Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may need every vote he can get to win confirmation as President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of health and human services.

No Senate Democrats have said they’d back Kennedy yet.

But New Jersey’s Cory Booker shares RFK Jr.’s concerns about the U.S. food system, as he made clear in a post to X this morning, which said that the system prioritizes “corporations feeding us unhealthy products” while flooding us with “dangerous chemicals.”

Kennedy took note, thanking Booker in a post “for your long history of leadership on this issue.”

Last week, Booker, who tries to stay healthy by avoiding processed sugar and animal products, acknowledged that he and Kennedy have had similar ideas on the connection between food and health — but said he didn’t trust the coming Trump administration.

“I feel like he’s lifted paragraphs from my speech talking about this crisis,” Booker said of Kennedy. “Color me skeptical about a president that did a lot of things in his last administration to undermine people’s access to healthy, quality food, tried to lower nutrition standards and do the kind of things that [are] not making America healthy.”

Booker was among the Senate Democrats most opposed to Trump’s Cabinet nominees during his first administration, voting aye only four times, for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, VA Secretary David Shulkin, Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.

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 Ray LaHood, a former Republican lawmaker who made the unusual move to serve in Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration as Transportation secretary. LaHood has gone on to serve as an adviser on transportation issues around the country and sits on the Bradley University board of trustees.

What advice do you have for the next Cabinet secretary?

Count on a great team of people, professional career people at DOT. Day in and day out they are professional and will salute and carry out the goals and the mission of the new secretary. They’re career people, and they will do what needs to be done to carry out the goals of the new secretary.

What’s one thing you didn’t know that you wish you did before you got into the job?

All of the bureaucracy and paperwork, especially during the vetting process. I’m a former teacher, and my wife, who’s a CPA, always did our taxes. So I was surprised when the FBI went back and did their interviews and talked to teachers I worked with in 1971. I had no idea there was gonna be such a thorough investigation and all of the paperwork and bureaucracy that it took to get through the FBI background check and through the Senate Commerce Committee and through the White House.

What do you see as the biggest obstacle facing the next administration?

They’re at the end of three years of the trillion-dollar transportation bill. Some of the money is prescribed by formula. Much of it is discretionary. And I think the biggest challenge will be how will this new administration carry out the mandates that are in the bill — which is a five-year bill. The best example is high speed rail and Amtrak money. Will they continue an emphasis on rail or will they ignore all that?

Where did you go to have a meltdown?

When I needed to relax and when I needed some downtime, I would come back to Peoria where my grandkids are, my family and my friends. Peoria is a very normal, peaceful place.

Want more? Former White House chief of staff Samuel Skinner says working across the aisle will be key.

Donald Trump’s political revival was fueled by a populist economic message that hit home with an electorate weary of Biden-era high prices and interest rates. Now the president-elect is having a hard time picking a quarterback to run his economic game plan.

Nearly two weeks after Election Day — and after a flurry of high-profile Cabinet picks that blindsided Washington policymakers and industry leaders — Trump has yet to name his pick for who will lead the Treasury Department. Fighting between Trump world factions that support transition co-chair Howard Lutnick and hedge fund executive Scott Bessent has spilled into public view.

Two sources told POLITICO on Sunday that the president has grown frustrated by the jockeying between the two top candidates, and his delay in making a selection has lifted the odds of one of the other rumored contenders like Trump’s longtime trade policy adviser Robert Lighthizer, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan emerging as a spoiler. The New York Times on Sunday night reported that former Federal Reserve Gov. Kevin Warsh is also now in the running and that certain candidates may be asked to interview this week.

“President-Elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second administration. Those decisions will continue to be announced by him when they are made,” transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

The infighting has thrown into question who will ultimately be tasked with a powerful job jurisdiction which includes financial markets, the issuance of U.S. debt, economic national security matters, tax policy and the strength of the dollar. Other key economic posts, including director of Trump’s National Economic Council, Commerce Secretary and U.S. Trade Representative, also remain unfilled.

