'It’s war': Why Trump is ready to 'fight' for these 2 Cabinet picks

05 December 2024

Since narrowly defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the United States' 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump has made one controversial pick after another for his incoming administration.

Some of Trump's more conventional picks are likely to be confirmed with bipartisan support by the U.S. Senate in 2025, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) for secretary of state and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. But Trump's more controversial choices have been drawing vehement criticism from both Democrats and Never Trump conservatives.

Among them: Kash Patel for FBI director, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for national intelligence director, and anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Hegseth is so embattled that Trump is reportedly considering nominating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for defense secretary instead.

But according to The Bulwark's Marc A. Caputo, Trump is ready to "fight" for RFK Jr. and Gabbard.

"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," Caputo explains in an article published on December 5. "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."

Trump's allies, Caputo reports, "view the stakes differently" with Gabbard and RFK Jr.

Veteran GOP operative Roger Stone told The Bulwark, "The appointments of RFK and Tulsi Gabbard represent a realignment in American politics that you saw in the election. He understands the historical significance of that realignment."

Trump's allies, according to Caputo, expect the president-elect to "expend more of his political capital on Gabbard and Kennedy than on any of the other nominees."

A Trump adviser, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told The Bulwark, "Frankly, Pete (Hegseth) might not make it. 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 should get confirmed. And if they try to touch Tulsi and Kennedy, then it's war."

Another Trump adviser, also quoted anonymously, told The Bulwark, "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.”

Marc A. Caputo's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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