The Hill

Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly says President-elect Trump is preparing to radically reshape his potential second administration by centralizing policy-making power within the White House and selecting Cabinet members who will strictly follow directives.

During a Wednesday interview on NewsNation’s “CUOMO,” the political commentator compared Trump’s approach to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s leadership style, suggesting the president-elect will create a tightly controlled governing structure where Cabinet members serve primarily as executors of his policy.

“The people that do department heads are going to say ‘yes, sir’ or they’re not going to be OK,” O’Reilly said, highlighting that policy will be primarily developed by senior adviser Stephen Miller, whom he described as “the most powerful man in the country, beside Donald Trump.”

Trump has selected several controversial nominees who have faced significant scrutiny.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Pa.), picked for attorney general, previously faced a Justice Department sex trafficking investigation involving allegations about underage girls, though no federal charges were filed. Democrats on the House Ethics Committee failed on Wednesday to bring the report to the public.

Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who recently joined the Republican Party and is slated for director of national intelligence, has alarmed U.S. intelligence analysts due to her past criticisms of the war in Ukraine and comments perceived as supportive of Russia, and due to secret meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth, nominated for defense secretary, was accused of sexual assault in 2017, though he was not charged after a police investigation.

O’Reilly contrasted this approach with previous Republican administrations, such as those of former Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, where Cabinet members wielded significant policy influence.

He also drew a parallel to President Biden’s administration, suggesting similar centralized control.

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Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith says that “under normal circumstances,” former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) — President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department — would never be confirmed as the nation’s new attorney general.

During an interview on NewsNation’s “CUOMO,” Smith noted that if Gaetz is confirmed, “It cements the thought that what Trump wants, Trump is going to get from all of the Republicans.”

“Once again, we find ourselves deeply divided,” he said.

Smith also critiqued Trump for his choice, adding that as president of the U.S., “your duty is to lead the nation effectively and productively. This requires not only loyal supporters but also highly competent advisers capable of offering the best possible guidance.”

Republicans on the House Ethics Committee voted Wednesday against releasing a report on their long-running investigation into Gaetz, the top Democrat on the panel said.

Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) said the ethics panel, which is evenly split between the two parties, voted at a lengthy closed-door meeting, and no Republican joined Democrats who wanted to release the report.

Gaetz has launched an effort to secure his embattled nomination, meeting behind closed doors Wednesday with GOP senators who have questions about sexual misconduct and other allegations against him.

The Florida Republican’s move came as Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking for “the complete evidentiary file” from the agency’s investigation into allegations of sex trafficking of minors against Gaetz.

The Democratic senators, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), say the allegations against Gaetz are “significant” in light of his associate, Joe Greenberg, having pleaded guilty to the sex trafficking charge for which the Florida Republican was also investigated.

“In order for the Senate to perform its constitutional duty in this instance, we must be able to thoroughly review all relevant materials that speak to the credibility of these serious allegations against Mr. Gaetz,” the senators wrote to Wray.

NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.

Senate Republicans are warning confirmation proceedings for former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) will be like “Kavanaugh on steroids,” referring to the contentious hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

GOP senators say allegations against Gaetz of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, as well as the findings of the Department of Justice’s probe into allegations of the sex trafficking of minors, are likely to become splashed across the media if he remains President-elect Trump’s nominee for attorney general.

Some Republicans are privately suggesting that Gaetz should consider withdrawing his nomination to save himself the wrenching ordeal of an embarrassing confirmation hearing if he’s unlikely to be confirmed in the end.

“The most humane way not only to Mr. Gaetz but to the dignity of our process, the best thing to do is to convince the president that the votes aren’t there, regardless of his strong-arming, and Gaetz can decide it’s not his to fight for,” said one Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on the bleak prospects for Gaetz’s nomination.

But the lawmaker acknowledged that Trump may want to use Gaetz to make it easier to get some of his other controversial picks, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), who is nominated to serve as director of national intelligence, to get through the confirmation process.

