Matt Gaetz announced he is withdrawing his name from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick as attorney general, noting in a social media post that his nomination had become a distraction.
Gaetz held multiple meetings with GOP senators over the past couple of days as he sought to game out his chances of getting confirmed.
We’re chatting with former Cabinet members, chiefs of staff and government leaders from now to Jan. 20 to get a sense of what the incoming administration might face as it takes the reins.
Today we’re talking to Anthony Foxx, who served as Transportation secretary during the Obama administration and before that was mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. These days, he’s thinking about leadership in his role as co-director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. He’s continued to advise Transportation folks and recently met with current Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The following interview is edited for length and clarity.
What advice do you have for the next Cabinet secretary?
Get to know the place and especially the people. There is a lot of important institutional memory in the agency, especially in the realm of safety. You may not always agree with their recommendations, but the input always proved helpful.
What’s one thing you didn’t know that you wish you did before you got into the job?
The Office Information and Regulatory Affairs can refuse to accept well-constructed rules if they so choose, creating the perception that the Department of Transportation is not moving fast enough to adopt safety rules.
What do you see as the biggest obstacle facing the next department?
The perception that safety regulations stand in the way of innovation. In emergent transportation technologies, such as driverless cars and drones, the Department of Transportation has the opportunity to provide clarity and certainty, which can enable innovation to be integrated into the transportation system safely.
Where did you go to have a meltdown?
There is no place to hide. Just remember how much you and your own family depend on a safe, efficient transportation system and treat your task with the same level of care and concern each day.
Want more? Another former Transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, says he found serenity in Peoria.
Senate Democrats confirmed the Biden administration’s 220th lifetime appointment to the federal judiciary on Wednesday — and are poised to add to that total as they wind down their time in Washington before Thanksgiving.
Lawmakers voted beyond midnight to end debate on a handful of other nominees. On Thursday, they’ll vote to confirm Sharad Desai to be district judge for the District of Arizona.
Beyond that, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will have half a dozen more nominees primed for final Senate approval — though the actual confirmations won’t take place until after Thanksgiving.
Of note: Vice President-elect JD Vance was present and voted no on the latter half of these judicial moves, so he was near the Senate floor until around midnight.
“We have a lot of excellent nominees to work through,” Schumer said on the floor.
The Senate confirmed 234 judges during Trump’s first term in office, a tally Democrats and the Biden White House are hoping to eclipse during the lame duck.
Republican absences aided Democrats in their push earlier Wednesday.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) missed votes earlier in the day, while Indiana Gov.-elect and Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) was absent for the entire day. That allowed Democrats to clear judges without the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris — who’s vacationing in Hawaii — even when some nominees lost a vote from the Democratic conference.
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) intends to establish a new subcommittee next year led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that will oversee Delivering on Government Efficiency, a person familiar with the plans confirmed to POLITICO.
The subcommittee will be tasked with coordinating with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, an outside-of-government effort announced by Donald Trump which will be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The commission has been tasked with providing advice and coordinating with the White House and Office of Management and Budget.
“The Oversight committee has the broadest jurisdiction in the House and is the perfect place to support the DOGE mission. I’m excited to chair this new subcommittee designed to work hand in hand with President Trump, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and the entire DOGE team,” Greene said in a statement.
“We will identify and investigate the waste, corruption, and absolutely useless parts of our federal government. Our subcommittee will provide transparency and truth to the American people through hearings. No topic will be off the table,” she added.
The person familiar with the plans added that lawmakers have already met with the incoming DOGE team, including Ramaswamy. The subcommittee, the person added, will be tasked with investigating wasteful spending, looking at how to reorganize federal agencies with an eye at improving efficiency and identifying solutions to eliminate bureaucratic red tape.
House Democrats initially reacted to the news with disdain. “These distractions are not to the benefit of our constituencies or our culture. They’re hurtful, they’re harmful, and we’re prepared to do the real work,” Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.) said.
Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) added: “Marjorie Taylor Greene chairing it tells you everything.”
Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, is on Capitol Hill Thursday to make his case with Senate Republicans as controversy continues to build around his nomination.
