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Live updates: Trump’s presidential transition, House races still being counted

In January 2023, the lights are on at Goldman Sachs' global headquarters in New York.

John Rogers, the executive vice president and secretary of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs, is advising former and new first lady Melania Trump on staffing the East Wing for Donald Trump’s second term, according to two people briefed on the role have been informed.

Rogers is providing advice to Mrs. Trump in a personal capacity while still serving in his roles at the bank. The two met through Rogers’ role as president of the White House Historical Association.

His role in advising staff comes amid questions about how Melania Trump will build out her team. Compared to other modern first ladies, Trump had a permanent staff in the East Wing during his first term, with fewer than a dozen full-time employees. Trump has also complained about aides seen as disloyal, including Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who secretly recorded the then-first lady expressing her frustration over criticism of her husband’s policy of keeping families at the U.S.-Mexico border divorce, while also having to fulfill traditional first lady roles.

“I was in the White House before. When you walk in, you know exactly what to expect. You know what kind of people you need to get – that they are on your team, that they have the same vision as me and that they should serve me because they serve the country,” she said in a recent interview with Fox News.

President-elect Trump has long seen a curriculum vitae, including Goldman Sachs, as the gold standard for potential new hires. Gary Cohn, once president and chief operating officer at the bank, led Trump’s economic policies during his first term. Dina Powell McCormick, a partner at the bank, served as deputy national security adviser before returning to the bank to manage relationships with sovereign wealth funds. Trump’s first Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, had worked at the bank for seventeen years in various positions.

Semafor was the first to report Rogers’ role.