“Maybe throwing Gaetz out there to the wolves and having this big frenzy and he goes down then allows for a situation where some of the others who are compromised” get through the Senate, the senator said.  

The senator said a number of Senate Republican colleagues have already raised concerns about Kennedy and Gabbard.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, warned that the details in the FBI’s investigation of Gaetz as well as the information in the House Ethics Committee’s report is likely to become public.

“It’s going to come to us one way or the other. There are no secrets around here,” Cornyn told reporters.

And he warned that a Senate confirmation hearing would be nasty and messy, even worse than the brutal fight over Kavanaugh, who was accused of committing sexual assault as a teenager.

Asked if Gaetz is aware that a confirmation hearing would become very messy, Cornyn said it would be “like Kavanaugh on steroids.”

“He’s a smart guy, I’m sure he realizes that,” Cornyn said.

Gaetz met with Cornyn and other Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Capitol’s Strom Thurmond Room just off the rotunda on Wednesday.

Vice President-elect JD Vance, who is acting as the chief liaison between the Trump-Vance transition team and Republican senators, attended the meetings.

Vance has urged his colleagues to give Gaetz a chance to explain his vision for reforming the Justice Department and not rush to judgement about his fitness to serve.

Gaetz met with Cornyn and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and John Kennedy (R-La.).

A second Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss Gaetz’s embattled nomination said the remarks from Cornyn point to how Gaetz’s personal life could be examined over days of public hearings.

“I think he’s probably trying to send a message to Gaetz and the president that ‘this may be really ugly, do you really want to do this?’” the senator said.

“There are two months, at least, until the confirmation hearing. It’s a lot of time. It’s a lot of information that’ll be out there. The administration will need a plan for how to handle that,” the source warned.

A Senate Republican aide said Trump may decide that it’s not worth spending a lot of political capital on a losing battle over Gaetz.

“It doesn’t look like the votes are there. How much time and energy do you want to spend on this?” the aide said.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, agreed that the Gaetz nomination would only pour fuel on partisan tensions if it comes before his committee next year.

“I absolutely think it’s a multiplier. Given the environment we’re in, yeah,” he said.

Graham, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would try to prevent Gaetz’s confirmation hearing from becoming a “circus.”

But he cautioned that Democrats could call women who said Gaetz paid them for sex as well as a woman who said she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17 to testify before the committee.

“He wasn’t prosecuted for having sex with an underage girl. That tells me something. But having said that, this is not a criminal trial. This is a court of public opinion. Is this the right person for this job?” Graham said.

He said that Gaetz will have an opportunity to tell senators on the Judiciary Committee why he’s the right person to lead the Justice Department and to defend himself against allegations of misconduct.

But he said that Democrats will get a chance to bring forward their own witnesses, as they did six years ago when Christine Blasey Ford testified in detail about how Kavanaugh had groped her and tried to take off her clothes at a party in Bethesda when she was 15 and he was 17.

“That’s to be expected to some extent. I thought what they did to Kavanaugh was ridiculous, but there is a place for people to come in and say why this person is not qualified. Blasey Ford did,” he said. “That’s going to be the process.

“I expect [Gaetz] to be challenged. I expect people to come in and say why they think he did bad things,” he added.

Kavanaugh was ultimately confirmed to the Supreme Court in a mostly party-line 50-48 vote. 

But GOP aides say that Republican senators viewed Kavanaugh much more favorably than they now view Gaetz, whom they blame for pushing former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) out of the Speakership and causing chaos in the House last year. 

Asked if Trump needs to run a cost-benefit analysis to decide whether it’s worth the political cost of trying to push Gaetz through the Senate, Graham said: “I’ll let him decide that.”

Graham issued a statement after meeting with Gaetz urging his Republican colleagues not to take the allegations against him as verified fact.

“I fear the process surrounding the Gaetz nomination is turning into an angry mob, and unverified allegations are being treated as if they are true. I have seen this movie before,” he said, appearing to allude to the bitter fight over Kavanaugh years ago.

President-elect Trump has sparked a Washington guessing game by selecting several controversial nominees for high-level posts.

