-US relations were at the "lowest point in history." European congratulations mask deep divisions European leaders rushed to congratulate Trump even before his victory was officially declared - some more effusively than others.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it a "historic election victory" and said that "as the closest of allies, the UK and US will continue to work together to protect our shared values of freedom and democracy." Like governments of US allies around the world, Starmer's center-left administration has worked hard to forge ties with Trump and his team. Starmer had dinner with Trump at Trump Tower in September.

France's centrist President Emmanuel Macron offered congratulations, "respect and ambition." Social Democratic German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated Trump and said he wanted continued close ties, even if "surely many things will be different under a Donald Trump-led administration."

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose far right-led government is in some ways close to Trump politically, said Italy and the US had a "strategic bond, which I am sure we will now strengthen even more."

European leaders are keen to stress that the transatlantic relationship transcends individual politicians, but Trump's protectionist economic leanings are causing concern. During his last term he slapped tariffs on European steel and aluminum, roiling the bloc's economy. A Middle East in turmoil awaits Trump's moves During his first term, Trump pushed to remake the Middle East by reconciling Israel and Saudi Arabia, and all eyes now are on how he intervenes in the region's raging conflicts between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon - and the chief backer of the two militant groups, Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump's election win "history's greatest comeback." Trump and Netanyahu - a fellow conservative nationalist - had a tight relationship during the former president's first term, but the ties soured when Netanyahu congratulated President Joe Biden on winning in 2020.

Netanyahu's inner circle hopes Trump will allow Israel free rein against its enemies, but the president-elect is famously unpredictable, and the Israeli leader faces strong opposition at home. On Tuesday he fired popular Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, a surprise announcement that sparked protests across the country.

Hamas issued a terse statement saying, "Our position on the new US administration depends on its positions and practical behavior towards our Palestinian people, their legitimate rights and their just cause." Washington is one of the key mediators of so-far unsuccessful Gaza cease-fire talks.

The challenge of China still looms Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the US and China to manage their differences and get along in a new era in a congratulatory message to Trump. He told Trump that history has shown that both sides gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation, according to Chinese state media. But analysts in China were pessimistic, citing the likelihood of escalating tariffs and an intensifying confrontation over Taiwan. Long-seething territorial disputes in the South China Sea are a fault line in the US-China rivalry in Asia and likely will remain a major foreign policy concern for the next American president.