The Battles Over Donald Trump’s Cupboard Nominees Are Lastly Right here

WASHINGTON ― President-elect Donald Trump’s personnel plans for his second time period have consumed Washington for the reason that November election, however the affirmation course of for high administration officers is barely now getting underway with a slate of high-profile Senate committee hearings starting this week.

Beginning Tuesday morning, 12 nominees will seem for probably explosive televised hearings with senators who’ll grill them on their backgrounds and imaginative and prescient for his or her jobs. Count on the method to encompass Republicans making an attempt to push via a few of Trump’s most contentious nominees amid sturdy objections from Democrats, who misplaced management of the Senate in November however who’re anticipated to assist a few of Trump’s picks.

The nominees slated to seem in Congress this week embrace former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, tapped for inside secretary; South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, for homeland safety secretary; former Florida Lawyer Common Pam Bondi, for U.S. lawyer common; former U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, for transportation secretary; former Nationwide Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe, for CIA director; Sen. Marco Rubio, for secretary of state; former Workplace of Administration and Price range Director Russell Vought, to steer OMB once more; former White Home Alternative and Revitalization Council director Scott Turner, for housing and concrete improvement secretary; former Rep. Lee Zeldin, to steer the Environmental Safety Company; and investor Scott Bessent, for treasury secretary.

On Tuesday, Senate panels will think about considered one of Trump’s most controversial nominees — former Fox Information host Pete Hegseth for protection secretary.

Hegseth has been accused of sexual misconduct and alcohol abuse, fees the previous Military Nationwide Guard officer has denied. He’s additionally been accused of monetary mismanagement as the top of a Veterans Affairs nonprofit in 2016, prompting considerations about his capacity to handle the nation’s largest authorities company.

“If there’s any Cabinet position that ought to have a steady and drama-free individual, it is certainly secretary of defense,” Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) mentioned Monday. “Unfortunately, Mr. Hegseth’s background is deeply troubling.”

Some Republican senators, together with a number of ladies, have but to announce their assist for Hegseth, together with army veteran Joni Ernst of Iowa, who’s confronted a stress marketing campaign on Hegseth’s affirmation from Trump’s allies. Shedding a minimum of 4 GOP votes would block Hegseth’s nomination from going via.

Hegseth, for his half, has promised to surrender consuming if confirmed ― a pledge that can possible draw scrutiny through the listening to. He’s additionally recanted his long-held view that girls shouldn’t serve in fight roles.

“[He needs to] explain how someone who has spent 12 years declaring that women have no role in active-duty military and combat can completely, reasonably be trusted to run America’s military,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) mentioned Monday.

Listed below are a number of of Trump’s nominees you’ll see this week and the way they’re prone to fare:

On the opposite finish of the affirmation spectrum, Sen. Rubio (R-Fla.) is predicted to have a comparatively breezy time in entrance of the Senate International Relations Committee on Wednesday.

As a vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and member of the International Relations Committee, Rubio is taken into account certified to develop into the highest U.S. diplomat at a time of main upheaval within the Center East and Ukraine. Rubio is seen as powerful on two of the nation’s predominant financial and geopolitical rivals, Iran and China, whereas sharing Trump’s less-unwavering assist for Ukraine amid its battle with Russia. If confirmed, Rubio can be the primary Latino to function U.S. secretary of state.

A U.S. senator since 2011 (and a previously harsh critic of Trump through the 2016 presidential main), Rubio may additionally get confirmed with a big diploma of assist from throughout the aisle. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has known as Rubio a “strong choice” for secretary of state and mentioned he “looks forward to voting for his confirmation.” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ailing.) has additionally mentioned he’ll again Rubio.

Vought might not be a family identify, however you’re possible aware of his work: Vought beforehand led the Workplace of Administration and Price range, the place for which he’s being renominated. The workplace is broadly accountable for implementing the president’s imaginative and prescient for the federal government throughout its businesses.

Vought was accountable for OMB on the tail finish of Trump’s first time period. Between then and now, Vought has labored on shaping the Republican Nationwide Committee’s coverage platform.

Vought can also be a co-author of the controversial Venture 2025 blueprint for a second Trump time period from the conservative Heritage Basis, which requires a consolidation of energy within the government department and the reclassification of rank-and-file authorities employees as political appointees.

On Wednesday, count on members of the Homeland Safety and Authorities Affairs Committee to grill Vought on Venture 2025 — from which Trump sought to distance himself through the 2024 election — and his plans for a second Trump White Home.

Bondi, Trump’s nominee to steer the Division of Justice because the nation’s high prosecutor, will seem earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and Thursday. Bondi was Florida’s lawyer common from 2011 to 2019 and later served on the protection staff for Trump’s first impeachment in 2020.

Democrats are prone to increase considerations about Bondi’s paid lobbying work on behalf of a number of international governments, in addition to her dedication to the rule of legislation and the Justice Division’s independence in gentle of Trump’s threats to make use of the company to go after his political rivals.

“The American people deserve an Attorney General who will protect their fundamental rights, demonstrate independence and integrity, and remain faithful to the Constitution, the country, and the rule of law above all,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ailing.) mentioned in a press release after assembly with Bondi.