The question is whether one or more of his picks will be denied confirmation by the Senate.

Most insiders see four Trump picks in particular as being controversial. 

They are former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as attorney general, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) as director of national intelligence, media personality Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary.

There are, to be sure, other Trump picks that divide opinion, including former World Wrestling Entertainment Chief Executive Linda McMahon to be Education secretary, and TV personality and former Senate candidate Mehmet Oz to administer Medicare and Medicaid.

But it is the initial quartet that are in the vanguard of controversy.

The Washington consensus is that Gaetz is in the most danger.

The list of vulnerable nominees “starts with Gaetz,” said Douglas Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee. “He is on my TV screen right now, and it’s just expected, from what we already know, that the allegations about him are going to be very serious and very alarming.”

Specifically, allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior have swirled around Gaetz for some time.

A previous Justice Department probe produced no criminal charges, and Gaetz denies all wrongdoing. 

But there is enormous scrutiny over a House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz, which officially ended when he resigned his seat immediately upon being nominated by Trump.

The committee has no jurisdiction to investigate people who are no longer sitting members of Congress. But Democratic senators — and at least one Republican — have called for the committee’s report to be released.

Their quest had a setback Wednesday. 

“There is not an agreement by the committee to release the report,” Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) told reporters following a roughly two-hour meeting of the panel. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had previously expressed his opposition to the report being released.

But that’s unlikely to be the end of Gaetz’s troubles. 

Many in Washington expect the panel’s report to leak. Even if it does not, the past few days have added specificity to the damaging allegations. 

A lawyer representing two women who testified to the panel says his clients were paid for sex by Gaetz. Furthermore, one of those women, according to the lawyer, says she saw Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old when Gaetz was in his mid-30s.

Furthermore, a handful of Republican senators have already expressed significant misgivings about Gaetz, including Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). Republicans will have a 53-47 Senate majority once the new Congress convenes, meaning any Trump nominee can afford to lose no more than three votes, assuming all Democrats also vote against them.

Trump has so far stood behind his pick of Gaetz, and his team insists the former congressman will be confirmed in the end. In an additional show of support, Vice President-elect JD Vance accompanied Gaetz to private meetings with Republican senators Wednesday.

Republican sources nevertheless are consistent in the view that Gaetz is the most likely Trump nominee to fall. 

They also suggest that, if he does, a single rebuff might be as far as Republican senators are willing to go in defying a president-elect who has just won the White House comfortably. Trump is renowned for his willingness to go after people who cross him, including those within his own party.

“It feels to me like they may be able to reject one of his nominees, but maybe not more than one,” said Matt Mackowiak, a GOP strategist and the chair of the Travis County, Texas, Republican Party.

Mackowiak added, in terms of Trump’s most controversial quartet of nominees:

“I think the most likely scenario is that they are all confirmed, except Gaetz. I think the second most likely scenario is that they are just all confirmed. And I think the third most likely scenario is that two or three are not confirmed.”

Still, the Senate is sometimes reluctant to simply cede to the wishes of a president, and much could hinge on whether further damaging information emerges.

In the case of Hegseth, for example, The Washington Post revealed earlier this week that he had paid a woman who had accused him of sexually assaulting her as part of a nondisclosure agreement.

The incident was reported to police at the time, and no charges were pressed. Hegseth’s lawyer has adamantly denied any wrongdoing on his client’s behalf, asserting that the woman was in fact “the aggressor in initiating sexual activity,” and contending that Hegseth paid her to protect his media career.

The mere existence of such a case is bad news for any nominee. But so far, few Republicans seem ready to predict it would lead to Hegseth’s downfall as a nominee.

Kennedy’s nomination is controversial, in a different way, among the wider world, especially within the medical community. Kennedy is a longtime vaccine skeptic with a whole host of provocative remarks, including suggesting a link between vaccines and autism — a claim that has been debunked.

But there are not many signs so far that Republican senators are willing to buck Trump to block Kennedy.

