Trump’s nominations of Gaetz, Gabbard raising eyebrows in Congress

President-elect Donald Trump’s selections to join his administration have surprised some, bringing some uncertainty over the confirmation process.
Among the picks drawing questions, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who resigned from Congress on Wednesday, was pegged to be Trump’s attorney general. Other picks raising eyebrows include former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, and Fox News host Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense.
All three of these positions require Senate confirmation, but if Congress agrees, Trump could be given the power to fill vacancies when Congress goes on recess, bypassing the Senate confirmation process.
Even with a Republican majority in the Senate, there are questions over whether Trump can get all three of these selections through the chamber without the need for recess appointments.
Gaetz had been in office since 2017 and was the subject of a sex trafficking investigation. The House Ethics Committee was investigating the allegations but had not released its findings. With Gaetz resigning from Congress, it is unclear whether the committee’s findings will ever be made public.
Jamil N. Jaffer, executive director of the National Security Institute, said Gaetz’s appointment was “hard to understand.”
“It is hard to imagine he’ll experience an easy confirmation process in the Senate,” Jaffer said. “But there is a real possibility he’ll be recess appointed.”
Gaetz’s nomination could be a way for him to test the loyalty of members of the Senate.
“This is not a nomination designed to help him succeed,” he said. “It may be a loyalty test in the sense that he’ll see who in his party will support a dramatically underqualified and odd nomination like Matt Gaetz, but we’ll see.”
Gabbard was a four-term Democratic congresswoman before leaving the House. After running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, she left the party and began backing Trump.
Gabbard has not worked for any of the United States’ intelligence agencies, but Jaffer said past directors of national intelligence have not worked for these agencies, and that fact does not qualify her.
Jaffer noted that Trump has made other more traditional nominations that would not raise eyebrows among Senate members, such as Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state.
“These are positive nominations, these other ones are harder to understand,” Jaffer said.