The previous North Dakota governor, Trump’s decide to supervise 500 million acres of federal land as head of the Division of the Inside, will seem earlier than the Senate Committee on Vitality and Pure Assets on Thursday.

The billionaire software program entrepreneur and two-term governor briefly ran towards Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination however dropped out and endorsed Trump. If confirmed, Burgum would play a key function in advancing Trump’s imaginative and prescient for reinforcing fossil gas drilling and different extraction throughout federal lands and dismantling environmental protections.

Burgum is prone to face powerful questions from Democrats about his imaginative and prescient for managing public land, his state’s assist for a Utah lawsuit aimed toward taking management of thousands and thousands of acres of federal land, and his private monetary ties to grease billionaire and Republican megadonor Harold Hamm.

Burgum’s affirmation listening to was initially scheduled for Tuesday however was postponed attributable to a delay in senators receiving the nominee’s required monetary disclosure and ethics paperwork.

The South Dakota governor seems to be headed to a comparatively straightforward affirmation to move the Division of Homeland Safety however might face powerful questions at her Wednesday listening to with the Senate Homeland Safety and Authorities Affairs Committee over how she’ll oversee the Federal Emergency Administration Company, contemplating Trump’s longstanding threats to withhold emergency support and a spate of Republicans threatening to maintain catastrophe aid from California following devastating fires in Los Angeles County.

She would oversee immigration and border enforcement at DHS, although it’s clear a lot of the coverage on these issues will come out of the White Home, the place high Trump adviser Stephen Miller and immigration czar Tom Homan will work.

Although she could not decide up any Democratic votes, there’s been no signal of GOP dissent on her nomination. Noem is probably greatest recognized nationally for writing about capturing her canine in her memoir.

Trump’s decide to steer the EPA is a former GOP congressman from New York who mounted a surprisingly aggressive marketing campaign for governor in a deep-blue state in 2022.

Zeldin, who used to symbolize jap Lengthy Island within the U.S. Home, is ready to seem earlier than the Senate Committee on the Setting and Public Works on Thursday.

In Congress, Zeldin repeatedly voted to chop funding to the company he’s now in search of to steer. The nation’s largest environmental teams oppose his nomination, however he received the endorsement of Mandy Gunasekara, a controversial former EPA official from Trump’s first time period who authored a key part on the company within the Heritage Basis’s Venture 2025 plan.

Like Scott Pruitt, who was Trump’s first EPA administrator throughout his first time period, Zeldin’s private monetary dealings might draw blowback. Final week, Business Insider reported the previous congressman earned $120,500 from unnamed shoppers for writing opinion items and giving speeches.

Wright, Trump’s decide to steer the Division of Vitality, is ready to seem earlier than the Senate Committee on Vitality and Pure Useful resource on Wednesday. The oil and fuel government served till lately on the helm of Liberty Vitality, the Denver-based fracking firm he based in 2011 on the daybreak of a drilling increase that vaulted america into the ranks of the world’s high hydrocarbon producers.

Wright’s nomination has generated much less controversy than Trump’s different candidates to steer businesses that, underneath the Biden administration, shaped the spear tip of U.S. efforts to rework the nation’s vitality methods.

Final yr, Wright posted a video on-line through which he mentioned “there is no climate crisis,” insisting “we’re not in the midst of an energy transition.” Citing atmospheric knowledge in a firm report he authored as Liberty’s chief government final yr, Wright acknowledged that “climate change is significant” however mentioned that “prioritizing” the problem over supplying reasonably priced, dependable vitality risked inflaming what he known as the extra pressing crises of malnutrition, illness and air air pollution.

Regardless of its identify, the Vitality Division has restricted purview over the U.S. oil and fuel business. Spun out from the previous Atomic Vitality Fee in 1977, the company oversees the nation’s nuclear arsenal and the nationwide laboratories testing new civilian reactor designs, and it loans cash to cutting-edge vitality corporations.

The drama is simply getting began.

Different nominees going through powerful affirmation battles, together with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for secretary of well being and human companies; former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, for director of nationwide intelligence; and former federal prosecutor Kash Patel, for FBI director, could have their hearings within the coming weeks.

These appearances can be an opportunity for senators, particularly Democrats, to make the nominees reply for previous controversies and provides the get together the chance to press Trump nominees on the president-elect’s legislative agenda.

“Democrats see the confirmation process for Trump nominees as the first foray for Senate Democrats to hold Republicans accountable and get the nominees on the record,” a Senate Democratic supply advised HuffPost.

Patel, one of many nominees most probably to face a contentious grilling, has promised to wield the federal government as a weapon to “go after” Trump’s enemies in authorities and the media.

Patel has dubiously claimed his phrases had been taken out of context; Republican senators have advised HuffPost that, primarily based on their conversations with Patel, they don’t assume he would really go after folks within the method he’d beforehand recommended.

Requested concerning the prospect of Patel launching a prison investigation of former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) ― whom Home Republicans lately mentioned must be investigated by the FBI ― Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) declined to get into it.

“You’re speculating,” Grassley advised HuffPost final week. “I don’t want to answer speculative questions.”