Gabbard, the Democratic-congresswoman-turned-Republican, is in a category all of her own. 

There are no personal peccadilloes around Gabbard akin to the allegations that dog Gaetz and Hegseth. But her history of remarks that are unusually sympathetic to Russia could cause heartburn, especially to Republicans with a more traditional, hawkish view of foreign policy.

None of the quartet can take their confirmation as assured.

But Gaetz seems, by some distance, to be out on the flimsiest limb.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

For a normal administration, Linda McMahon would be an unusual pick for Education secretary. But President-elect Trump has given no indication he wants a normal administration.

McMahon has little direct experience with education but has been a friend and ally of Trump for decades and is the only person so far the president-elect has selected for a Cabinet secretary slot who also served in his first administration, specifically as head of the Small Business Administration.

Conservatives are cautiously optimistic about the pick, which was announced Tuesday evening, despite some controversies that surround McMahon right out the gate.  

“Speaking on behalf of myself, and, I think, most other people in D.C., I was kind of surprised,” said Max Eden, a research fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. 

“After the first reaction … it’s evolved into a kind of intrigued optimism, because I think there’s a very strong case that she could be a great Education secretary, and that case is that she’s clearly very personally close to Trump, very trusted by Trump, very loyal to President Trump,” Eden said, adding it is likely McMahon will be “extremely competent” in trying to execute what Trump campaigned on, including potentially eliminating the department altogether.

McMahon rose to fame as CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which she co-founded with her husband, Vince McMahon.

Her time directly involved in education has been minimal, apart from a year on the Connecticut State Board of Education and as a member of the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University.

But Trump’s list of nominees is full of people with unusual resumes for their would-be jobs, from potential Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Defense nominee Pete Hegseth, who is currently a Fox News host.

And critics of current Education Secretary Miguel Cardona say his extensive experience in the field has not translated to success.

Cardona’s Free Application for Student Federal Aid “mess-up literally harmed thousands of low-income families, right?” said Robert Enlow, president of EdChoice. “And he had a huge education pedigree, so I kind of think that she might be the right person for the job, given what’s needed at the Department of Education.”

And others argue McMahon’s time taking her small company and turning it into the massive WWE corporation is experience enough for running the bureaucracy of the Education Department.  

“I kind of got in the sense that she is seen, maybe by Trump, as somebody that could be put into a lot of different departments, probably because she has a history and pretty successful track record in business and running a large organization, and he may think that she is prepared to run any number of large organizations,” said Neal McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute.  

“And that is basically what the Department of Education is, it’s a big bureaucracy, and her main job is to make sure that programs are administered successfully, which is more of a management job than it is an education job. So, from what I know of her, I don’t see any reason that she wouldn’t be successful as a secretary of Education,” McCluskey added. 

However, the choice to nominate McMahon has been seen by other experts as a signal that education policy will not be a top concern for Trump.  

McMahon had been floated as a potential Commerce secretary until that position was given to Howard Lutnick, the other co-chair of Trump’s transition team.  

“I think it’s disappointing that President Trump sees the Department of Education as a consolation prize,” said Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.  

“Given that it sounds like that Linda McMahon wanted to get the Commerce Department, and is getting the Department of Education instead — so that, I think, that is an indication that this is not a top priority for the president,” he added. 

McMahon will have huge tasks to fill: Trump has said he is looking to change the definition of Title IX after President Biden added protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 

The president-elect has also talked about withholding federal funds from K-12 or higher education institutions if he dislikes their curricula — or their bathroom policies regarding transgender students.

But one of the biggest changes Trump is pushing for is no Education Department at all. 

“The other big thing I’m sure people are looking at as well is ‘Is she focused on dismantling the department?’ And I would like to see the department dismantled, but that’s not something either she or Trump can do on their own, it’s going to have to come through legislation in Congress, and until that happens, then her job remains executing the laws that require the secretary of Education to be involved,” McCluskey said.  

