John Kelly, the Marine Corps general reportedly picked by Donald Trump to be Homeland Security secretary, will be the new administration's lead figure as it pursues the president-elect's goal of boosting the fight against Islamic extremists and illegal immigration.
The third general chosen for Trump's cabinet, Kelly spent 45 years in the Marines, holding a range of positions from field commands in Iraq to political liaison in Congress before finishing his career as commander of the US armed forces Southern Command covering Central and South America.
That experience -- and his record administering large operations -- will be useful if he is confirmed by Congress to take charge of the Department of Homeland Security bureaucracy of 240,000 civil servants, sorely in need of rationalising and streamlining.
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But meanwhile he will be in charge of fulfilling Trump's election promises to the American people to build a huge wall on the Mexican border to keep out migrants, and to tighten legal immigration processes to screen out potential extremists.
The blunt-speaking Kelly is close to Gen. James Mattis, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense. Kelly served as Mattis's top aide in the 2003 assault on Baghdad which crushed Saddam Hussein's army.
But he is also shaped by the experience of having his own son, also a Marine, die in battle. First Lieutenant Robert Michael Kelly was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2010.
A native of Boston, Kelly, 66, enlisted in the Marines when he was 20, spent two years in an infantry company, and then left to go to university.
After graduating he rejoined the Corps as a second lieutenant and steadily rose up in the ranks through a number of positions, including company and battalion commands. In the late 1990s he was the Marine Corps commandant's liaison to Congress, the first of two such stints which would give him intimate knowledge of relations between legislators and the military.
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In 1999 he began a two-year stint as special assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, in Mons, Belgium.
In 2002-3 as a colonel and then brigadier general, Kelly returned to the 1st Marine Division, serving under Major Mattis in the successful assault on Baghdad.
Five years later he was back in Iraq for the US occupation, holding two posts over the 2008-2011 period. He earned his fourth star when he was named to head the US Southern Command in 2012, a position he held until retiring in January 2016.
In that job he dealt with some of the key problems that will be on his plate at DHS: the intense cross-border drug trade, illegal immigration, and violent Central American gangs which have their networks inside the United States.
Massive security bureaucracy
Managing the Department of Homeland Security though will be another massive task in itself.
Established in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, it oversees US immigration and naturalisation, border patrols, the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, transportation security, and the US Secret Service, among other functions.
Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Wednesday that the department needs a sweeping overhaul.
"It's time to undertake wholesale reform at DHS, including eliminating bureaucratic bloat, scrapping failing offices, and cutting through the red tape," he said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation conservative think tank.
"We must make sure DHS stays ahead of our enemies and that it leverages private sector innovation to deal with emerging threats from drones, IEDs, and beyond."
Trump picks China ambassador
Trump on Wednesday selected a political ally with close ties to China as ambassador to Beijing, stressed his determination to create American jobs and revealed he consulted with Barack Obama on his cabinet picks.
The Republican tycoon's election victory shocked the US establishment and alarmed the world, which is now waiting with bated breath to see if the political novice will follow through on a slew of threats to tear up free trade agreements, abandon treaties and punish American companies relocating jobs overseas.
He antagonised China last week by taking a protocol-busting telephone call from the president of Taiwan, and then railed against Beijing for alleged currency manipulation, unfair taxes and militarising the South China Sea.
Beijing, which considers Taiwan part of its territory, on Wednesday urged Washington to block President Tsai Ing-wen from passing through the United States after reports said she may stop in New York to meet the Trump team.
But on Wednesday, Trump dangled potentially welcome news for Beijing: his pick of Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, who is close to Chinese President Xi Jinping, as ambassador to China.
"Governor Branstad's decades of experience in public service and long-time relationship with President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders make him the ideal choice to serve as America's Ambassador to China," Trump said.
Upon reports of Branstad's nomination, China called him an "old friend."
Trump has pledged to create jobs by commissioning giant infrastructure projects to overhaul America's ailing roads, bridges, tunnels and airports, as well as by slashing corporate tax rates in an attempt to drive investment.
"We have to look at it almost as a war," he told supporters on Tuesday in Fayetteville, North Carolina on the second leg of an unorthodox victory tour of key swing states that propelled him into office.
