David Graham: “Consider where all three were nine years ago. Hegseth was an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran serving in the Army Reserve, backing Marco Rubio for president from his relatively new perch as a Fox News commentator. Gabbard was a Democratic representative from Hawaii and the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee; she’d resign the next year to back Senator Bernie Sanders’s run for president. Gaetz was a little-known representative in the Florida state House, with plans to run for his dad’s state Senate seat in 2016. Even today, none of them share an ideology: Hegseth is a culture warrior, Gaetz a libertine with an unusual mix of political views, and Gabbard an ostensible dove with her own strange commitments.”

“What brings them together is not just fidelity to Trump, but a shared sense of having been persecuted by the departments they’ve been nominated to lead. It’s what they share with Trump as well as one another, and it’s their main credential to serve under him.”

Stephen Collinson: “Donald Trump’s increasingly provocative Cabinet picks have left some Republican senators aghast and Washington in shock.”

“But they really shouldn’t. Because the outrage is the point…”

“The dismay engulfing establishment elites contrasted with the euphoria rocketing through conservative networks and social media among Trump fans. The president-elect draws political strength from his position as an outsider scourge of the establishment, and if his picks are confirmed by the Senate — a huge if in the case of Gaetz — they will be tasked with his mission of defenestrating government and driving out those Trump sees as enemies.”

“President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary Pete Hegseth has railed against women in combat, voiced support for troops accused and in some instances, convicted of war crimes, and advocated for the firing of the military’s most senior officers accused of supporting so-called woke policies,” CNN reports.

“Though he has pushed his positions primarily from a Fox News sofa and in best-selling books, Trump’s decision to catapult Hegseth into the top Pentagon job means he is set to put his ideas into action and clash directly with current Pentagon leadership.”

“Among the generals that Hegseth has suggested should be fired: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. CQ Brown.”

Financial Times: Trump’s Pentagon pick sparks alarm — and scorn.

“As Donald Trump conducts a free-wheeling transition from his Mar-a-Lago estate, drawing flocks of business moguls, contractors, foreign dignitaries and anyone looking for jobs in the new administration, the federal agencies charged with protecting the president-elect and his communications face a daunting task,” CNN reports.

“Security at Mar-a-Lago has already ramped up since the election. The Secret Service has increased its footprint around the residence and private club, and now deploys robot dogs capable of surveillance and detecting explosive material. Meanwhile, the US Coast Guard patrols the nearby waterways.”

“But with no restrictions on who Mar-a-Lago club members can bring as guests, the chaotic scene presents a unique counterintelligence and security challenge that sources told CNN is almost impossible to fully prepare for.”

“Nikki Haley pushed back Wednesday against President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that she wouldn’t be welcome in his new administration, pointing out that she had long said she wasn’t interested and revealing she had been contacted by his transition team,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Haley: “I know the game he was playing. I don’t need to play that game. He can be shallow at times, and I think he showed that.”

“The president and co-founder of Donald Trump Jr.’s publishing company, Sergio Gor, has been offered the low-profile, influential job leading the Presidential Personnel Office in Donald Trump’s incoming administration,” Semafor reports.

“He appears to have beaten out a high-profile rival for the role: Blake Masters — the venture capitalist, former political candidate, and ‘protege’ of Peter Thiel — was viewed as the top choice in pro-Trump tech circles.”

New York Times: “The role sounds administrative but can wield power, particularly for a president who, in his first term in office and in the transition before his second one, is keenly focused on who fills what jobs and whether prospective staff meet his perception of loyalty.”

“After years of financial growth, Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recorded a more than 30% drop in revenue last year, to $16 million, according to recent tax filings,” NBC News reports.

The Bulwark: “None of the attorneys had what Trump wants, and they didn’t talk like Gaetz. Everyone else looked at AG as if they were applying for a judicial appointment. They talked about their vaunted legal theories and constitutional bullshit. Gaetz was the only one who said, ‘yeah, I’ll go over there and start cuttin’ fuckin’ heads.’”

Playbook: “The Gaetz-for-AG plan came together yesterday, just hours before it was announced, Meridith tells us. It was hatched aboard Trump’s airplane en route to Washington, on which Gaetz was a passenger. A Trump official revealed more details to Playbook late last night: Boris Epshteyn played a central role in the development, lobbying Trump to choose Gaetz while incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was in a different, adjacent room on the plane, apparently unaware.”

“In short: Many in Trump’s inner circle were blindsided and are not exactly happy.”

New York Times: “This parade of loyalists is Mr. Trump’s first show of force to Senate Republicans, who will be under immense pressure to either confirm his nominee or sidestep that process altogether. But it is also something of a denial-of-service attack against one of the checks on the presidency: Mr. Trump has insisted that the next Senate majority leader allow for recess appointments, which would grant him the ability to unilaterally install cabinet members.”

NBC News: Hitting government with a ‘blowtorch’: Trump’s Cabinet picks are the first step in carrying out his agenda.