The Two Nominees for Whom Trump Is Prepared to Go to War
The president has kept an uncharacteristically low profile in the confirmation fights. That could soon change.
DONALD TRUMP’S TRANSITION TEAM IS projecting confidence over the fate of his most controversial cabinet and executive branch picks. But privately, aides and allies are triaging, assessing the respective chances of survival in the crucible of the U.S. Senate’s confirmation process.
The most imperiled confirmation battle involves Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host whose nomination for defense secretary has been weighed down by accusations of sexual assault and drunkenness, both of which he denies. Another pitched fight ahead involves longtime Trump loyalist Kash Patel, whose nomination to lead the FBI has triggered his own avalanche of controversy over his embrace of conspiracy theories and calls to incarcerate journalists.
But the most critical fights for the president-elect, at least in regard to his immediate political legacy, center around Tulsi Gabbard and Robert Kennedy Jr., former Democrats tapped to head the nation’s sprawling intelligence and health bureaucracies, respectively.
Gabbard’s and Kennedy’s nominations, like Hegseth’s and Patel’s, have met resistance in pockets of the Senate. But Trump allies view the stakes differently. Confirming Gabbard and Kennedy is seen as an opportunity for the president-elect to cement his legacy of broadening the Republican coalition to include disaffected Democrats and independents. They note that the two are considered Blue MAGA rock stars among the Trump faithful. They’re both loved by the new influential podcasters whom Trump courted this election and give Trump the chance to burnish his anti-establishment bona fides.
“The appointments of RFK and Tulsi Gabbard represent a realignment in American politics that you saw in the election,” said Roger Stone, a longtime Trump friend and adviser. “He understands the historical significance of that realignment.”
For that reason, there is an expectation in Trump world that the president-elect will expend more of his political capital on Gabbard and Kennedy than on any of the other nominees. And that he could go apoplectic if their prospects begin to dim.
“Frankly, Pete [Hegseth] might not make it,” said one Trump adviser. “We’ll see. I’m not sure if the boss is willing to fight for that because there are people in our own camp who aren’t sure it’s worth it. But Kash [Patel] should get confirmed. And if they try to touch Tulsi and Kennedy, then it’s war.”
Added a second adviser: “If Tulsi or Bobby face real trouble, that’s when Trump will really start to fight. They represent the challenging of the status quo of the bureaucracy. That’s what MAGA is about.”
That Trump and his team are fighting confirmation battles on so many fronts underscores just how far they’ve pushed the envelope in putting together a new administration. In making his picks, Trump has—to a significant degree—turned to loyalists and burn-it-down reformists for key posts.
So far, the president-elect and his team have dismissed criticisms of these choices as the hyperventilation of an establishment in shock that he’d make good on his promise to fundamentally change Washington.
“This is his cabinet. This is who he wants,” said a Trump confidant. “Last time, he felt he was kind of forced into some of these picks or that they didn’t matter. Here, they do. And when it comes time to fight or twist arms or maybe even break one, he’s going to be ready.”
But despite tossing the Senate the political equivalent of four live grenades, Trump’s team has done little to help keep the pins in place. Aides have left a lot of the wrangling to the nominees and their teams, telling them to go find the 50 votes needed for confirmation in a Senate with just 53 Republicans.
“They’ve gotta earn it,” Trump told a confidant, who relayed the conversation to The Bulwark on condition of anonymity. “They need to get the votes.”
That approach was made starkly clear in the star-crossed nomination of former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, whom Trump picked to be his attorney general. The choice triggered a cascade of horrible headlines. Trump eventually made calls to lawmakers to push for Gaetz’s confirmation. But when he determined it would cost him too much political capital, he cut Gaetz loose.
“I wasn’t going to make them walk the plank on Matt,” Trump said afterward. “But I could have gotten the votes.”
Hegseth, likewise, has been left largely to fight for his own future. The president was set to meet with the embattled DoD nominee on Thursday in Mar-a-Lago, but his team has already let it be known that he’s begun exploring other options should the former Fox News host not have the votes. One backup plan under consideration: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Trump’s early handling of his nominees is fairly uncharacteristic. An obsessive master of the spotlight, he has, for the time being, kept a low profile—showing deference to the Senate GOP’s sensibilities after previously suggesting he’d circumvent the confirmation process entirely by installing his nominees through recess appointments. It represents a departure also from his much more scattershot method of filling his cabinet after his first election in 2016. Then, Trump was far less familiar with the Senate’s political terrain or the ins and outs of staffing agencies. And as he put together his team, he paraded visitors before cameras at Trump Tower.
But that could soon change. Trump is scheduled to appear on Meet The Press for an interview to air Sunday. Hegseth, meanwhile, has embarked on a much more aggressive PR campaign on his behalf, writing an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal and sitting down with podcaster Megyn Kelly to push back against his critics. And he’s done so, he said, with Trump’s blessing.
“Hey, Pete, I got your back,” Trump said, according to Hegseth. “It’s a fight, they’re coming after you, get after it.”
Should scrutiny begin to heighten on Gabbard and Kennedy, aides and allies believe Trump would further dispense with his current reticence and move closer to a wartime footing.
“The opposition can only push so hard so much before Trump starts to lash out and starts threatening to primary people,” said a third Trump adviser.