The Army veteran and Fox News host will need to address allegations of sexual assault that surfaced in recent days. Concern on the Hill is only likely to build after a police report into the 2017 allegations, which Hegseth denies and wasn’t charged in, became public on Wednesday.
Four Senate Republicans would need to break ranks to sink Hegseth’s nomination. And though none has opposed him so far, many Republicans have offered a tepid defense of Trump’s pick.
Here’s a look at Republicans to watch:
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.): The incoming chair of the Armed Services Committee will oversee Hegseth’s confirmation process. Wicker has said he wants to be “supportive” of Hegseth and posited that his outsider status could be advantageous in shaking up the Pentagon.
While he may well back Trump’s pick, Wicker will also need to gauge the support of his committee members and their concerns as the confirmation process unfolds.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa): A Senate Armed Services member whose name was briefly floated for the Pentagon job, Ernst could be somewhat of a bellwether for GOP support.
Ernst has been a vocal critic of the military’s handling of sexual assault in the ranks. She was the only Republican to vote against Gen. John Hyten’s nomination for Joint Chiefs vice chair, a confirmation process that was dominated by sexual assault allegations.
Ernst has said the allegations against Hegseth merit “discussion.” She also wants Hegseth to explain his comments that women should not serve in combat jobs.
“Any time there are allegations, you want to make sure they are properly vetted, so we’ll have that discussion,” Ernst said.
The stalwarts: Many of the junior Armed Services Republicans who are closely aligned with Trump have expressed support for Hegseth: Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).
Non-Armed Services Republicans: While Thursday’s meetings likely will focus on shoring up immediate support among Armed Services members, some of the biggest wild cards could be in the wider Senate.
Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska most frequently bucked Trump in his first term and could be skeptical of Hegseth and other contentious picks. Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), a conservative defense hawk who declined to support Trump in 2024, has praised Trump’s initial slate, and said he’d allow Hegseth’s confirmation process to play out.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the recent runner-up in the race to be the new GOP majority leader, could be an asset. Cornyn held a call with Hegseth — and on Wednesday touted him in a floor speech.
“I’ve known Pete a long time … I told him I want to be a resource for him,” Cornyn told reporters. “He came up here years ago, initially on some veterans affairs issues, and so trying to be of assistance,” Cornyn said, before downplaying the sexual assault allegation. “There’ll be plenty of time to hash that out. My understanding is it was a settlement of a dispute, and there’ll be plenty of time to flesh that out.”
Alaska Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola lost her reelection campaign Wednesday, a little more than two years after she unexpectedly flipped the Republican-held seat.
Peltola lost to Republican challenger Nick Begich III, a business owner and grandson of former Sen. Nick Begich (D). The winner ended up with 51 percent of the vote after more ballots were counted and the state applied its rank choice voting process.
Peltola got to Congress following a 2022 special election following Republican Rep. Don Young’s death. She flipped the seat from Republican control on a centrist message that included promoting fisheries, natural resources and abortion rights, among other priorities; she made “Fish, Family, Freedom” a campaign motto.
She continued to push fishery priorities through a seat on the Natural Resources Committee. But some of her conservative or centrist positions on natural resources ruffled feathers within the Democratic Party.
One of Peltola’s priorities was to get the Biden administration to permit the Willow Project, a major oil and gas endeavor in Alaska.
“It was frustrating to hear [the Willow] project referred to as a carbon bomb,” she told POLITICO’s E&E News last year.
“When, actually, the carbon bomb has been on the demand side,” she continued. “The folks who were saying that about this project came from districts where every single day the mere existence of their district is a carbon bomb.”
She made Willow and other actions on natural resources a central part of her reelection campaign.
“Because of the role that I’ve played within the delegation … we saw Willow get approved for a second time,” Peltola said in a debate. “We saw a president go back on his campaign promise, ignore his senior-most advisers … because I was able to make compelling and convincing and winning arguments for the development of this project.”
She voted with Republicans on matters like EPA regulations, mining development and environmentally focused investing.
In one case, Peltola co-sponsored legislation to open up drilling rights in the Arctic but went on to oppose and vote against it, saying it would nullify conservation protections.
Begich appears poised to mainly stick with Republicans on issues around energy and natural resources. At the debates with Peltola, he avoided answering a question on climate change, instead calling for easing regulations on insurers and said he would be better at representing Alaska’s interests, like supporting the Donlin gold mine, which Peltola initially opposed but now supports.
