Last week I wrote about whether the Senate would have the courage to vote down Trump’s clearly unqualified picks who have baggage or views beyond the pale. It did not take too long to find out. Despite calls made by Trump, and VP-Elect Vance accompanying Matt Gaetz to meetings with key senators, it was clear that there was a group of senators who were not going to budge no matter what. So, the bully backed down and Gaetz withdrew his nomination.
Trump ended up picking Pam Bondi, who may be a Trump loyalist, but at least has experience, having been a prosecutor and Florida Attorney General. The fact that she decided not to join a lawsuit against Trump University after a campaign contribution of $25,000 was made by a Trump PAC (political action committee) to her reelection campaign may have been an issue in the past. However, the bar has been set so low that this should not be a problem in her becoming confirmed. Trump, in selecting her, did not mention that he wants her to take retribution against his perceived enemies. Instead, he talked about the DOJ focusing more on addressing criminal activity.
There has been little blowback to the Senate standing up to Trump, which is encouraging. It appears that the Senate may be willing to use its constitutionally-mandated power.
It was the wisdom of the founding fathers to have the Senate be the branch of government to decide whether to confirm the president’s cabinet picks instead of the president picking whomever he wants and for whatever reason he wants. It is a check on the president’s power. Also, it has to be done by the branch of government that is elected every six years, as opposed to the House of Representatives, because they will not be put under the pressure of a four-year president and the voters who decide the makeup of the House of Representatives every two years. The voters’ whims change, and you need a branch of government to be the steady hand and put a lid on populist excesses.
The key positions that require Senate approval have been set. On its face, there seem to be contradictions with the picks. Some seem very traditional, and others seem to be put in to try to blow up the system or are picks of people clearly unqualified.
I believe you can understand the selections if you look at them one way: It is all about him. Trump picked people because they will be loyal to him. For those agencies that he felt had wronged him in the past, he selected people to shake up or dismantle them. For example, many believe that Trump lost the 2020 election due to his response to Covid. Trump’s fights with Dr. Fauci and others who supported the use of vaccines is well known. His payback was to select Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and other anti-vaxxers and those who opposed Covid restrictions and place them in positions relating to health.
Trump has had his fights with Department of Justice, which supported the issuance of a special counsel who charged him with many felonies relating to the 2020 election and the taking and refusing to return documents. He also was upset by the search of his home in which the FBI found the documents that Trump did not return. Thus, he wants payback to those who were involved and wants to use the DOJ as a weapon against his perceived enemies. That was why he wanted Gaetz. I would not be surprised if Trump fires FBI Director Christopher Wray and tries to bring in an unqualified loyalist such as Kash Patel.
Trump has had a bad relationship with the military. In the past, Trump mocked those who were captured such as Senator John McCain, called those who died in battle “suckers” and refused to visit a military cemetery. He avoided the draft because of a bogus bone spur diagnosis. Generals such as his former Chief of Staff John Kelly and Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Miley during the campaign called Trump fascist and totally unqualified to be commander-in-chief. So he picked Peter Hegseth, who has no administrative experience, to run the biggest department. Hegseth promised to clean house of various generals. We saw how well that worked for Stalin when he purged generals before World War II. When Germany attacked Russia, Russia initially suffered staggering losses of men, material, and land because they had incompetent military leadership.
Trump had Trump University, which was shown to be a fraud and shut down. Although the US Department of Education did not cause the shutdown, the Department of Education has oversight of colleges and universities. Trump has already said that he wants to shut down the Department of Education, so he nominated Linda McMahon, who has no educational experience.
Trump has shown an affinity for strongmen such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Vladamir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un. Also, he is an isolationist. That is why he selected Tulsi Gabbard for Director Of National Intelligence. She feels the same way, has visited Syrian President Al-Assad and has spouted Russian talking points in justifying its invasion of Ukraine.
In contrast, when it relates to economic positions, Trump has taken traditional picks. He is not planning on blowing up the current system when it relates to the economy. He picked billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent for Treasury Secretary. The fact that he served as George Soros’ top money manager and was considered by many as his protégé is irrelevant. In 2011, Mr. Soros recruited Mr. Bessent to be the chief investment officer of his $30 billion Soros Fund Management. Four years later, Mr. Bessent took a $2 billion investment from Mr. Soros to start his own fund. I look forward to reading in the paper from those who repeatedly vilified George Soros justifying this selection.
Another creature of Wall Street, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, was picked as Commerce Secretary. They will prioritize policies that will help the rich like Trump get richer while his core supporters, the non-college-educated, will continue to flounder.
I look forward to the hearings on Trump’s nominees with some confidence that the Senate will seriously take its responsibility to decide whether to confirm Trump’s selections instead of merely being a rubber stamp.
Warren S. Hecht is a local attorney. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