Though hardly Trump’s most controversial nominee, McMahon does come with baggage after she was recently named in a lawsuit from her time as head of WWE. The lawsuit alleges she knew about an announcer who was allegedly sexually abusing “ring boys.” 

Those in the education world are still diving into the details of the case, but some are skeptical it will have an impact on her confirmation process. 

“I have not reviewed it in depth at this point, but the first thing that comes to my mind is just more lawfare, right? I mean, this was a suit that goes back to events that occurred in the 1980s and it was filed in October of 2024, a few weeks before she was presumed to, if [Trump] won, take some position. So, I just kind of have a blanket suspicion and skepticism of it without having gone into the details of it myself, so it’s not of [special] concern to me,” Eden said.  

While liberals were never going to be thrilled with Trump’s Education pick, there was a small “sigh of relief” given the other names that were speculated for the position.  

“On one hand, I think she’s utterly unqualified for the position, because she has, essentially, she has very little meaningful experience and expertise in education from what I could see. And in normal times, I think she would look like an outrageous selection for that position,” said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.   

“The second thought, on the other hand, is that a lot of the other names that had been floated as potential candidates seemed more threatening in a lot of ways, and so I think some people are breathing a sigh of relief that she is, at least, not openly a culture warrior who’s going to sort of pick up some of the fights that I think a lot of us have been eager to see fade away,” Valant said. “Now, she might do that. She’s very much an unknown, so I think we still have to learn a lot about her and her priorities and what she might do if she is ultimately confirmed for that.” 

President-elect Trump announced Wednesday that he was announcing former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) to be the U.S. ambassador to Canada.

“I am very pleased to announce that former Ambassador, and former Congressman, Pete Hoekstra, has been nominated as my United States Ambassador to Canada,” Trump said in a statement. “Pete is well-respected in the Great State of Michigan – A State we won sizably.”

Hoekstra was a Michigan representative from 1993 to 2011 and served as a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

While in the House, he was considered a Tea Party member and was previously recorded questioning whether then-President Obama was born in the United States.

In 2017, he was confirmed as Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands by a Senate voice vote. Two years later, Hoekstra emerged as one of the top choices to serve as Trump’s director of national intelligence, though Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) eventually earned the position.

Earlier this year, the Republican National Committee officially recognized Hoekstra to head the Michigan GOP.

Trump praised Hoekstra in his statement Wednesday and said with his help, in his second term, they will “once again put AMERICA FIRST.”

“He did an outstanding job as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands during our first four years, and I am confident that he will continue to represent our Country well in this new role,” Trump concluded.

President Biden awarded on Wednesday the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Cecile Richards, an abortion rights activist and former president of Planned Parenthood. 

During a private ceremony, Biden said Richards has “led some of our Nation’s most important civil rights causes — to lift up the dignity of workers, defend and advance women’s reproductive rights and equality, and mobilize Americans to exercise their power to vote.” 

Richards left Planned Parenthood in 2018 after leading the organization for 12 years, where she worked to increase affordable access to reproductive health care and helped push the Democratic Party to embrace abortion rights as a key issue.

After her departure, she co-founded a progressive organization called Supermajority that fights for gender equity. Richards also serves as co-chair of the super PAC American Bridge 21st Century. 

Richards was diagnosed in 2023 with a glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain tumor. The average glioblastoma survival time is only 12 to 18 months. 

Biden’s son Beau died from glioblastoma in 2015. 

The Medal of Freedom is given at the discretion of the president to a civilian who has made an “especially meritorious contribution” to the country.  

“A leader of utmost character, she has carved an inspiring legacy that endures in her incredible family, the countless lives she has made better, and a nation seeking the light of equality, justice, and freedom,” Biden said of Richards.  

Richards is the daughter of Ann Richards, who was the first woman to be elected governor of Texas. 

Biden has previously awarded the medal to dozens of people, including civil rights icons, prominent political leaders like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D), Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), gymnast Simone Biles and actor Michelle Yeoh. 

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley raised major concerns with President-elect Trump’s decision to appoint former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to his Cabinet. 

Haley criticized both picks on SiriusXM’s “Nikki Haley Live.”

