President-elect Trump’s rollout of his Cabinet and administration nominees, coupled with the transition team’s lack of vetting, is creating unwanted headaches for Senate Republicans.
Trump has been rolling out appointments and nominees at a breakneck pace as he seeks to stock his administration with loyalists, from Kash Patel at the FBI and Pam Bondi as attorney general, to Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon, Robert F. Kennedy and Health and Human Services and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) as director of national intelligence.
But that swiftness has also brought pitfalls. A pair of nominees have already withdrawn in the early weeks — and Hegseth could follow suit as he struggles to win the requisite support in the upper chamber.
Although Senate Republicans are pleased with much of the swift action and many of Trump’s choices so far, they concede the lack of vetting and rapid nature of the push is creating sore spots they would prefer to avoid, especially with confirmation hearings and votes on deck in short order.
“It’s got upsides and downsides, no question about it,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “It’s not ideal, but it is Donald Trump. It just is Donald Trump, and he’ll always perplex us with the different way he does things.”
“I’ve just grown to love it and go with it,” Cramer added.
With his victory in the rearview mirror, Trump wasted no time in announcing scores of administration appointees and nominations, including much of his potential Cabinet — with some of those announcements coming mere minutes of one another.
His nomination of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to lead the Justice Department served as a prime example as it came on the heels of him tapping Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to become secretary of State. In between, he also announced Gabbard, a former Democratic lawmaker from Hawaii, was his choice for the intelligence office.
That was all in a 27-minute time span.
Gaetz, of course, ended up withdrawing from consideration to become attorney general. Trump nominated Bondi, Florida’s former attorney general, for the same post six hours later.
“The sooner the better to get the nominations out,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). “The challenge is to get the background work done, but it would make it worse if he was waiting until January to do that because it would delay getting them through the processes we have in place.”
Much of the questions in recent days have centered on the background check issue, especially after multiple nominees have reportedly opposed subjecting themselves to one by the FBI until there is new leadership in place. The Trump transition team on Tuesday signed an agreement to allow the Justice Department to carry out background checks on his picks after a lengthy post-election delay.
This has led to frustration among Senate Republicans, especially amid questions about a number of Trump’s nominees, such as Hegseth.
“Clearly, some people need to be vetted better,” said one Senate GOP aide said, pointing specifically to the recent situation surrounding Chad Chronister, a Florida sheriff who withdrew his nomination to become head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) only three days after he was selected.
Chronister’s choice came under question almost immediately as he arrested a Florida pastor in March 2020 for convening a church service in violation of COVID-19 lockdown regulations. The incident was a big problem for GOP senators.
“Look at the DEA guy,” the aide continued. “Just Google [Chronister’s] name. That’s what pops up.”
The Trump transition team was unaware of the 2017 allegation of sexual assault against Hegseth when he was chosen for the Defense slot. No charges were ever filed against him.
Gaetz was nominated only days before the House Ethics Committee was set to release a damaging report related to allegations that he had sex with a minor.
As for Gabbard, questions remain among senators, including some Republicans, about her loyalties given past comments that were sympathetic to Russia and whether she is at all compromised.
But whether these nomination missteps, past and potential, will backfire on Trump politically remains an open question. Senate GOP sources believe that the incoming president is fine in that regard for now, especially with a lengthy legislative to-do list coming during the first 100 days.
“At the end of the day, folks are giving a lot of leeway to the president. … If anyone goes down, it’s up to the president how he handles it,” a second Senate GOP aide said. “The reality in Congress is everyone wants to get things done and they need the president’s support to do that.”
Nevertheless, one thing members are getting used to once again is the Trump-infused manic pace that was noticeably absent during Biden’s presidency, with the nominations being a prime example.
Cramer noted the rapid-fire personnel announcements have been hard for him and his colleagues to keep up with, though. He specifically pointed to his recent realization that he has not met with former Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.), Trump’s nominee to take over atop the Transportation Department, despite his status as chair of the Environment and Public Works subcommittee on transportation.
On top of the lack of a meeting, Cramer said the announcements came so fast and furious that he never posted on the social platform X his support for Duffy’s bid — who he is a big backer of.
“I couldn’t keep up,” Cramer said, adding that he told his top aides, “I guess we can only handle one Fox News personality at a time.”
