Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump has his preferred secretary of defense, as Pete Hegseth was formally approved by the Senate late on Friday.
The vote was literally as close as is possible with a full Senate, namely 50-50, with VP J.D. Vance casting the tiebreaking vote. This is only the second time in American history that a cabinet nominee needed the VP's vote to get across the finish line. The first occasion came during Trump v1.0, when Betsy DeVos needed Mike Pence's vote to be confirmed as secretary of education. Clearly, the President likes to live life on the edge.
The three Republicans who joined the 47 Democrats and independents in voting against Hegseth were Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The first two were expected, as they also voted against bringing Hegseth's nomination to the floor. The third was not a great surprise, as he has long disliked Hegseth, and, as a likely retiree in 2 years, he has no particular need to bend the knee before Donald Trump.
What this means, of course, is that there are members of the Senate Republican Conference who are willing to rebel against Trump's most problematic picks. It's entirely plausible, in particular, that this same trio will line up again to vote "nay" on Tulsi Gabbard as DNI. If just one more Republican joins with them, she's sunk. Our guess, reading the tea leaves from this week, is that someone (Senate Majority Leader John Thune?) will quietly take J.D. Vance aside, tell him that Gabbard doesn't have the votes, and she will magically decide to drop out for [fill in phony reason here].
Meanwhile, readers who are not fans of Trump and his administration might take solace in this: Trump's pick for SecDef was guaranteed to be someone abhorrent to the majority of Americans. The President wants a fawning lackey and, having butted heads with generals during his first term, a civilian fawning lackey. The pick might well have been a cunning fawning lackey—someone able to operate under the radar, like a Donald Rumsfeld. Instead, Trump chose someone who is, by all indications, a walking, talking train wreck. The odds that Hegseth does not have some sort of scandal, or does not put his foot so deep in his mouth that he could do a colonoscopy while it's there, are close to zero. So, you can pretty much buy your popcorn now, put it in the closet, and wait for the newly confirmed Secretary to embarrass himself and the administration. Not ideal for the U.S. or for people who want the country to be safe and strong but, again, there are lots of pros at the Pentagon who should be able to rein Hegseth in. (Z)