A former state lawmaker, Peltola was buoyed in both the 2022 special and general elections by ranked choice voting, which was new to Alaska. In both races, Begich and former Gov. Sarah Palin (R) split the Republican vote, and enough voters ranked Peltola second that she was victorious, a result that angered GOP leaders.
In the 2024 race, the other Republican to advance from the primary, Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, dropped out, uniting the GOP behind Begich.
Here’s what we’re watching in transition world today:
🗓️ What we’re watching
At least three of Donald Trump’s nominees will test whether the president-elect’s ability to withstand sexual misconduct allegations is transferable. The current moment has been shaped by #MeToo but in some of the exact opposite ways that movement could have imagined roughly seven years ago.
The House Ethics Committee on Wednesday did not agree to release the long-anticipated report into Matt Gaetz but members are expected to meet again next month. Meanwhile, Democrats are infuriated and argue the committee is dragging out the process, while Republicans remain furious that Gaetz put them in this position.
There are a handful of GOP senators who could reject some of Trump’s picks for top Cabinet positions. Jonathan Martin breaks down who they are in his latest column.
🚨What’s up with the nominees?
Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth is set to visit Capitol Hill Thursday to meet with Republican Senators after police records revealed new details Thursday about the sexual assault allegation against him
Dr. Mehmet Oz seems to be drawing more enthusiasm from Senate Republicans to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services than Trump’s selection to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Several Republicans told POLITICO that Oz is “well respected” and that his nomination is a “great opportunity.”
With Trump tapping Linda McMahon as his choice for Education Secretary, some are seeing similarities to the President-elect’s last pick for that job, Betsy Devos.
⏱️What Cabinet secretary announcements are we still waiting on?
Treasury
Agriculture
Labor
HUD
Trade
President-elect Donald Trump’s rapid-fire cabinet appointments have made clear what he values: loyalty to Donald Trump and a demonstrated ability to articulate that loyalty on television.
The response to The Trump Show’s casting call will be even more clarifying. In short: Will the Senate remain the Senate?
While much of the GOP has become a Trump subsidiary, there are still some Senate Republicans who consider themselves members of a co-equal branch of government and take their Advise and Consent duty seriously.
Not that this is the Hollywood version of the Senate. Most of the 53 Republican lawmakers in the incoming Senate want to support their party’s president, who just won a decisive victory and enjoys diehard support from the bulk of their voters. They’d much rather air their concerns about Trump’s picks privately and avoid having to cast a vote in opposition to any of them. No need to do any “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” impressions on the Senate floor when the oppo research can work its will.
Yet it’s that lack of appetite for a public showdown with Trump that will make the first months of the new Congress so telling. The fates of the fringe appointees who come up for a confirmation vote will reveal one of the most important new power centers in Washington, and perhaps one of the few checks on Trump II: the lame duck caucus.
Yes, it’s those senators who may never have to face Republican primary voters again and are therefore immune from Trump’s greatest power — his control of the GOP base.
These are the lawmakers for which freedom — to borrow from the great and recently departed Kris Kristofferson — is just another word for nothing left to lose.
This is not to say that every Republican senator who opposes a Trump appointment is headed for the exits. Some are independent minded, and their political strength flows partly from that identity (looking at you, senior senators from Maine and Alaska).
However, to examine those GOP senators whose terms are up in 2026 and 2028 is to grasp how some of Trump’s most provocative picks could be blocked, provided the 47 Democrats and independents vote in unified opposition.
The challenge will not just be how willing they are to thwart Trump, but whether they will be willing to do so with more than one nominee. It’s one thing to rise up with safety in numbers and block, say, Matt Gaetz’s nomination as attorney general should it reach the floor. It’s quite another to torpedo Gaetz and then take down another, let alone two or three, more Trump appointees.
It’s worth watching, though, because this same bloc of Republican lawmakers would also be the most likely to reemerge later in Trump’s term to selectively challenge him on issues (tariffs or foreign policy come to mind) or an inevitable power grab.
So who’s in this latest Senate gang, one most would deny being part of?