Bessent, the CEO of Key Square Group and a frequent Trump campaign surrogate, had been widely viewed as the front-runner for Treasury after Election Day. Sources close to the transition say that Trump’s selection process was slowed as Lutnick exerted tight control over what information is presented to the president-elect, which created challenges for Bessent — or other candidates — to deliver their own pitch. Bessent met with the president at Mar-a-Lago on Friday.

Elon Musk, the unpredictable founder of Tesla and a top adviser to Trump, entered the fray over the weekend, arguing that Lutnick would be a stronger pick for the role. Bessent represented the “business-as-usual choice,” Musk posted on X, the social media network he purchased two years ago. “Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another.” He later added that he was open to hearing more about Bessent, and the two reportedly spoke before Musk joined Trump ringside at a UFC match on Saturday night.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s choice to lead Health and Human Services, injected the incoming president’s crypto policy agenda into the mix with a post on X about how bitcoin would “have no stronger advocate than Howard Lutnik [sic].”

Meanwhile, Bessent’s allies on Wall Street were campaigning as well, arguing that the macro hedge fund CEO’s solid understanding of markets would help the president execute his policies without causing undue disruptions to financial markets or the broader economy.

“I’ve known Scott for almost forty years, as he was my first professional hire at Chanos & Co.,” Jim Chanos, the famed short-seller, told POLITICO. “While we might disagree on politics, there is no questioning his character, patriotism and intellect. He would make an outstanding Treasury Secretary.”

The Financial Times on Sunday reported that Trump advisers have sought assurances from the top candidates that they “are committed to his sweeping tariffs plans.” The story included a detail about how Lighthizer — a tariff hardliner who served as Trump’s trade representative during the first administration — “had previously expressed interest in becoming Treasury secretary.”

“Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with President-elect Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago on Friday, agreeing to restart communication between the three of them for the first time since March 2020.

“For those asking why we would speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, I would ask back: Why wouldn’t we?” Brzezinski asked viewers Monday morning, adding that the hosts realized “it’s time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but talking with him.”

While this is the first face-to-face meeting Trump has had with the popular cable hosts in seven years, the president-elect has maintained an on-again off-again relationship with Scarborough and Brzezinski dating back years. They’ve publicly feuded on numerous issues, including when Trump called Brzezinski “low I.Q. Crazy” and Scarborough a “Psycho” in a pair of tweets in 2017, drawing backlash.

Trump’s feud with the morning show duo has at times extended beyond personal insults. The incoming president in 2020 floated a conspiracy theory that Scarborough was involved in the 2001 death of a staffer when he was a member of Congress. Though the then-president publicly suggested the staffer had been murdered, an autopsy at the time showed she had an undiagnosed heart condition and had died after falling and hitting her head. Scarborough was in Washington at the time of her death.

But the married hosts of MSNBC’s flagship morning program appear ready to turn the page, though they committed to viewers they would continue to hold Trump accountable, including Scarborough saying they will not “defend or normalize Donald Trump.”

“In this meeting, President Trump was cheerful. He was upbeat. He seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues,” Brzezinski said. Scarborough also echoed the need for a path to working with Trump, and he said Democrats in Washington agree.

“I will tell you a lot of Democratic leaders we have talked to this past week since the election have told Mika and me, it’s time for a new approach,” he said. “And when I say top Democrats, I mean top Democrats.”

Elon Musk is planning weekly livestream updates about his efforts to cut the government.

The Trump ally and Tesla CEO posted on his social media platform X that he is planning regular updates about the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The government-downsizing effort, announced this week by President-elect Donald Trump, will be led by Musk and wealthy entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. The details of how the operation will work are still unclear, but Trump said the effort’s leaders will remain outside the government.

Musk told attendees at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort Thursday evening that the incoming administration won’t amount to business as usual. “This is going to be a revolution,” Musk said.

Musk and Ramaswamy have signaled how their team will work in social media posts this week.

They’re calling for “small government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week” to join their effort.

In addition to plans for a weekly livestream, Musk previously posted, “All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency.”