She condemned Gabbard’s comments on Russia’s war on Ukraine and her support of a pardon for Edward Snowden, who leaked U.S. intelligence.

“After Russia invaded Ukraine, Tulsi Gabbard literally blamed NATO, our Western alliance that’s responsible for countering Russia,” Haley said.

“She blamed NATO for the attack on Ukraine, and the Russians and the Chinese echoed her talking points and her interviews on Russian and Chinese television.”

Haley noted that Gabbard hasn’t changed her stances on foreign affairs and warned that her rhetoric could be a danger to the Department of National Intelligence.

“So now she’s defended Russia, she’s defended Syria, she’s defended Iran, and she’s defended China. No, she has not denounced any of these views. None of them. She hasn’t taken one of them back. DNI, Department of National Intelligence,” Haley added.

“This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer,” she said. “DNI has to analyze real threats.”

On Kennedy, she said not enough was known about what he could offer to the Department of Health and Human Services. 

“He’s a liberal Democrat, environmental attorney, trial lawyer who will now be overseeing 25 percent of our federal budget and has no background in health care,” Haley stated.

“So some of you may think RFK is cool, some of you may like that he questions what’s in our food and what’s in our vaccines, but we don’t know, when he is given reins to an agency, what decisions he’s going to make behind the scenes.”

She instead suggested that he serve as a health adviser and urged the Senate to “ask the hard questions to him before we go and approve him.”

However, Trump has proposed recess appointments for his Cabinet members instead of the traditional Senate confirmations, if necessary.

Many of his picks have sparked controversy, but he has maintained the support of House Speaker Mike Johnson and has scheduled the candidates for private meetings with Senators alongside Vice-President elect JD Vance.

The jockeying for President-elect Trump’s pick to run the all-important Treasury Department is coming down to the wire.

Trump’s economic team will be tasked with imposing an aggressive tariff regime meant to shake up global trade while keeping financial markets calm amid the disruption. To lead that team, the president-elect is said to be struggling to find a nominee with a track record of supporting tariffs while calming any potential jitters on Wall Street.

Sources familiar with the process told The Hill that a pick for Treasury is on track to be sorted out by this week after Apollo Global Management co-founder Marc Rowan and Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, have emerged as front-runners, as well as Key Square Group founder Scott Bessent.

Rowan was expected to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The Trump team and those at Apollo Global did not respond to a request for comment.

Rowan and Warsh will likely end in a “photo finish,” one source described, while Bessent, who previously was considered a leading contender, could be tapped as head of the National Economic Council. Others, though, still see Bessent as a front-runner.

Treasury secretary is Trump’s most important Cabinet pick left. The president-elect ran on the notion of turning the economy around, a campaign promise that resonated with voters tired of inflation. Trump also wants to extend the 2017 tax cuts set to expire next year.

But most notably, Trump has proposed a general tariff of 10 to 20 percent on all imported goods in order to pull investment into the U.S. and bolster domestic industry. That’s a significant escalation of his first-term trade policies.

“The single greatest choice that Trump could make in the Cabinet to affect his economic agenda is the Treasury secretary. The Treasury secretary by statute has the greatest authority over tariffs and tariff policy in general,” said a person with knowledge of discussions. “The Trump folks know that this pick is key to his economic agenda.”

The president-elect is hard-edged about his tariffs plan but is also focused overall on what the market reaction will be to whomever he ends up picking. Trump was known to watch the stock market during his first administration and view it as a barometer of his economic policy.

A source familiar with the Trump transition called Rowan “the thoroughbred who is making a big run,” adding that his leading the Treasury Department “would send a strong signal and inspire confidence in the capital markets.”

“Wall Street thinks, ‘Oh my God, that would be unbelievable,’” the source said. “He built a significant business. He’s a CEO. He’s recognized around the globe as an expert on financial markets.”

Meanwhile, Warsh is helping on the Trump transition economic team but has also expressed interest in being the next chair of the Federal Reserve after Chair Jerome Powell’s term is up. His father-in-law, Ronald Lauder, is a Trump ally and heir to Estée Lauder.

