Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Beginning with the birth of our nation, Long Islanders have shaped the policies of America as well as our country’s impact on the world. Suffolk County’s William Floyd was one of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence. President Theodore Roosevelt, who made his home in Oyster Bay, is often cited as one of our greatest leaders. Bellmore’s William Casey served as President Ronald Reagan’s CIA director during an era fraught with Cold War tensions.
As the Biden administration sunsets and President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration begins to take shape, Long Islanders are once again positioned to influence our nation and the course of human history.
Trump has nominated Howard Lutnick, from Jericho, to serve as secretary of commerce. Lutnick, the chairman and chief executive of the global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, strongly supports the president-elect’s plans to impose tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico, which would have dramatic impacts on the global economy.
Trump has chosen Dr. Dave Weldon, a Farmingdale High School and Stony Brook University graduate, to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Weldon, a former congressman from Florida, would succeed fellow Long Islander Dr. Mandy Cohen, a Baldwin native whom President Biden appointed to the role last year. (Another Baldwin native, Karine Jean-Pierre, has served as President Biden’s White House press secretary since 2022.) Given the recent politicization of the CDC, as well as the anti-establishment views of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump has selected as his secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services — which oversees the CDC — Weldon is set to wield unique power in setting public health policy.
Biden named Dr. David Kessler, a graduate of Woodmere Academy (now the Lawrence Woodmere Academy) as the lead scientist on the coronavirus vaccine distribution efforts. Kessler formerly headed the Food and Drug Administration under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Trump has also named Steve Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. Witkoff, who was raised in Baldwin Harbor and Old Westbury, is a successful real estate developer and a major benefactor of Hofstra University, where he earned a law degree. (He shares that law school alma mater with Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and a convicted felon whom Trump has selected as ambassador to France.) Witkoff’s appointment continues Trump’s selection of Long Islanders for critical Middle East policy roles.
In Trump’s first term, the U.S. ambassador to Israel was David Friedman, who grew up in North Woodmere. The son of Rabbi Morris Friedman, who led Temple Hillel for 33 years and brought Reagan to the synagogue in 1984, David Friedman played a pivotal role in promoting Trump’s Middle East policies, from the decision to relocate the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, to supporting the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Trump also announced his choice of Garden City’s Kash Patel as director of the FBI. Leaders on both sides of the aisle, however, have expressed concerns about that choice, because of what they perceive to be Patel’s desire to dismantle the very institution he has been tapped to lead, as well as his lack of relevant experience.
“I categorically opposed making Patel deputy FBI director,” William Barr, who served as attorney general under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Trump, wrote in his 2022 book, “One Damn Thing After Another.” “I told Mark Meadows,” Barr added, referring to Trump’s White House chief of staff, “it would happen ‘over my dead body.’ Someone with no background as an agent would never be able to command the respect necessary to run the day-to-day operations of the bureau.”
Finally, there’s former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, who, in 2022, unsuccessfully challenged Gov. Kathy Hochul in New York’s gubernatorial election. Zeldin, an Army veteran who represented New York’s 1st Congressional District from 2015 to 2023, is poised to become Trump’s administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. In that role, Zeldin would have wide-ranging powers to create or eliminate regulations that protect the environment.
Many of Trump’s selections must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. We expect most of them will be, or will serve in interim roles. Regardless, these Long Islanders are a testament to the region’s diverse influence on national politics and international diplomacy. We hope they don’t forget where they came from, and make decisions that uplift not only our country, but also the Long Island communities they once called home.
