Trump issues early challenge to GOP Senate with defiant nominations

WASHINGTON -- Just hours after Republican Sen. John Thune was elected as the incoming Senate majority leader on Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump presented him with one of his first tests — an announcement that he intends to nominate controversial Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general.

The Florida Republican is one of the more universally disliked members of Congress, including among GOP lawmakers after he led the effort to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year. He has spent his congressional career agitating against the Justice Department and has been under a House Ethics investigation probing whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct. Gaetz denies the allegations.

Asked about the nomination as he left a Senate vote, Thune smiled and declined to answer. “That’s probably a good question for the chairman of the Judiciary Committee,” he said.

An hour earlier, the likely incoming chairman of the Judiciary panel, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, also deflected, saying he doesn’t know Gaetz but will look at the nomination. “Don’t ask me any other questions,” Grassley said.

It’s a familiar posture for Republican senators who have lived through the last eight years dodging questions about Trump and defending him, even after he tried to overturn his election defeat in 2020 and his supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol. But the stakes are even higher now that he has been decisively elected to a second term. Congressional Republicans have rallied intensely around him, betting their political futures on his success.

Two months before Trump even takes office, he is already challenging those congressional Republicans to defy him as he nominates potentially controversial figures to his Cabinet — including Gaetz, former Democratic House Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and conservative media personality Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense. On Sunday, Trump even said in a post on X that he wants the new Senate leader to allow him to make appointments when the chamber is on recess, bypassing confirmation votes altogether.

“I think it’s a little bit of a test,” said Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, who called the Gaetz nomination a “Hail Mary” pass from Trump. Cramer said he sees Gaetz as a disruptive force in the House and has concerns about the “serious allegations” against him, but stopped short of saying he wouldn’t vote for his confirmation.

“It will take a lot of political capital to get him across,” Cramer said, adding that “there will forever be tension between the branches.”

What’s unclear is how much political capital Trump will have to expend to get his picks through — or whether it will even be necessary. Republicans will have a 53-seat majority in the Senate next year, giving them room to lose a few votes.

Immediately after his election as the incoming GOP leader, Thune suggested that the Senate will not fully relinquish its power to vet nominations — but kept the door open to Trump’s suggested changes.

“The Senate has an advise and consent rule in the Constitution,” Thune said, adding that Senate Republicans will do everything they can to get Trump’s nominees quickly in place.

“How that happens remains to be seen,” Thune said.

While Trump’s announcement about Gaetz sent an immediate shock wave around Capitol Hill, many Republican senators who will be tasked with confirming him were reluctant to publicly criticize the pick.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Judiciary panel, said he didn’t know Gaetz “other than his public persona," and said he won’t “prejudge any of these” nominations.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, elected Wednesday as the incoming No. 2 Republican in the Senate next year, would only say that Trump “is going to continue to make his appointments. We’re going to continue to look forward to them coming to the Senate and have hearings and get his Cabinet confirmed as quickly as possible.”

“I’ve got nothing for you,” said Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican. “We’ll see,” said Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin when asked whether he would support Gaetz’s confirmation.

A few GOP senators praised Gaetz, who resigned from the House shortly after the announcement, ending the House Ethics investigation and making way for a replacement to be elected before the new Congress is sworn in Jan. 3.

“I’ve known Matt for a very long time, we’re friends,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who was nominated for secretary of state Wednesday, but was instead flooded with questions about Gaetz. “I think he would do a very good job for the president.”

Gaetz is “a smart, clever guy,” said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, though he said “he’ll have to answer some tough questions in the hearing, and we’ll see how he does.”

Other Republican senators, like Cramer, were skeptical while stopping short of saying they would oppose his nomination.

Gaetz “will have his work cut out for him,” said North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, adding that it should “make for a popcorn-eating confirmation hearing.”

Maine Sen. Susan Collins said she was “shocked” by Gaetz’s nomination.

“I recognize that the president-elect has the right to nominate whomever he wishes, but we in Congress have a responsibility under the Constitution and our advise and consent, which will lead to hearings, an FBI background check and an awful lot of questions being asked in this case,” Collins said.

Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and said last year that the Justice Department’s investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls had ended with no federal charges against him.

Democrats were appalled.

“This nomination is the first test of whether Republicans are willing to stand up to Donald Trump and go with conscience and conviction as opposed to just politics,” said Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic member of the Judiciary panel.

New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., was even more blunt.

“People voted for cheaper eggs, not whatever the f@#€ this is,” he posted on X, referring to last week’s election.

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Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.