Donald Trump Jr. Hints at 'Backup Plans' if Nominees Don't Get Confirmed [View all]

Source: Newsweek

Published Nov 17, 2024 at 1:33 PM EST | Updated Nov 17, 2024 at 2:44 PM EST


President-elect Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., indicated on Sunday that his father's transition team is ready to pursue other Cabinet nominees if their first choices don't get through the U.S. Senate confirmation process, even as he remains confident they will succeed. The past week has proven difficult for the president-elect as he released a flurry of announcements for Cabinet nominations, some of which were met with immediate backlash and controversy, such as his pick for U.S. attorney general, former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, and his pick for defense secretary, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth.

While appearing on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Trump Jr. said that the Trump transition team has backup plans in the event these nominees fail, stressing that the team has "lists of 10 or 12 people for every position" without providing any names. "Listen, there's always ideas, we have lists of people, we're not just randomly picking a name out of a hat, we're showing him lists of 10 or 12 people for every position, so we do have backup plans, but I think we're obviously going with the strongest candidates first," he said.

Trump Jr. added: "Some of them are going to be controversial, they're controversial because they'll actually get things done. The swamp doesn't want that, so we're going to go all in and make sure that those people have the best chance at getting confirmed as possible, because they're the people who are most effective."

The president-elect's eldest son said that when people "see that kind of backlash, generally speaking, it's because it's a threat to uniparty in Washington, D.C." He added: "They don't want to see change. They want it to be business as usual. They don't want to be disrupted; that's their meal plan. That's their ticket." Newsweek has reached out to the Trump transition team by email on Sunday morning for comment.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-jr-hints-backup-plans-cabinet-nominees-senate-confirmations-1987117