Warsh, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in March, wrote if “foreign countries disfavor U.S. interests, they won’t gain the precious benefit of American protection or ready access to U.S. technology or markets,” suggesting he would be tough on other countries.

“I do think there’s been some pushback on Warsh because he has kind of very strongly a pro-growth, anti-protectionist record,” said the source familiar with the Trump transition. “MAGA crowd, the JD Vance wing of the Republican Party are like, ‘OK, this guy is too Chamber of Commerce Republican.'”

Another name floated is Trump’s former U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, who is a staunch tariff advocate. While he is still considered in the mix for Treasury secretary, some sources think Lighthizer is more likely to land another job in the Trump administration.

“The Trump inner circle, they’re thinking about the entire Trump agenda. It’s not just tariffs but a lot of the stuff that they want to do on China, it really can either be successful or be thwarted by a bad Treasury Secretary and specifically a Wall Street Treasury secretary,” said a person with knowledge of discussions.

The source noted that Lighthizer has always been in the mix for the spot because he is the closest to Trump’s opinions on economic policy.

Lighthizer would be expected to move very quickly on implementing tariffs and not be overly concerned about how the markets would receive the changes. Other names would be interested in arriving at a similar place but at a pace more digestible to financial markets.

“I would expect the next Trump administration to be much more aligned on where they want to get to over the past four years,” said a former Trump administration official. “I think the disagreement will ultimately be about how fast you get there.”

Trump opted to pick Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick for Commerce secretary, putting him out of the running for Treasury.

Although Lutnick was endorsed by entrepreneur Elon Musk for Treasury over the weekend, a person with knowledge of discussions suggested his opinion on tariffs led to him getting Commerce instead.

“I was told that Lutnick basically told Trump, ‘I’m 100 percent on board with the tariff agenda,’” said a person with knowledge of discussions, who added that Lutnick, along with Bessent, has publicly described tariffs as a tool for negotiating and that the Trump team took note of that.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) told The Hill on Wednesday that Trump doesn’t feel rushed about making his final decision on the Treasury pick. Hagerty was with Trump at a SpaceX launch the day prior and was reportedly also floated as a possible option for Treasury.

“This is a very personal decision for the president and he’s going to take the amount of time he needs. … I don’t think he feels rushed at all, I didn’t get that sense. He’s going to be very thorough about the process,” Hagerty said, adding that he has personally “stayed out” of the inner workings.

Al Weaver contributed to this report.

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of celebrity doctor and failed Senate candidate Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) marks the latest potential shakeup of federal health agencies, and adds new uncertainty to the future of Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. 

If confirmed, Oz would take the helm of a $1.5 trillion agency that is essentially the federal government’s insurance provider. It sets payments rates for doctors, hospitals and insurers, while also overseeing Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act — programs that provide coverage for more than 150 million people. 

The pick continues a trend of Trump elevating television personalities for key administration roles. CMS policies and programs touch on almost every aspect of the health system, but Oz has no experience running a large bureaucracy. 

In his first term, Trump chose Seema Verma, a health consultant with a long history in health policy, for the CMS role. 

Here’s what to know about Oz and how he could impact health care: 

His TV career made him a household name  

Oz, the son of Turkish immigrants, was a prominent heart surgeon in New York before he became nationally famous. He gained prominence initially as a medical expert on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show through the early 2000s, where he discussed issues like aging, sex, diet, exercise and weight loss. She branded him “America’s doctor” as he became a regular guest.  

In 2009, Oprah and her production company helped launch Oz’s own daytime series, “The Dr. Oz Show.” The show aired until Oz declared his candidacy for Senate in 2021. It aired its final episode in January 2022. The show won 10 Daytime Emmy awards during its run. 

Oz’s politics during the show were unclear. Michelle Obama appeared on the show in 2013, and Trump was a guest during his 2016 campaign, an appearance in which he released the results of a physical. 

