Donald Trump is causing a stir with shocking cabinet decisions

A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To receive it in your inbox, sign up for free Here.

CNN
—

President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet decisions are becoming increasingly outlandish, which may be why.

Attorney General? Rep. Matt Gaetz, the right-wing provocateur who is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Defense Minister? Pete Hegseth, a Fox News weekend anchor who served in the Army National Guard.

Director of National Intelligence? Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman who has expressed sympathy for Russia.

“Some of this is intended to galvanize Washington,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican and senior CNN political commentator who appeared on CNN after Gaetz’s surprise election. Other Trump choices, such as Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, are more conventional.

Jennings said no one should underestimate Trump’s ability to get some of those nominees through the Senate after he sought a mandate following his victory in the presidential election.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat who served with Gaetz in both the Florida Legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives, said it was no surprise that Trump would choose Gaetz, who has been one of Trump’s most effective supporters in Congress was.

Gaetz is known for his scorched-earth tactics in the House and was instrumental in ousting then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year over negotiations with Democrats. It could be controversial enough to even call into question Trump’s ability to secure the confirmation of an attorney general.

“Matt Gaetz knows exactly what to do with the attorney general’s office,” Moskowitz said, noting that Gaetz is loyal to Trump and “competent.” He added that Gaetz will be “the most powerful attorney general in American history.”

Trump has previously expressed a desire to make drastic changes to both the national security apparatus and the Justice Department, which he still holds responsible for the investigation into Russian election interference in the 2016 election.

Trump has already called for the Senate’s confirmation process to be expedited as he encouraged Republicans to support the concept of “pause appointments” for his nominees.

It would be a major development for Republican senators to support such appointments, which can be made outside of Senate sessions. Ten years ago, Senate Republicans took the Obama administration to the U.S. Supreme Court on this issue, winning a unanimous ruling and securing their constitutional ability to influence the conduct of the U.S. government.

At the time, Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican who is now a key Trump ally, called President Barack Obama’s attempt to use a recess appointment to strengthen the role of the National Labor Relations Board an attempt to “to bypass Congress and ignore the Constitution to prevent him from achieving his controversial political agenda.”

Now, it’s a bit awkward that some Senate Republicans want to give Trump the power to set recess appointments without their intervention, after he called for it over the weekend.

Break appointments are temporary appointments that can last one or two years. The goal is speed, as the clock is already ticking on Trump’s impending presidency.

“We know that President Trump will only have four years to transform our federal government,” Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, told Fox Business.

Four years may be optimistic. Each of the last three presidents — Obama, Trump and Joe Biden — scored their biggest legislative victories in the first two years of their presidency before losing control of the House amid a now-common backlash against incumbent presidents.

Republicans are expected to have a 53-47 majority in the Senate if they win the race in Pennsylvania, where Republican candidate David McCormick has a slim lead. That should give them enough votes to push through a Trump appointment, even as some Republican senators worry about Hegseth’s choice.

“Wow,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

“WHO?” asked Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, according to NBC.

“Interesting,” said Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Others supported us. Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma praised Hegseth for being politically incorrect.

“The prerequisite is that President Trump can nominate the person and the Senate can confirm them. I trust President Trump’s decision,” Mullin told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday.

Mullin was less convinced by the choice of Gaetz.

“He needs to come to the Senate and sell himself,” Mullin said. “There are a lot of questions out there.”

If there is a theme to this new Trump administration, it is that the president-elect wants to accomplish something big quickly by rewriting some rules in Washington and giving the president more power to bypass Congress and shape the federal bureaucracy.

Daniel Farber is a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and the author of a book on presidential power. He told me in an email that there has long been a trend of presidents trying to consolidate power in the executive branch.

“One thing that has prevented extremes from happening is that most presidents understand that they need competent, experienced people across the government to run their programs effectively. I don’t think Trump has that view,” he said.

Reports of a special committee to reassess the loyalty of generals are outside the norm and could lead to Trump-approved generals being installed at the Pentagon.

Then there’s the election of Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to head a new “Department of Government Efficiency” branded with Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, DOGE.

Many are wondering where these two businessmen will get $2 trillion to save from the sprawling federal government. Trump promised they would figure out how to “cut federal bureaucracy,” but they currently have no official authority or mandate from Congress. Musk said there will be a suggestion box online and they can also show how government money is being wasted.

There are ways Trump could give Musk and Ramaswamy official power, or even officially terminate them, without forcing Musk to divest from Tesla and SpaceX – but it’s telling that Trump doesn’t appear to be pursuing those options, Norm Eisen said senior scholar in governance studies at the Brookings Institution who also served as “ethics czar” in the Obama administration.

“It’s the beginning of the end for them,” Eisen predicted of her relationship with Trump, pointing to the many recommendations from government commissions that have long been forgotten without any effect. “Trump doesn’t really want to share with strong personalities who could be rivals.”

Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine skeptic who supported Trump, wants wide latitude in U.S. health policy but appears unlikely to get a Cabinet role.

When it comes to recess appointments, there are some signs that Senate Republican leaders are reluctant to easily give up their power to influence appointments.

All of the candidates vying to become Republican Senate majority leader if Republicans win the majority in January expressed some openness to the idea of ​​recess appointments, including the eventual winner, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota.

But speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday after winning office, Thune pointed out that the Senate “plays an advisory and consenting role in the Constitution.”

While Thune didn’t dismiss the idea of ​​recess appointments, he made it clear that the senators are not giving up on anything entirely just yet.

“We want to make sure our committees have confirmation hearings like they normally do,” he said, although he warned Democrats not to let the process get too bogged down or Senate Republicans would “explore all options.”

Thune also promised that Republicans will respect the legislative filibuster, the practice that allows a minority of senators to suppress most legislation.

“The Senate, as you know, by the founder’s will, is a place where the minority has a voice in our process,” he said.

Anyone who can remember 2017 – the first year of Trump’s first term, when Republicans held the House, Senate and White House, as they will next year – will remember that Back then, Trump routinely complained about the filibuster as an obstacle to passing legislation.

CNN predicted Wednesday that Republicans will have a majority in the House of Representatives, but it will certainly be much smaller than the majority Republicans had in Trump’s first administration. This means it will be more difficult to pass legislation with only Republicans.