By Elaina Batista, Contributor
In recent weeks, President-elect Donald Trump has begun tapping potential members for his cabinet. Just eight days ago, Trump tapped former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz as his pick for attorney general. This pick was met with controversy from the American people, as Gaetz is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for misconduct. As a result of this public controversy and outcry, Gaetz retracted his candidacy for the position on Nov. 21.
According to the New York Times, Pam Bondi, Trump’s new nominee for attorney general, was elected as Florida’s first female attorney general in 2010. Bondi was a member of the Democratic party up until the year 2000. She emerged as a Republican in the race for attorney general in 2008. After leaving office in 2019, Bondi joined Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial. Additionally, after President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Bondi supported Trump’s claims of election fraud.
In an effort to persuade Republican senators to confirm Gaetz as attorney general, vice president-elect JD Vance took to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Nov. 20 in an attempt to sway the vote.
According to CNN, Vance stated that the meetings “went great.” CNN stated that the president-elect did not tell Gaetz to drop out, but that Gaetz did not have the votes in the Senate to confirm his position. As attested to by CNN, Trump took to X and stated that Gaetz’s nomination, “was unfairly becoming a distraction.”
Throughout his campaign, Trump claimed he had nothing to do with Project 2025. He stated this on the national stage of the presidential debate, according to the official debate transcript on ABC News. On Friday, Trump nominated Russell T. Vought to oversee the White House budget and help determine whether federal agencies comply with the president’s policies. Vought is a leading figure in Project 2025 who oversaw the planning of executive orders and other unilateral actions that Trump could take during his first six months in office.
Another one of Trump’s controversial picks for his cabinet is his choice for education secretary, Linda McMahon. As reported by The New York Times, McMahon formerly ran World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for decades. During Trump’s first term in office, McMahon ran the Small Business Administration. As of now, McMahon has been named in a sexual abuse lawsuit for, “failing to stop a ringside announcer for World Wrestling Entertainment from grooming and sexually abusing children in the 1980s and 1990s,” according to The New York Times. According to the article, Melvin Phillips Jr., the organization’s ringside announcer who passed away in 2012, is accused of sexually abusing five young boys. By permitting Phillips to continue working for the company, McMahon and her husband were charged with criminal negligence. The McMahons have accepted these allegations of mistreatment.
The presidential cabinet is comprised of 16 positions, which are a direct reflection of president-elect Trump and how he plans to use the next four years of his administration. In addition to McMahon, Bondi and Vance, Trump’s nominees for these offices are as follows, as of Nov. 23: Marco Rubio as Secretary of state, Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary, Kristi Noem as Homeland security secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and human services secretary, Doug Burgum as Interior secretary, Doug Collins as Veterans affairs secretary, Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary, Brooke Rollins as Agriculture secretary, Howard Lutnick as Commerce secretary and transition co-chair, Sean Duffy as Transportation secretary, Chris Wright as Energy secretary and Scott Turner as Housing and urban development secretary, according to The New York Times. It is important to note that all of the above must be approved by congress before officially moving into their positions come January. In the coming weeks, it is expected that Trump will continue to solidify his cabinet, in both Congress-approved positions and not.