Renowned heart surgeon 

Oz has an undergraduate degree from Harvard and earned a doctorate in medicine as well as a master’s in business degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Wharton Business School, which is also Trump’s alma mater.

Oz spent much of his career at Columbia University and its affiliated medical center.  

He served as director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and was part of a team in 2001 and 2002 that performed the first totally endoscopic, robotic open-heart operation, as well as the first robotic coronary artery bypass operation in the United States, the hospital said at the time. 

He was named vice-chairman and professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, before the university quietly cut ties with him in 2022. 

Dubious endorsements 

Oz has a history of endorsing dubious and often controversial products and treatments, blurring the lines between celebrity pitchman and medical doctor. Critics said his show provided a platform for fringe claims not backed by evidence. 

A 2014 study in the British Medical Journal found that more than half of the claims and recommendations made on Oz’s show had no evidence or were outright contradicted by available science. 

During a Senate hearing in 2014, Oz was sharply questioned by lawmakers including then-Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) over his promotion of weight loss supplements as miracles. 

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oz lobbied the Trump administration to rush trials of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus. The Trump administration also pressured FDA on the drug. It was authorized for use in March 2020, but was soon shown to be ineffective.  

Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who will be ranking member during Oz’s confirmation next year, mentioned Oz’s history of unscientific endorsements as an area of concern.  

“Trump’s health care agenda is all about empowering fraudsters and big business while everyday Americans are stuck with the bill. Dr. Oz is no stranger to peddling nonsense to innocent Americans without facing consequences,” Wyden said in a statement. 

GOP Senate candidate 

Oz ran for Senate in Pennsylvania in 2022 and gained Trump’s endorsement after winning a close and bruising primary, but ultimately lost to now-Sen. John Fetterman (D).  

Before he ran for Senate, Oz promoted ObamaCare and spoke favorably about health insurance mandates, CNN’s KFile reported. But his then-campaign spokesperson walked back his previous statements and said Oz would not have voted for the law. 

Oz ran as a “pro-life” candidate who said abortion was “murder” at any stage in pregnancy. He drew condemnation from Democrats and abortion rights advocates for saying during a debate that abortion policy should be left to “local political leaders.”  

During the campaign, Oz also drew criticism for mocking Fetterman for suffering a stroke. 

After Trump announced his pick of Oz on Tuesday, Fetterman said he was open to supporting his former rival. 

“If Dr. Oz is about protecting and preserving Medicare and Medicaid, I’m voting for the dude,” Fetterman said in a post on the social platform X.

Medicare/Medicaid cuts?  

In a statement announcing his choice, Trump said Oz will “cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”  

During the campaign, Trump pledged not to cut Medicare or Social Security but made no such promises about Medicaid.  With Republicans in control of government, lawmakers are eyeing long-sought cuts and changes to the safety-net program, which could be used to pay for an extension of the tax cuts from Trump’s first administration. 

It’s not clear what Oz or his would-be boss, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., think about Medicaid policy. 

But Oz has long been a supporter of Medicare Advantage, a private-sector alternative to traditional Medicare. In 2024, more than half of Americans eligible for Medicare are enrolled in one of the plans offered by large insurance companies, including UnitedHealthcare and Humana. MA plans also account for more than half of Medicare spending.  

“Believe it or not, it is possible to get health insurance plans now with a zero-dollar monthly premium,” Oz said in a YouTube video posted to channel in August. “Millions of people already are doing it and so could you.”  

During his Senate campaign, Oz promoted a policy of expanding access to Medicare Advantage to any individual who wants to enroll.  

In 2020, he co-authored an article in Forbes arguing for “Medicare Advantage For All.” The idea was to eliminate Medicare and employer sponsored insurance so every American not on Medicaid would be enrolled in a private Medicare Advantage plan.  

It would be funded by using “an affordable 20 percent payroll tax, which is close to the amount most employers currently spend to buy insured care.” 

But Medicare Advantage plans have come under scrutiny for overbilling Medicare, having limited provider networks and routinely denying care for patients.