Let’s begin with those senators who are up in 2026.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.): The longest-serving Senate leader in American history tops the list because he is the most likely retiree. McConnell is the consummate partisan — look no further than his return to Trump after prematurely consigning him to history’s ash heap. He’s also a team player who will not want to make life unduly difficult for his successor as leader, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.).
However, McConnell has also made clear he wants to use the end of his 40-plus years in the Senate to steer his party away from isolationism. How committed he is to that task could be determined early next year should he have to consider Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary and Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence chief.
Sen. John Cornyn (Texas): Equally liberated could be the man who fell a few votes short of becoming McConnell’s successor. In the immediate wake of his defeat, Cornyn, who turns 73 in February, said he still planned to run for reelection. Yet after not realizing his years-long goal of becoming Senate GOP leader, does Cornyn really want to spend the next 16 months racing between Texas and Washington to fend off a right-wing primary so he can serve in the rank-and-file until he’s 80? If not, he’s free to act, and vote, like the Bush Republican he is.
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine): Finally poised to claim the Appropriations gavel she’s long coveted, Collins has also indicated she intends to run for reelection in two years. I don’t doubt it. But what sort of a primary and general election could loom in her bifurcated state? There’s a reason why the dexterous Collins is the last sitting GOP senator to carry a state that her party’s presidential nominee lost. Striking that balance of keeping core Republicans from her native rural Maine happy without angering moderate Mainers closer to Portland will be on her mind with every contentious vote.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.): Like Collins, Cassidy voted to convict Trump of impeachment charges nearly four years ago. Unlike Collins, Cassidy hails from a deeply pro-Trump state. Even more ominous for the Louisiana lawmaker, his state’s famous jungle primary — in which all candidates for office appear on a single ballot open to all voters — is no more for federal races. Now chairing the HELP Committee, Cassidy, a physician, may not want to walk away. But if he concludes he will lose a Republican primary, he’ll be free to vote as boldly as he did when he was one of only seven Senate Republicans to convict Trump.
Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.): Tillis’ most vexing potential primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, is no more thanks to, well, you know what. But like Collins, Tillis is staring at the prospect of more conservative Republicans eager to pounce should he break from Trump. And Tillis could have one of the most hard-fought general elections in the country should outgoing Gov. Roy Cooper be tempted to run. (Expect Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to have memorized Cooper’s number by the first of the year.)
More than the hassle of an expensive primary and general election two years on may be the more immediate question of whether a dealmaker like Tillis can find satisfaction in the Senate during another time of Trump. Will he make his peace with MAGA, as he did under Trump I? Or will he follow the course of his neighbor to the west, former Senator Bob Corker, and decide after two terms he’s had quite enough of the “adult day care center” that is the Trump White House.
Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa): Ernst has been sounding Trumpier lately. Perhaps she’ll be tapped for an administration post. Army Secretary or Defense Secretary, if Hegseth is derailed, could be alluring for a military veteran like Ernst. But, as with Cornyn, she lost a leadership race and is now something of a free agent. And like McConnell, she doesn’t hide her more hawkish national security views.
I’m tempted to include Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), a pre-Trump Republican if there ever was one. Capito turns 71 next week and may not want to spend most of her 70s in the Senate. Yet she’ll be mindful of voting in a way that, in a state where the primary is now tantamount to election, won’t undermine her son or nephew from becoming the third generation of Moores elected statewide.
Okay, onto those up in 2028.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Ark.): Murkowski is the other remaining GOP senator who voted to convict Trump of impeachment charges in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol. She has already won one primary as a write-in candidate. And she may prevail again should she run again in four years if Alaska’s ranked-choice system survives repeal efforts. But that Anchorage to D.C. commute doesn’t get any shorter. Regardless of her ultimate plans, there may be no more liberated Republican senator in the body next year.
Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa): Grassley has been in elected office since the Eisenhower administration and I’m reluctant to ever assume he’s on the verge of retirement. But at 91, perhaps the Iowan will start considering his retirement years. Seriously, though, the Judiciary Committee chair has not shown much interest in challenging Trump previously. But if ever there was a GOP lawmaker without political considerations to weigh, it’s the hog farmer and Twitter maven from New Hartford, Iowa.
