Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a long history of scathing critiques against Donald Trump, labeling him a “threat to democracy,” a “bully,” and, as recently as July, a “terrible president,” CNN reports.
But Kennedy’s harshest attacks date back to Trump’s rise in 2016, when Kennedy applauded descriptions of Trump’s base as “belligerent idiots” and suggestions that some were “outright Nazis” and “spineless fellow travelers.”
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“President-elect Donald Trump is poised to skip over FBI vetting of his nominees, upending more than 60 years of precedent and putting him on a collision course with members of his own party as he tries to power controversial cabinet picks through the Senate,” Bloomberg reports.
“Republican senators have balked at Trump potentially forgoing the routine FBI background checks to install former Representative Matt Gaetz as attorney general as well as other controversial nominees like Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon and Tulsi Gabbard, another former House member, to run national intelligence.”
New York Times: “The legal and ethical issues surrounding some of President-elect Donald Trump’s selections for top administration jobs, not to mention their history of eyebrow-raising public statements, are far more profound than the kinds of revelations that have killed nominations in the Senate in the past.”
“What once passed as disqualifying for a presidential nominee seems downright benign in comparison to allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use by his attorney general pick detailed in a secret congressional report, a sexual assault accusation followed by a paid settlement for his choice to head the Pentagon and an acknowledged former heroin addiction by the would-be health secretary.”
“It was not so long ago that nominees for high-level jobs and even some of the more obscure ones had to be above reproach, to the point where a relatively minor tax issue could derail them. But times are evidently changing when it comes to nominations at the dawn of the second Trump administration.”
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Russ Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, CBS News reports.
Vought wrote a chapter of The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint — his chapter covers the “Executive Office of the President.”
President-elect Donald Trump designated Matthew Whitaker, a conservative firebrand who filled in briefly as his acting attorney general in the first Trump administration, to serve as U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in his second administration, USA Today reports.
A Trump adviser familiar with the process explained to The Bulwark:
“None of the other 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.’”
“Many people argue that this pandemic was a ‘plandemic,’ that it was planned from the outset, it’s part of a sinister scheme. I can’t tell you the answer to that. I don’t have enough evidence. A lot of it feels very planned to me. I don’t know. I will tell you this: If you create these mechanisms for control, they become weapons of obedience for authoritarian regimes no matter how beneficial or innocent the people who created them.”
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr., quoted by The Bulwark in August 2020.
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Defense Secretary, said on a podcast this week that he supported a system of “classical Christian schools” to provide the recruits for “an underground army” that will eventually launch an “educational insurgency” to take over the United States.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) reportedly was using his “adopted” son’s PayPal account to pay women for sex, the Washington Post reports.
“Linda McMahon, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice as education secretary, incorrectly claimed in 2009 that she had a bachelor’s degree in education on a questionnaire for a Connecticut Board of Education post,” the Washington Post reports.
“The error on the questionnaire was reported by the Hartford Courant during her unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2010. She said at the time that she mistakenly thought her degree was in education because she did a semester of student teaching.”
Washington Post: “Vance will be on Capitol Hill today, ushering embattled attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz around Senate offices as the House Ethics Committee decides if they’ll release a report into Gaetz’s alleged sex trafficking and illicit drug use.”
“It’s a split screen that even the best, most experienced hand would struggle to handle. But for Vance, it’s the latest of what is likely to be many difficult tasks imposed by Trump throughout his term. As we reported last week, one of Vance’s key roles over the next four years will be to work closely with the Senate to ensure Trump’s agenda and priorities move through Congress, especially the Senate.”
Punchbowl News: “It’s no secret what Senate Republicans think of Gaetz. At this point, GOP senators are hoping Gaetz’s nomination doesn’t even advance far enough that they have to vote on it. There’s a significant number of Republicans who would vote no. This is even before the controversy over the House Ethics Committee’s investigation into Gaetz.”
The Hill: Trump team ramps up pressure on Senate GOP to approve controversial nominees.
“President-elect Trump’s Cabinet increasingly resembles a European-style coalition government, staffed with a dizzying array of ideological rivals united — for now — by a grand MAGA vision,” Axios reports.
“The incoming administration has a little something for everyone: isolationists and hawks, populists and bankers — even a couple of lifelong Democrats who ran for president against Trump.”
“Some supporters have praised Trump for the eclectic mix of nominees, saying it reflects the broad range of Americans who voted decisively for a new Washington.”
“But if Trump’s first term is any indication, his Cabinet of contradictions also could invite volatility and infighting that eventually spills into public view.”
“President-elect Trump is looking more seriously at Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) for Treasury secretary — giving Trump three serious options for one of the few roles where he’s taking his time,” Axios reports.
“Hagerty, a former private-equity investor who was Trump’s ambassador to Japan, is one of three apparent finalists, along with former Fed governor Kevin Warsh and Apollo CEO Marc Rowan.”
“A thousand miles from the austere buildings where Washington runs, Donald Trump’s transition team in his Mar-a-Lago resort has begun what a close ally calls a hostile takeover of the federal government,” the Washington Post reports.
“Since his victory, Trump has ignored many of the rules and practices intended to guide a seamless transfer of power and handover of the oversight of 2.2 million federal employees. Instead, the president-elect, who has pledged to fire thousands of civil servants and slash billions of dollars in spending, has so far almost fully cut out the government agencies his predecessors have relied on to take charge of the federal government.”
“Trump has yet to collaborate with the General Services Administration, which is tasked with the complex work of handing over control of hundreds of agencies, because he has not turned in required pledges to follow ethics rules. His transition teams have yet to set foot inside a single federal office.”
Gabriel Sherman: “For now, Donald Trump is reportedly standing by Pete Hegseth, his embattled pick for defense secretary, but some Trump transition officials are beginning to doubt whether the Fox News host can survive the controversy.”
“According to two Republicans close to Trump, the transition team is quietly preparing a list of alternative defense secretary candidates should Trump abandon Hegseth. ‘It’s becoming a real possibility,’ one of the sources says. The second source tells me that transition members are frustrated that Hegseth failed to disclose he had paid a financial settlement to a woman who alleged he raped her at a Republican women’s event in 2017.”
Said one source: “People are upset about the distraction. The general feeling is Pete hasn’t been honest.”
Trump transition co-chair Linda McMahon is expected to be named as secretary of the Department of Education, CNN reports.
Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) — who lost her re-election bid earlier this month — is in the mix to be Donald Trump’s Labor secretary and, notably, has the backing of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, Politico reports.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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