Senate confirmation hearings: Who’s who among Donald Trump’s top picks for the Cabinet and the White House

The spotlight will shine on their ties to the Kremlin, their lobbyist powers, apparent conflicts of interest and controversial personal views

Trump's team are a lot like him - rich, pro-Russia and anti-Muslim Reuters

Donald Trump is inches away from cementing the team that will surround him and shape his policies for the next four, if not eight, years, as the week of senate confirmation hearings begins.

During a frenzy of confirmation hearings - the last step before the nominees enter the White House - Democrats and lawmakers have pushed to delay the hearings, citing concerns with improper vetting of candidates and a lack of paperwork for the Office of Government Ethics.

His cabinet has been reported as the least educated and the richest in US political history, their combined wealth standing at more than a third of US households.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told the Democrats to "grow up".

"All of these little procedural complaints are related to their frustration that having not only lost the White House, but having lost the Senate. I understand that. But we need to sort of, grow up here and get past that," he told CBS.

Jeff Sessions, attorney general

One of the most controversial senate picks is Mr Sessions, the Alabama politician who was once deemed too racist to be a federal judge.

He has made jokes about the Ku Klux Klan, called a black lawyer “boy” and suggested that civil rights groups were “un-American”. He will now rule over the country’s justice system.

Rex Tillerson, secretary of state

The ExxonMobil CEO has worked in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and he has a rather close relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, having received Russia’s Order of Friendship. Mr Tillerson is a vocal opponent of sanctions against Russia.

He was recently discovered to be a director of the Russian subsidiary of ExxonMobil, registered in the Bahamas.

His shares in his company, worth at least $180 million, will provide him a golden parachute before he steps into the White House.

John Kelly, secretary of homeland security

Mr Kelly was the head of US Southern Command, which involved overseeing Guantanamo Bay prison, and will soon be the heavyweight in the arena of border security, the Mexican “wall” and reforming the way the US deals with terrorism.

The prison base in Cuba was accused over the years of abusing human rights and carrying out torture methods like force-feeding and waterboarding, which Mr Trump approves of.

The 66-year-old ex-marine is the third retired general to be appointed to the cabinet.