Trump has already gone about setting out his agenda for his second term
US political commentator Neil McCabe says Donald Trump has a “big problem” waiting for him in the Senate once he becomes president for a second time.
Speaking to GBN America, McCabe said the 78-year-old president-elect does not need to worry about the “rudderless” Democrats, but it will actually be forces from his own party that provide a sting.
Trump has already gone about setting out his agenda for his second term with a series of cabinet appointments which McCabe described as “dramatic”.
Asked whether Trump may face opposition in making these appointments, McCabe said he won’t have to worry about his opposing party.
“If I was president Trump in his inner circle, I would not worry about the Democrats”, he said.
“They are rudderless. They are confused. They understand that all of their strongest arguments have been rejected by the American people. The people Trump has to be worried about are the Republicans, the staffers, the consultants and the people in leadership who have married with the natives in Washington DC and who are opposed to his reforms.
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“John Thune is majority leader in the Senate. That’s a problem. That’s a big problem because there are more than 30 ambassadors who never got confirmed in the first term. Everybody talks about how great Trump did with judges.
“The reason why all those judges got confirmed under Trump is because senators are the ones who pick the judges in their home state. There’s a pro-forma process where they’re technically nominated by the president.
“Those judges got through because they were picked by senators. So many of the non-judicial nominations never got through because they were blocked by Mitch McConnell and Thune and that crew. If Trump can’t get Senate Republicans to accept the results of the 2024 election, he’s going to have big problems.
“They need to be taken to heal quickly.”
Trump’s pick for attorney general Matt Gaetz has stepped away from consideration for the post after questions were raised about his involvement in an ethics scandal.
But Gaetz is not the only selection to have courted controversy with Trump’s defence secretary pick Pete Hegseth denying a sexual assault allegation while Robert F Kennedy Jr faces questions over his vaccine scepticism after being selected as health secretary nominee.
Trump continues to select close allies as his nominations for high-ranking positions in his administration.
He announced oil executive Chris Wright as energy secretary, a climate change sceptic who will work towards Trump’s campaign promise to increase fossil fuel production.