Trump tests GOP loyalty with Gaetz, Gabbard picks

What happened

President-elect Donald Trump stunned Washington Wednesday by naming Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as his pick for attorney general and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. As with Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for defense secretary, Gaetz and Gabbard have little experience in their proposed jurisdictions and none overseeing large organizations. Both also bring significant controversies, and Gaetz is "one of the more universally disliked members of Congress, including among GOP lawmakers," The Associated Press said.

Who said what

Republican lawmakers have "rallied intensely" around Trump, "betting their political futures on his success," the AP said. But by nominating such controversial figures, he's "already challenging those congressional Republicans to defy him."

The Gaetz nomination especially is a "loyalty test" for Senate Republicans, who will have a 53-47 majority, The Washington Post said. If confirmed, Gaetz would lead a Justice Department that was investigating him for possible sex trafficking until 2023, when it ended the yearslong investigation without charges. He was also under investigation by the House Ethics Committee from 2021 until Wednesday evening, when he effectively ended the probe by resigning from the House. The committee had been set to vote Friday on whether to release its report on allegations he engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use and accepted improper gifts. Gaetz denied the allegations. Trump called him a "deeply gifted and tenacious attorney."

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Gabbard, nominated to lead 18 spy agencies and oversee a budget of $76 billion, "has many critics and no formal intelligence experience," Politico said. An Army reservist and former National Guard member, the ex-Democrat is "known chiefly" for her isolationist stances "and sympathetic views on autocrats like Russia's Vladimir Putin and Syria's Bashar al-Assad." Gabbard is a "walking Christmas tree of warning lights," Tom Nichols said at The Atlantic, and "her appointment would be a threat to the security of the United States."

What next?

Senate Republicans "will be under immense pressure to either confirm" Trump's "parade of loyalists" or "sidestep" the process and let him "unilaterally install Cabinet members" with recess appointments, The New York Times said. Republicans are "unlikely to block too many of Trump's more controversial picks," given the blowback, Burgess Everett said at Semafor. But "it's also hard to see a world where he gets all of them through."