President-elect Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., indicated on Sunday that his father’s transition team is ready to pursue other Cabinet nominees if their first choices don’t get through the U.S. Senate confirmation process, even as he remains confident they will succeed.
The past week has proven difficult for the president-elect as he released a flurry of announcements for Cabinet nominations, some of which were met with immediate backlash and controversy, such as his pick for U.S. attorney general, former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, and his pick for defense secretary, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth.
While appearing on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Trump Jr. said that the Trump transition team has backup plans in the event these nominees fail, stressing that the team has “lists of 10 or 12 people for every position” without providing any names.
“Listen, there’s always ideas, we have lists of people, we’re not just randomly picking a name out of a hat, we’re showing him lists of 10 or 12 people for every position, so we do have backup plans, but I think we’re obviously going with the strongest candidates first,” he said.
Trump Jr. added: “Some of them are going to be controversial, they’re controversial because they’ll actually get things done. The swamp doesn’t want that, so we’re going to go all in and make sure that those people have the best chance at getting confirmed as possible, because they’re the people who are most effective.”
The president-elect’s eldest son said that when people “see that kind of backlash, generally speaking, it’s because it’s a threat to uniparty in Washington, D.C.”
He added: “They don’t want to see change. They want it to be business as usual. They don’t want to be disrupted; that’s their meal plan. That’s their ticket.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Trump transition team by email on Sunday morning for comment.
Much of the backlash has been focused on Hegseth and Gaetz—due to allegations of sexual assault against Hegseth and the House Ethics Committee report against Gaetz that investigated allegations of drug use and sexual misconduct, including allegedly having sex with an underage girl.
Hegseth and Gaetz have vigorously denied any wrongdoing, but their nominations already had caused a stir due to a perceived lack of experience either in the field they are poised to take over or in any leadership roles of a comparable nature to what they would handle as the defense secretary or attorney general, respectively.
However, other Trump nominees have also faced considerable backlash for similar reasons, such as Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, former Hawaii Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard, whom some have accused of being a “Russian agent” and potential threat to national security due to her sympathetic views towards Russia in its ongoing war with Ukraine and her previous secret meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Russian ally.
Trump’s pick for the head of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also caused a stir due to his previous comments supporting vaccine skepticism and other health care conspiracies. Others, such as Dr. Mehmet Oz, have welcomed the nomination as a change of pace to address issues of health care worker stress and overburden of work.
Trump Jr. stressed on Sunday that his father’s transition team views this as “an incredible opportunity—perhaps a once in a generation opportunity—to really make a difference, with people, minds that you wouldn’t otherwise find in government, frankly.”
He added: “It’s truly something that’s epic, I’m looking forward to seeing it, and I just want to make sure that the rest of the Cabinet that surrounds my father is able and willing to deliver on that message and promise to the American people.”
The Senate is responsible for confirming appointees via majority vote. However, recess appointments, which take place when the Senate is out of session, allow appointees to bypass Senate confirmation hearings, temporarily putting them in their positions.
Newly named Senate Majority Leader, John Thune of South Dakota, has suggested that recess appointments could be a potential strategy to push through Trump’s Cabinet appointments.
“I think that all options are on the table, including recess appointments. Hopefully, it doesn’t get to that but we’ll find out fairly quickly whether the Democrats want to play ball or not,” he said on Thursday during an interview with Fox News.
The Associated Press, which cited the Congressional Research Service, reported that former President Barack Obama made 32 recess appointments, ex-President George W. Bush made 171 and former President Bill Clinton made 139 while the Senate was on recess.
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