WASHINGTON- Since he began taking over the Republican Party nearly a decade ago, President-elect Donald Trump has demanded ever-increasing levels of loyalty from lawmakers serving in Congress.
With few exceptions, they have soldiered on, refusing to convict him in two impeachment trials and, even after he was convicted of 34 felonies, helping him win a second term in the White House while advancing through a primary and general election. Republican after falsely denying her 2020 defeat.
Now, members of the Senate will face another test: whether to give up their long-standing independent authority under the Constitution to review an increasingly controversial group of Cabinet picks.
Many senators from both parties have already expressed concern about some of Trump's picks, but the president-elect has said he hopes the body will try a controversial tactic that would allow him to bypass the confirmation process.
In recent days, Trump nominated Pete Hegseth, a Fox television host and veteran who has never held a leadership position, as his defense secretary; Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic House member accused of spreading Kremlin talking points, as its director of national intelligence; and Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican who resigned his House seat on Wednesday while facing a congressional investigation into sex trafficking, as his attorney general.
Then on Thursday, Trump named Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal vaccine skeptic who has promoted false conspiracy theories about health care, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump is known for defying tradition and going against the grain, but recent appointments suggest a broader agenda, some political observers say.
“There is a difference between having a broader ideological mix and choosing [an accused] sex trafficker for attorney general of the United States,” said Marc Short, who served as Trump’s legislative affairs director during his first term and as former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff.
“I think he's trying to disrupt the order,” Short said of Trump. But “I'm not convinced it's clearly thought out.”
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Bakersfield Republican whose congressional career was upended when Gaetz led a rebellion against him, predicted that at least Gaetz's nomination would fail, telling Bloomberg Television on Thursday that “It won't be confirmed, everyone knows that.”
McCarthy called the nomination “a nice detour,” hinting at a popular theory in Washington that Gaetz, even if defeated, could help Trump win approval for other controversial candidates by using whatever willpower Republican senators have to confront him. to the new president next year.
At the center of it all is Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who won an internal vote Wednesday to become Senate majority leader in the next Congress. He replaces Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the veteran Senate Republican leader who occasionally clashed with Trump during his first term but avoided an all-out war within the party by largely pandering to the president. The Senate under Thune will be even friendlier to Trump, with more members taking office with Trump's support, while some of the most skeptical Republicans are no longer in office.
Trump had mixed results with his first-term nominations, even as he chose from a pool of inexperienced talent. Several of his high-profile nominees faced endless battles: Some withdrew, but most were ultimately approved.
Before Thune defeated two of his colleagues to win the leadership post, Trump said on social media that he wanted new Senate leaders to push his nominees through recess appointments, in which the Senate would be declared closed to the public. for 10 days so that the president can name a Cabinet secretary for the remainder of the two-year session.
The tactic, conceived in the days of horse-drawn carriages when Congress met part-time, would likely be challenged in court. Opponents argue against the routine use of recess appointments, and members of the Senate historically protect their role in checking the executive branch.
Thune told South Dakota reporters Wednesday that he would prefer to avoid a recess appointment, but did not rule it out.
“I'm willing to get over it and do it the old-fashioned way,” he said, according to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
He reiterated that point to ABC News on Thursday, promising that “we expect our committees to do their jobs and provide the advice and consent that the Constitution requires.”
Lawmakers from both parties have already said they want to know more about the House Ethics Committee's investigation into Gaetz, which was closed when he resigned his seat. The comments indicate that they do not want to give up their right to review their history. One lawmaker who said he “absolutely” wants to see the House report was Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a ranking Republican member of the Judiciary Committee who is running against Thune for majority leader.
This is how dictatorships work
— Richard Painter, former White House ethics lawyer.
The use of recess appointments to avoid the Senate is a concern for some who have worked in the federal government.
Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said immediately suspending the Senate on the new president's orders would signal a dark day for the country.
“That's how it works in dictatorships,” said Painter, who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in Minnesota in 2018 as a Democrat. “Have a president take the oath of office and then immediately dissolve Congress? Absolutely crazy.”
But pressure to push Trump's preferred options is mounting. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, one of Trump’s most ardent allies, warned potential dissidents during an appearance on Fox Business that if they stand in the way of Trump’s agenda, “we will try to get them out of the Senate.” ”
The Senate has a long tradition of protecting its status, as one of the two chambers of Congress, as part of an equal branch of government, even if the president belongs to the same party. The late Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada irritated some fellow Democrats in 2009 when he said in an interview: “I don't work for Barack Obama. I work with him.”
But a former Reid adviser, James Manley, said he believes Trump is consciously trying to erode that boundary, and is skeptical that Republican lawmakers will have the courage to confront him.
“The House is broken. They’ll do whatever he wants,” Manley said. “He has now turned his attention to the Senate.”
Ben Olinsky, senior vice president of structural reform and governance at the liberal Center for American Progress, said the way the Senate handles this moment — in which Trump puts forward deeply questionable candidates while demanding that the Senate allow them to pass without investigation — “Tell us a lot about what will happen in the coming years.”
“I absolutely think it's a test of independence and also integrity for them,” Olinsky said. “It may be a test of direct loyalty on the part of the president.”
