Trump’s Pressure Campaign for Cabinet Picks Pays Off in Senate

Donald Trump is poised to see nearly every nominee for his cabinet confirmed after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard cleared critical Senate hurdles on Tuesday, in the latest demonstration of the president’s hold over fellow Republicans.

That Trump would succeed in securing his remaining slate of agency and department heads hardly seemed ordained after his selection of Matt Gaetz as attorney general imploded amid allegations — which the former Florida congressman denied — that he had paid for sex with a minor.

Other selections among Trump’s motley crew of cabinet appointees seemed similarly ripe for rejection, only to ultimately prevail.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Photographer: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg

Kennedy, a former third-party presidential candidate, drew criticism for his efforts to link vaccines to autism. Gabbard, once a Democratic congresswoman, met in 2017 with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and argued he was “not the enemy of the United States.” She also refused bipartisan pressure to denounce NSA leaker Edward Snowden as a traitor.

And yet both were voted out of committee in party-line votes on Tuesday, in what was likely the best chance for opponents to derail their nominations. They’ll advance to the floor of the US Senate where Republicans’ three-seat majority is expected to carry them to confirmation.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced allegations, also denied, of alcohol and sexual abuse. Kash Patel, the president’s pick as FBI director, praised elements of the QAnon conspiracy theory on social media, but the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to move his nomination forward on Thursday.

Other nominees with less personal baggage were seeking confirmation even as Trump officials looked to freeze or block spending that had been explicitly authorized by the very lawmakers weighing their candidacies.

Read more: Trump’s Cabinet Made Its Money in Banking, Oil, WWE and Fox News

In Patel’s case, his nomination is expected to move even as the administration purged career FBI staff who had been involved in criminal investigations into Trump or participants of the January 6, 2021, attempted insurrection.

There’s simply not enough moderate Republicans in the upper chamber willing to defy a president who swept their party back into power.

“The president’s really pushing on this,” Vice President JD Vance said Sunday in an interview with Fox News. “I think we have some better allies in the Senate than maybe the president had eight years ago. So, yes, it’s not always perfect, but I think the president’s confirmation hearings are going much better.”

Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a doctor, ultimately provided the key vote to advance Kennedy, citing “serious commitments” from the White House about his concerns over a candidate who will oversee the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Tulsi Gabbard

Photographer: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg

Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Todd Young of Indiana, both of whom expressed initial skepticism toward Gabbard, ultimately said she had addressed their concerns and had committed to advance US national security. She’s in line to oversee 18 of the nation’s intelligence agencies.

And Senator Joni Ernst, the Iowa Republican, veteran and survivor of sexual assault, ultimately voted to put Hegseth in charge of the Pentagon. Hegseth was confirmed last month with Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.

Democrats have railed against Trump’s nominees while also acknowledging that their efforts to block their confirmation have so far gained little traction.

“At the end of the day, we have got to do a job of showing that this cabinet, which is the wealthiest cabinet ever in American history, worth $460 billion, right, not just the top 1 percent, but the top 100th percent of 1 percent, now has control of the federal government,” newly minted Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said Monday in an interview with MSNBC.

One person hasn’t been satisfied with the clip of confirmations — Trump himself. The president accused Democrats of “purposefully delaying virtually all my nominees” in a social media post on Sunday.

“If George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were nominated for a position, the Democrats would take it out to the last moment before having to approve,” Trump wrote.

Below the cabinet level, Democrats have looked to use their hold powers to delay confirmation of other key positions.

Senator Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, said he was putting a “blanket hold” on State Department confirmations after Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk moved to dismantle the US Agency for International Development.

“Until and unless this brazenly authoritarian action is reversed and USAID is functional again, I will be placing a blanket hold on all of the Trump administration’s State Department nominees,” Schatz said in a statement. “This is self-inflicted chaos of epic proportions that will have dangerous consequences all around the world.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Mario Parker at mparker22@bloomberg.net

Megan Scully, Romy Varghese

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.