TOI Correspondent from Washington: MAGA supremo Donald Trump clinched a trifecta on Thursday, winning a narrow Republican majority in the House of Representatives in addition to bagging the White House and the Senate. But right from the get-go, the President-elect is testing the limits of his hold on the Grand Old Party (GOP) now infused with MAGA fervor, choosing controversial young loyalists for key posts in his upcoming administration in moves some Republican grandees see as outrageous.
If Trump’s pick of Tulsi Gabbard as the country’s intelligence czar alarmed the US strategic community, his choice of Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz for the post of Attorney General has stunned even GOP lawmakers, some of whom have accused the Florida maverick of sexual misconduct and deviant behavior. At least two Republican lawmakers have explicitly accused Gaetz, 42, of sexual relations with underaged girls, with the spat on this issue pre-dating the 2024 elections.
Moments after Trump named him on Wednesday as the putative Attorney General (he will have to be confirmed by the US Senate), Gaetz resigned from the Congressional seat he had just won from Florida, ostensibly to pre-empt a House Ethics Committee report relating to the allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug that was to be released shortly. The report cannot become public if he is not a member of the House (his resignation was accepted with alacrity by the Republican speaker), but anticipation of a media leak is keeping lawmakers on tenterhooks.
Gaetz, and for that matter Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominees for Director of National Intelligence and Defense Secretary respectively, will have to undergo a trial by fire in the US Senate confirmation hearings after the President-elect takes office on January 20, 2025. Technically, Presidential appointments for cabinet members and high-ranking administration posts have to be made “with the advice and consent of the Senate,” but Senators, who have long prided themselves on being independent-minded, can torpedo nominations by voting them down. The confirmation hearings are also preceded by extensive background checks by intelligence and security agencies, and nominations are often withdrawn if there are any adverse reports.
Republicans will have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and while a majority of the Senators are Trump loyalists, there are independent-minded holdouts who can trip up nominations if they consider them to be unqualified, national security risks, or pose a danger to the party’s fortunes. Sometimes they do so out of personal pique.
At least four Senators, including Iowa’s Chuck Grassley (at 91, the oldest member), Maine’s Susan Collins, and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, appear to have reservations about some of Trump nominees, and along with anti-Trumper Mitt Romney, they could trip up the President. Perhaps anticipating this, Trump is insisting on powers to make recess appointments that would circumvent the confirmation process and allow him to install nominees without congressional hearings.
“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments. IMMEDIATELY!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform in a warning shot after MAGA’s preferred choice of Senate leader, Rick Scott, lost out to a more moderate John Thune. Trump’s MAGA acolytes such as Senator Tommy Tuberville warned that lawmakers opposing the President-elect’s choices will risk losing their seats, arguing that Trump had the mandate to make appointments as he chooses.
The Gaetz nomination will be particularly fraught for Trump considering there has already been a circular firefight involving the Florida maverick and senior Republican lawmakers. After losing a scrap to be the House leader, Trump critic-turned-loyalist Kevin McCarthy said “I’ll give you the truth why I’m not speaker. It’s because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old.” Another GOP lawmaker, TonyGonzales from Texas, was more blunt on a tv show, saying, “I serve with some real scumbags. Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties.”