Hitting government with a 'blowtorch': Trump's Cabinet picks are the first step in carrying out his agenda

WASHINGTON — As he waged his winning campaign, Donald Trump described the Justice Department as a hotbed of partisan prosecutors who had “weaponized” law enforcement and the military as a fighting force that had forsaken its mission in favor of political decorum . A Trump presidency would fix all that, he pledged, and with his choices to lead the Defense and Justice departments, along with other agencies, he has shown he meant just what he said. Since his decisive victory last week, Trump has tapped trusted allies to carry out the priorities that align with what he promised voters.

If he wins Senate confirmation, Matt Gaetz will become the next attorney general, with power to end the Justice Department’s traditional independence from the White House and ensure that it is a reliable tool of Trump’s political interests. “President Trump is going to hit the Justice Department with a blowtorch, and Matt Gaetz is that torch,” Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House strategist, told NBC News. Gaetz, R-Fla.



, submitted his resignation from the House on Wednesday. In Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, Trump would have at his side a defense secretary who may be called upon to purge the armed forces of the sorts of generals Trump has deemed anathema to America’s military superiority. Former Rep.

Tulsi Gabbard, who was a Democrat in Congress but has since left the party, has been tapped to be the director of national intelligence , despite limited experience in that arena. Trump picked a hard-line former immigration official, Tom Homan, to be his border czar and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who once gave him a model of Mount Rushmore that included his face, for homeland security secretary.

If they are confirmed, both would be crucial to his plan to evict undocumented immigrants on an unprecedented scale. Trump’s transition team announced a rolling series of Cabinet picks this week as he moves swiftly to set up an administration and capitalize on the electoral victory that has given him the popular mandate he didn’t enjoy when he won in 2016. One difference this time is that he's elevating people he largely knows and likes, as opposed to strangers boasting impressive credentials and résumés.

In his first term, he nominated a retired four-star general, James Mattis, for defense secretary. Mattis had commanded troops in wartime and was considered a blend of soldier and scholar, with a library of thousands of books. As homeland security chief, Trump chose John Kelly, another retired four-star general, whose son was killed fighting in Afghanistan.

Trump broke with both men, ousting Mattis and parting ways with Kelly after having brought him into the White House to be his chief of staff. At the time, both Mattis and Kelly were seen as "adults in the room" who would guide a new president who'd never held public office. That model didn't suit Trump, and he's plainly abandoning it as he shapes a new presidency.

The Gaetz and Hegseth announcements, in particular, drew backlash. Neither has run anything as complex and consequential as the departments they’d be leading. Hegseth was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq and served in the National Guard for more than 19 years.

A Trump transition official said Hegseth is “perhaps unorthodox to inside-the-Beltway types [but] exactly the kind of young, talented, new thinker that can execute for DJT [Donald J. Trump] with lessons the president learned from his first term.” Still, in filling jobs with such vast responsibility, experience counts, others said.

"You need two things: competence and character. You need people who have deep, large, organizational experience, ideally with the public sector. We’re not seeing that with these picks,” said Max Stier, chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group devoted to improving government effectiveness.

Gaetz has been investigated over allegations of sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl. The federal probe didn’t result in criminal charges, and he has long denied wrongdoing. A Justice Department official called the Gaetz announcement " truly stunning ”; another labeled it “insane.

” At this point, Trump has shown no signs of backing down. He won a clear-cut victory over Democrat Kamala Harris. His party will control both the House and the Senate, and Congress’ habit is to give presidents latitude in choosing their own teams.

In this instance, a fight might be in the offing. Trump will need united support from Senate Republicans; he may not get it. Sen.

Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she didn't think Gaetz was "a serious nomination for the attorney general." Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.

D., said he was "a long shot." From bitter experience, Trump knows that he needs an attorney general he can trust implicitly, and it might be worth the political capital to battle for Gaetz's confirmation.

Little happened in Trump’s first term that angered him as much as Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself and appoint a special counsel to investigate whether there were links between his 2016 campaign and Russia. “This is the end of my presidency. I’m f-----,” Trump said, according to a report filed by the special counsel, Robert Mueller.

He went on to fire Sessions. And he later feuded with another appointee, William Barr, who angered him by saying the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, as Trump has falsely claimed. In Gaetz, Trump would get an attorney general who has said Trump won the election that year, as well as an iconoclast who shares his willingness to upset the status quo.

“I don’t care if it takes every second of our time and every ounce of our energy," Gaetz said at a conference of conservative activists last year. "We either get this government back on our side or we defund and get rid of — abolish the FBI, CDC, ATF, DOJ, every last one of ’em if they do not come to heel." Asked about the likelihood of Gaetz’s making it through Senate confirmation, a source close to Trump told NBC News: “The American people made clear that they want President Trump to remake Washington, and Rep.

Gaetz is the perfect man to restore the DOJ to greatness. "Senators will hear from their voters who support the congressman.”.