Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump is moving quickly filling cabinet and other top-level positions. Here is the current list of key top nominations that Trump has announced so far:
| Position | Nominee | Background |
| Sec. of State | Marco Rubio | U.S. Senator, member of Foreign Relations Committee, China hawk |
| Sec. of Defense | Pete Hegseth | Totally unqualified Fox News host who has never even run a lemonade stand |
| Sec. of HHS | Robert Kennedy Jr. | Pro-choice vaccine skeptic, leading purveyor of conspiracy theories |
| Sec. of Homeland Security | Kristi Noem | Far-right SD governor who knows zip about DHS, used to be in Congress |
| Sec. of Interior | Doug Burgum | Competent governor of ND who favors domestic oil production |
| Sec. of Energy | Chris Wright | CEO of an energy company that specializes in fracking |
| Sec. of Veterans Affairs | Doug Collins | Former Georgia representative who consistently defended Trump in the House |
| Attorney General | Matt Gaetz | Former representative, bomb thrower, allegedly violated sex trafficking laws |
| Deputy AG | Todd Blanche | Trump's lawyer in the hush-money case he lost, once worked for SDNY |
| EPA administrator | Lee Zeldin | Former congressman who opposes everything the EPA is supposed to do |
| Director of National Intel. | Tulsi Gabbard | Not only unqualified for job, but very possibly a Russian asset |
| CIA director | John Ratcliffe | Abrasive but competent former Director of National Intelligence |
| U.N. ambassador | Elise Stefanik | #4 House Republican, #1 House opportunist who has no principles at all |
| NSA | Michael Waltz | Florida congressman, China hawk who opposes helping Ukraine |
| FCC Chair | Brendan Carr | Partisan hack, wrote the "FCC" chapter in Project 2025 |
| White House Counsel | William McGinley | Former White House official, worked for RNC on "election integrity" |
| Solicitor General | Dean Sauer | Clerk to J. Michael Luttig, defended pedophile priests, Missouri solicitor general |
| Border czar | Tom Homan | Former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, border hardliner |
Nearly all of the above appointments require Senate confirmation. A surprising number of the above nominees are veep rejects, including Burgum, Gabbard, Noem, Rubio and Stefanik. In a way, getting a real job is actually an improvement over being veep for a president who wants to do everything himself and then blame the VP when it goes wrong. At this rate, by Jan. 20, the whole Cabinet is likely to be nominated and some of the nominees approved.
That is not to say confirmation will be easy. Quite a few of Trump's picks are very controversial. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that if confirmation votes were secret, at least half a dozen of the above nominees would fail. But the votes are not secret.
One of the picks that was already controversial has just gotten worse. Pete Hegseth, weekend host at Fox, did serve in the Army once, but that is hardly a qualification for being Secretary of Defense. Now it has come out that in 2017, Hegseth was accused of sexual assault after speaking at a Republican women's event in Monterey, CA. No charges were filed, but Hegseth paid the woman an undisclosed sum of money to keep quiet about it. Hegseth said the encounter was consensual and besides, the woman was the aggressor. This story is not going to increase the chances of the nine Republican women in the Senate voting for his confirmation.
And while we are on the subject of sex scandals, one unnamed woman told the House Ethics Committee that she witnessed AG-designate Matt Gaetz having sex with a minor at a party in Florida. Senate Democrats and Republicans have demanded that the House Ethics Committee turn over its report to them before they vote on Gaetz' confirmation. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has refused to release the report. Gaetz resigned from the House to kill the investigation, but if the Senate votes him down, he can simply be sworn in as a new House member in January since he was reelected on Nov. 5. At worst, it will cost him a bit of seniority.
One person who could play a big role in confirmation battles is outgoing Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). He is the ultimate institutionalist, is probably not going to run for reelection in 2026 and his wife, Elaine Chao, is very wealthy, so he could probably oppose some of Trump's nominations and not be pressured into changing his mind. McConnell cares deeply about foreign policy and national security and if he thinks nominees in that sector are incompetent, he might come out against them in public, which could sink them because other Republican senators respect their longtime leader. He could be like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who is officially a backbencher now, but probably the most powerful backbencher in history.
Additionally, Trump has also chosen several people who will work closely with him but who do not need Senate confirmation, including his chief of staff and her deputy, the communications director, press secretary, etc. Then there is the DOGE (pronounced "doggie" ?), run by two guys with elephant-size egos, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. (V)