SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
President-elect Trump announced another major batch of nominees. But the week saw one notable withdrawal from that process. NPR senior editor and correspondent Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks so much for being with us.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: Several key Cabinet nominations last night - Treasury, Labor, more. Which names stood out to you?
ELVING: Treasury is the crown jewel in this collection. It's one of the original Cabinet positions all the way back to George Washington choosing Alexander Hamilton. Now it's going to be billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent. Most people have not heard of him, but that's going to change. He's going to be in charge of imposing tariffs that Donald Trump insists he wants to have on foreign goods, especially from China. And Bessent will also be pushing the renewal of Trump's tax cuts from 2017. They're about to expire next year.
The new boss at the Office of Management and Budget is Russell Vought - not a surprise. He had the job for a time in the first Trump term. He's one of the prime authors of the Project 2025 agenda. That's what the conservative Heritage Foundation produced as a blueprint for a second Trump term. Now, on the campaign trail, Trump disavowed that document many times, said he hadn't read it. But we've already seen some of its authors entering his new administration. And Vought, in particular, will be in a key position to change the way the federal government does business.
SIMON: Labor Secretary?
ELVING: Yeah, that's Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who is a Republican member of the House. She just lost her reelection bid earlier this month. She had the backing of Teamsters president Sean O'Brien and was seen as the most pro labor of the prospects for this job. O'Brien, of course, you heard speak at the Republican National Convention.
SIMON: Housing and Urban Development?
ELVING: Scott Turner. He was in the first Trump White House as director of opportunity revitalization. He helped attract business investment to depressed urban areas. Before that, he played for several teams over a nine-year career in the National Football League.
SIMON: Matt Gaetz this week pulled out of consideration for attorney general. Of course, he was the subject of a prolonged House Ethics Committee investigation and very serious allegations, including sexual misconduct, illicit use of drugs and obstructing government investigation. What does this decision to remove himself from the nomination process tell us?
ELVING: For the moment, it suggests that there is a limit, after all, to what Trump can demand from Republicans, even in this, his moment of maximum triumph. Gaetz said he stepped out so as not to be a distraction. It's also widely reported Trump called him the morning he withdrew and told him the votes just weren't there in the Senate. But we don't know if the Gaetz case was a one-off or if it established something of a precedent of the Senate being willing to push back.
Trump quickly replaced Gaetz with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. She was on Trump's defense team during his first impeachment trial in 2020, and she's a well-known conservative voice in legal circles. The Washington Post is reporting that Trump plans to have Bondi clean out all the Justice attorneys who built the criminal cases against him.
SIMON: Ron, police in Monterey, California, have shared with news organizations, including NPR, the report of the accusation of sexual assault against the Trump nominee for Secretary of Defense when he was a Fox News host in 2017. Do you anticipate that's going to affect his nomination?
ELVING: One way or another, hard to imagine it won't. You wouldn't think a sexual controversy would be the next thing the White House would want after the Gaetz fiasco. Trump personally does not seem to be overly troubled by such controversies, whether his own or those of his nominees, but it could worsen some of the other issues with Hegseth. He's been openly hostile to the idea of women in combat and critical of the woman admiral who is now the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Now, Hegseth is a decorated veteran and a commentator on Fox News, but he does not have any relative - or relevant administrative or political experience for one of the toughest jobs in any government.
SIMON: And Linda McMahon, CEO - co-CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, is being rooted about as nominee to head the U.S. Department of Education. How's that being received?
ELVING: If you watch the Republican National Convention, you know that Trump's connection to the world of professional wrestling has been important to his political persona and outreach. It may not have that much to do with education, but remember, this is a department that Republicans regularly suggest should not exist at all. It annually funnels billions to schools and students, but Republicans argue that could all be handled directly with state and local government.
SIMON: Ron Elving, thanks so much for being with us.
ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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