Tag Archives: Trump cabinet

Politico reports: Former Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell is giving some indirect hints into his thinking on President-elect Donald Trump’s forthcoming nominees. “I will vote to confirm nominees to senior national security roles whose record and experience will make them immediate assets — not liabilities — in the pursuit of peace through strength,” McConnell said during a speech from the …

The Associated Press reports: Thursday’s hearings include Doug Burgum for the Interior Department, Scott Turner for the Housing and Urban Development Department, Lee Zeldin for the EPA, Scott Bessent for the Treasury Department and Pam Bondi will go before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a second day. Bessent, the billionaire money manager from South Carolina, will take questions from members …

The Associated Press reports: Senate hearings are scheduled this coming week for several of Trump’s picks for the Cabinet. Many have met with senators individually. Now, they will go before the committees overseeing the agencies that Trump wants them to run. Here’s a look at the schedule for Senate hearings set so far, in Eastern time. Tuesday 9 a.m.: Doug …

Rolling Stone reports: Donald Trump is rewarding many of his donors with important roles in his upcoming administration. Almost three dozen people tapped to serve in his White House donated to his campaign or to groups that supported his election, according to a CNN analysis of federal campaign records. A dozen of Biden’s cabinet picks gave to his campaign or …

Politico reports: Top House Oversight Democrat Jamie Raskin is seeking information from the Trump-Vance transition team about how nominees will undergo background checks, including a “clear assurance” that an FBI background check will be performed for all Trump administration picks. Raskin (D-Md.) sent a letter on Friday to Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, the co-chairs of the Trump-Vance transition, saying …

The New York Times reports: Needing a pair of scissors, a 13-year-old girl went into the bedroom where her father was sleeping and reached for a fishing tackle box on a shelf above the bed. But in the darkened room, she accidentally knocked it over. “Something fell out of it and there was a loud noise,” she recounted to the …

The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition operation announced on Tuesday that it had belatedly signed an agreement with the Justice Department that will allow the F.B.I. to conduct background checks on people Mr. Trump intends to appoint as senior officials in his new administration. F.B.I. background checks have long been a routine part of transitions. Law-enforcement …

Punchbowl News reports: President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks have largely enjoyed public deference from Senate Republicans and from conservatives generally. Not Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.). Trump picked the Oregon Republican, who lost her reelection bid on Nov. 5, to be his Labor secretary. It immediately prompted criticism from conservatives who see Chavez-DeRemer as too close to labor unions. It’s a …

“With all due respect to my former colleague, we know that there were three cases of adultery for Pete Hegseth, and it is relevant. “And the reason why it’s relevant is, Article 134 of the UCMJ considers adultery against the military, which the Department of Defense is part of. You can’t lead an entire organization and all these people if …

“Our job is to look at the FBI background check and is to ask some questions to make sure they’re fulfilling the mission of the department. I am concerned with all these nominees, we do not have an agreement for FBI background checks. “As far as I know the transition committee has not made that agreement yet. This has been …

Axios reports: White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met earlier this week with Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), who President-elect Trump has appointed as his national security adviser, two sources with knowledge of the meeting said. The first meeting between Sullivan and his successor, who will inherit a set of spiraling crises around the world, took place even though the …

The Washington Post reports: Again and again, when Donald Trump has faced scandal and scrutiny, Pam Bondi was there to defend him. Bondi said the Justice Department’s special counsel investigation into whether Trump associates coordinated with Russian interference in the 2016 election needed to be dissolved. She declared that the 45th president’s first impeachment in 2019 was a “sham.” And …

Politico reports: Trump has picked Brooke Rollins as his Agriculture secretary, after weeks of intense internal fighting over the role. Rollins served as director of the Office of American Innovation and acting director of the Domestic Policy Council during the first Trump administration. Since her time in the White House, Rollins has co-founded and helmed the America First Policy Institute …

The New York Times reports: Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a first-term Republican representative from Oregon who narrowly lost her House seat this month, was chosen on Friday to serve as labor secretary in the coming Trump administration. “Lori has worked tirelessly with both business and labor to build America’s work force, and support the hardworking men and women of America,” President-elect Donald …

Reuters reports: Trump has named Scott Bessent, a longtime hedge fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, to be his treasury secretary, media reported on Friday. Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs. Bessent has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur …

CNN reports: Trump is planning to offer the role of secretary of agriculture to former Senator Kelly Loeffler, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported on Friday. Loeffler is expected to visit Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate later in the day. Loeffler served as a senator from Georgia between 2020 and 2021, following the resignation of Johnny Isakson over health issues. She then lost the …

USA Today reports: On Jan. 9, 2009, Linda McMahon filled out a vetting questionnaire to serve on the state board of education in Connecticut. On it, she indicated she earned a bachelor’s degree in education, according to a copy of the original form the governor’s office provided to USA TODAY. She did not. McMahon, a billionaire and wrestling executive who …

CNN reports: Trump transition co-chair Linda McMahon is expected to be named as secretary of the Department of Education, four sources familiar with the matter told CNN. She is the board chair of the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank that was formed in 2021 by McMahon, Larry Kudlow and other advisers from the first Trump administration. McMahon …

Axios reports: Trump will nominate billionaire Howard Lutnick as Commerce secretary, a top transition source tells Axios. The Commerce Department will have a key role in implementing the tariffs Trump has vowed to implement — and Lutnick has been a vocal supporter. Lutnick, co-chair of Trump’s transition, was hoping to become Treasury secretary, but Trump recently soured on the finalists …

The Hill reports: Senate Republicans are rejecting a proposal floated by some advisers to President-elect Trump to take the job of conducting background checks for high-level nominees away from the FBI and give it to private investigators. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, argued that the FBI has access to information gathered by law …