Sen. Todd Young (Ind.): It got remarkably little attention, but Young didn’t endorse Trump’s candidacy this year. Which puts him in league with Collins and Murkowski. That’s no small thing for a 52-year-old from deep-red (crimson?) Indiana with years ahead of him in elected office. If he wants as much. That may depend on the state of party.
Regardless, Young, a Naval Academy graduate and Marine, is in the internationalist tradition of his long-ago boss, Sen. Richard Lugar. And his deafening silence this year toward Trump’s candidacy suggests he’s not afraid to go his own way.
Sen. Jerry Moran (Kansas): The low-key former House member — he and Thune arrived in the same class to that chamber — has avoided tangling with Trump. But Moran is a Republican traditionalist who could be in his last term. He’s 70 and, like Cornyn, may not want to remain in the Senate until he’s 80.
Sen. To Be Named Later (Ohio): The successor to Vice-President-elect JD Vance is a mystery but the person who will decide who fills the seat is not. It’s Gov. Mike DeWine, an old school Republican nearing, presumably, his final two years in elected office. Will DeWine pick a placeholder in his image, somebody who may defy Trump, or a more MAGA-friendly figure who can survive a primary?
That’s it for the 2028 class. I’ll resist the temptation to scout those GOP senators up in 2030 — except to note this may be Armed Services Chair and national security hawk Sen. Roger Wicker’s (R-Miss.) last term.
Not that he or most any other GOP senator will want to break from Trump. But as the once and future president has proven for nearly a decade, and is proving anew since the election, the only thing more vexing than being a Trump critic is being a Trump ally.
Transportation Security Administration chief David Pekoske is signaling that he’d like to stay on in his current role as President-elect Donald Trump begins his second term.
During a segment about Thanksgiving travel with CBS on Tuesday, Pekoske was clear that he’s hoping to stay until his term ends in 2027, saying that he “loves” the role.
“It’s important for continuity in TSA to run the second term to its conclusion,” he said, adding that the agency has made numerous investments and increased partnerships not just in air travel but on surface transportation security, too.
A TSA spokesperson on Wednesday backstopped Pekoske’s comments. Pekoske “was instrumental in pushing for equal pay of all TSA employees to make them commensurate with the rest of the federal government” among other initiatives like lowering workforce attrition and increasing screener employees at airports, the spokesperson said.
“The agency has come a long way in innovation and technology under his tenure to increase security effectiveness, efficiency and the customer experience,” the spokesperson added.
A number of aviation and travel industry executives attending the U.S. Travel Association’s conference echoed that desire for continuity in interviews Wednesday.
Tori Emerson Barnes, U.S. Travel’s executive vice president for public affairs and policy, told POLITICO at the event that the industry has had a “really great working relationship” with Pekoske, who’s “leaned in, pushing innovation and has worked on really driving change at the organization.”
“He was first nominated and confirmed in Trump’s first term, and so he’s been a steady hand, a consistent voice that really has led the way” on these initiatives, Barnes said. “Our hope would be that he would stay until the end of his term.”
Donald Trump wants to give former Rep. Pete Hoekstra another turn as a diplomat.
Trump announced Wednesday that Hoekstra, who served as ambassador to the Netherlands during his first administration, is his pick for ambassador to Canada for his second.
“In my Second Term, Pete will once again help me put AMERICA FIRST,” Trump said in a statement. “He did an outstanding job as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands during our first four years, and I am confident that he will continue to represent our Country well in this new role.”
Hoekstra served as ambassador to the Netherlands from 2018 to 2021 and in Congress from 1993 to 2011. He unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2010 and for the Senate in 2012. He currently serves as chair of the Michigan GOP.
If confirmed as ambassador to Canada by the Senate, Hoekstra would take the position at a time of strong unity between the two countries after four tumultuous years during Trump’s first term, when he scrapped the North American Free Trade Agreement, imposed tariffs on Canadian aluminum and had a rocky relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Kelly Craft, who served as the top U.S. envoy in Canada under Trump between 2017 and 2019, said during an appearance at a policy forum last month that a future Trump administration would expect Ottawa to meet its NATO military spending commitment more quickly than under the timeline set by Trudeau’s government.