He and Ramaswamy have suggested they’ll be crowdsourcing ideas from the public about wasteful government programs.

Ramaswamy has already singled out an energy regulatory agency as a possible target.

“Too much bureaucracy = less innovation & higher costs,” he posted Friday on X. “That’s a real problem with the FDA, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and countless other 3-letter agencies. They are utterly agnostic to how their daily decisions stifle new inventions & impose costs that deter growth.”

During his presidential campaign, Ramaswamy pledged to eliminate a handful of agencies, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Ramaswamy also urged cutting at least 75 percent of the federal workforce.

President-elect Donald Trump named AI as a focus of his energy strategy Friday in his formal announcement of Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to head the Interior Department and a new National Energy Council.

“With U.S. Energy Dominance, we will drive down Inflation, win the A.I. arms race with China (and others), and expand American Diplomatic Power to end Wars all across the World,” Trump wrote in an email announcing his choice.

He said the National Energy Council would oversee a cross-agency effort to cut red tape, boost private-sector investments and promote innovation over regulation with a “DRILL BABY DRILL” approach. Expanding energy supply and driving down its cost would “win the battle for A.I. superiority, which is key to National Security and our Nation’s Prosperity,” Trump added.

The Republican party pledged in its 2024 platform to “MAKE AMERICA THE DOMINANT ENERGY PRODUCER IN THE WORLD, BY FAR.”

The president-elect first announced his choice of Burgum on Thursday at Mar A Lago. Burgum will also have a seat on the National Security Council, Trump announced in his release.

The decision over who will be tapped to head Treasury has been hung up as Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick and hedge fund executive Scott Bessent compete for the president-elect’s attention, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

One major factor that’s delayed the decision is the amount of control Lutnick has exerted in determining what information flows up to the president-elect, two of the sources said. Bessent is meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, The Washington Post reported.

The jockeying between Lutnick, the head of New York investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, and Bessent, a former George Soros protege who now leads his own hedge fund, has left Treasury as one of the biggest remaining question marks in the Trump 2.0 cabinet.

The Treasury secretary is a powerful position whose jurisdiction includes financial markets, the issuance of U.S. debt, economic national security matters, tax policy and the strength of the dollar. Donald Trump’s choice for the job is also expected to have a hand in selecting other top positions with a say in setting economic policy and Wall Street regulation.

Bessent, the founder of the investment firm Key Square Group, had widely been viewed as the front-runner until Lutnick began to make his own case to lead Treasury, according to the people. Lutnick’s empire includes Cantor Fitzgerald as well as FMX Futures, which is a new competitor to the exchange behemoth CME Group.

But Bessent, who was little known in Washington policy circles prior to the campaign, gained prominence on the national stage after emerging as one of Trump’s top economic advisers. The former chief investor for Soros’s company has assuaged the concerns of some far-right Trump loyalists — including Steve Bannon and Roger Stone — while maintaining connections with Wall Street traditionalists.

Three people familiar with the transition say the door is still open for another candidate, such as former National Economic Council Director and Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, who remains close to the president.
Other contenders who are said to be in consideration include Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s former U.S. trade representative, former Goldman Sachs executive and Trump adviser Gary Cohn, and Marc Rowan, the head of Apollo Global Management.

“President-Elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration. Those decisions will be announced when they are made,” transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Lutnick’s role as one of Trump’s advisers on the transition has provided him with more access to the president-elect than other Treasury candidates as speculation mounted about his emergence as a top contender for the role. Meanwhile, Bessent has embarked on a media campaign that included appearances on Fox News and Bannon’s podcast, as well as an op-ed defending the use of tariffs that was published on Fox’s website on Friday morning.

One source said Bessent’s frequent appearances in the media were indicative of how difficult it has been to capture Trump’s attention as Lutnick helped the president with policy and personnel decisions. Lutnick allies say the Cantor CEO hasn’t been in a position to run a public campaign because of his role at the helm of the transition.

Bessent, Lutnick and Kudlow did not respond to requests for comment.