President-elect Donald Trump urged the Republican Party to coalesce behind blocking Democrats’ “tricks” to obstruct the confirmation of his nominees to top Cabinet positions.
In a statement to Truth Social on Tuesday morning, Trump warned that even though he recently won “a Historic Landslide and Mandate from the American People,” Democratic senators could use procedural gimmicks to slow down the confirmation process in January.
“They will try all sorts of tricks starting very soon. Republicans must not allow them to do that. We have a Country to run, and many big problems to solve, mostly created by Democrats. REPUBLICANS, BE SMART AND TOUGH!!!” the president-elect said after saying Senate Democrats are “organizing to improperly stall and delay the confirmation process of many of our Great Nominees.”
Trump’s New Year’s Eve message comes as the Senate prepares to hold confirmation hearings to examine his Cabinet nominees in early January.
Republicans will hold a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber, meaning all of Trump’s nominees will presumably clinch eventual confirmation. However, that doesn’t mean nasty fights aren’t likely to break out amid confirmation hearings.
Several of Trump’s Cabinet selections, including Department of Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth, initially faced criticism from both sides of the aisle, although several wary Republicans have signaled increasing support for the two men after meeting with them on Capitol Hill.
Many Democrats, however, have signaled they will put nominees such as Kash Patel, Trump’s choice to head the FBI, through a grueling confirmation process.
The anticipated battles over Trump’s Cabinet nominees wouldn’t be the first time the president-elect has experienced stiff opposition to his selections to head the country’s biggest federal agencies.
During his first term in office, the Senate’s confirmation of Trump’s Cabinet was reportedly “the slowest in modern history,” with only four of his nominees being confirmed by Feb. 5, 2017. Senate Democrats stalled the process nearly eight years ago by engaging in parliamentary theater, including boycotting several confirmation hearings. The Senate didn’t confirm Trump’s last Cabinet position, that of Alexander Acosta as the labor secretary, until April 27, 2017.
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As the next Congress picks up in January, Trump has one more crucial Senate ally in his corner he lacked during his first four years in the White House.
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) will take over as the new Republican Senate majority leader next month. He and Trump have a much stronger relationship than the president-elect had with Thune’s predecessor, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
