Once upon a time, Senate scrutiny of a president’s Cabinet appointments was essentially pro forma. The advice and consent of the upper chamber of Congress was necessary, but despite whether the incoming president was a Republican or Democrat, it was largely a formality. Senators from both parties mostly agreed with the basic premise that a president deserves to surround himself with whomever he desires. But that was in normal times. And as we well know, the second Trump presidency, like the first, is anything but normal.
A trip to the time capsule reveals that the only Cabinet nominee in the last 40 years to be rejected by the Senate was George H.W. Bush’s choice for secretary of Defense, John Tower, in 1989. All but one of Bush 41’s other nominees received unanimous approval. More recently, the Cabinets of three consecutive two-term presidents – Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama – sailed right through. Only one of Clinton’s nominees received more than two votes in opposition. Only Bush 43’s three attorney generals and two other nominees got more than two downvotes. Things were not quite as smooth for Obama, but only five of his nominees over two terms exceeded 30 opposing votes. Many of those three presidents’ selections over 24 years were approved by voice vote.
Democratic Bipartisanship Dissolves
Things began to change in 2017, but even then, the only Trump nominee to come close to being rejected was Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who eked out approval 51-50. Five other Trump nominees received 40 or more votes in opposition but gained approval by margins of no less than five votes. After the GOP’s bitter, disputed loss of the presidency and both chambers of Congress in 2020, Republican opposition was tame compared to what we are witnessing with Trump’s second-term Cabinet.
Republicans joined Democrats in approving the nomination of Washington insider Lloyd Austin as Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense by a vote of 93-2. Even Biden nominees who would later become ripe subjects for Republican wrath, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, were easily approved, Garland by a 70-30 margin and Buttigieg by 86-13. And Antony Blinken, who rounded up those infamous 51 spies to claim the Hunter Biden laptop was likely the product of a Russian hack, was approved as secretary of State 78-22. The only Biden nominees who came close to being rejected were HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Jared Bernstein, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, both approved by 50-49 margins.
The Quick-Witted Quartet
That brings us to the present day and four of the most controversial cabinet nominees in our lifetime: Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and Bobby Kennedy Jr. This whip-smart quartet represents the sum of everything Democrats fear in the second Trump era: shockingly disruptive and virulently anti-establishment. Hegseth barely snuck through as secretary of Defense by the thinnest of margins, 51-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. The other three are likely headed for confirmation in the coming days – and there is nothing Democrats can do to stop them beyond hoping more than three Republican senators break ranks. With the GOP holding a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber, hectoring, lecturing, and assailing these nominees, as Democrats have done in recent days, will amount to little more than sound and fury, signifying nothing.
On top of Trump’s seemingly countless executive orders on everything from the southern border to the Panama Canal, this is the clearest evidence yet of how different the second Trump presidency is from the first when Trump was a novice forced to settle largely for DC insiders. And Democrats have ample reason to fear the disruption sure to be wrought by this foursome.
As Defense secretary, Hegseth will re-instill the “warrior spirit” in a military depressed by the DOD’s obsession with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) during the Biden years. As the prospective director of National Intelligence and FBI director, respectively, Gabbard and Patel have made crystal clear their commitment to cleaning house, ridding their departments of flagrant bias and the weaponization of justice and intelligence that marked the last four years of Democratic rule. Kennedy’s singular mission is to “make America healthy again,” vital for a nation suffering from record levels of preventable disease. His is an exceedingly consequential initiative but one that was barely on the radar of previous administrations. Nevertheless, RFK Jr. is particularly galling to Democrats who see him as a turncoat, a traitor to the legendary liberal legacy of his family. They are utterly appalled by his refusal to unquestioningly agree with their conventional wisdom, particularly as it relates to their controlling, heavy-handed approach to vaccines.
Elections do indeed have consequences. And in the case of Donald Trump, the contrast between his Cabinet and the one that would have been assembled by Kamala Harris could hardly be more striking. After spending the entirety of the last decade attempting to bring down their reviled enemy by any means available, the left is now reaping the whirlwind in the form of not just the 47th president but the like-minded warriors who will surround him for the next four years.
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