Nia-Malika Henderson, Columnist

Trump's Nominees Are Testing the GOP's Guardrails

MAGA die-hards see support for Pete Hegseth as a loyalty test. But Republican senators have to think about life after Trump.

December 11, 2024 at 11:00 AM UTC

By Nia-Malika Henderson

Nia-Malika Henderson is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former senior political reporter for CNN and the Washington Post, she has covered politics and campaigns for almost two decades.

Joni Ernst in the hot seat.
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

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President-elect Donald Trump has heard a word from Senate Republicans that few expected him to hear. That word is “no.” And now, the president-elect and his MAGA allies are determined to never hear it again. Their aim is to usurp the powerful and independent “advice and consent” role of the upper chamber by threatening retribution against senators who balk at Trump’s cabinet picks. This is a worrisome, if predictable, development. It is also a departure from the role the Mitch McConnell-led Senate played in Trump’s first administration.

After defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in an election that also gave Republicans control of the Senate and (barely) the House, Trump quickly went to work announcing new executive branch appointees. He thought the Republican Senate would be unquestionably compliant in providing its consent for all of his wishes. Initially, things didn’t go according to the president-elect’s plan.