'Public display of fealty': Trump nominees’ face their biggest test ahead of confirmation

12 January

Just one week ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration, a slew of the president-elect's nominees are expected to be confirmed this week on one key condition: their loyalty to MAGA.

"He deserves a cabinet that is loyal to the agenda he was elected to implement," Vice President-elect JD Vance tells CNN.

The news outlet reports MAGA allies — like Vance — "have pressured Senate Republicans to fall in line, with some threatening primary challenges to those who stand in the way of the incoming president."

The incoming vice president, according to CNN, even "sought to remind the GOP who leads the party, arguing on social media that Trump’s 'coattails turned a 49-51 senate to a 53-47 senate.'"

The news outlet emphasizes that unlike the president-elect's first time in the White House, there's now a "heightened expectation that Trump’s picks will present not just their own expertise but a clear and unwavering loyalty to the president-elect’s agenda — a public display of fealty that was not always assured during his first term."

However, while many GOP lawmakers are certain "Trump is on track to have his Cabinet approved at a much faster clip than in 2017, when delays in turning over ethics agreements, FBI background checks and other concerns dragged the proceedings beyond the initial weeks of Trump’s new administration," CNN notes that "there is still the potential for holdups."

Some MAGA nominees still have yet to disclose "their finances or their plans for untangling their fortunes from their new assignments in government," the news outlet reports.

Still, Trump's Secretary of Veteran Affairs nominee, former Georgia Rep. Douglas Collins, and defense secretary pick. former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, face scheduled confirmation hearings on Tuesday.

"This time, people view the nominees as an extension of Donald Trump and his agenda," former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer, tells CNN. "They’re not there to defend their own views; they’re there to defend Trump’s policies."

CNN's fulll repor is available here.

From Your Site Articles