Donald Trump urged his Republican allies to hold the line in a New Year’s Eve message designed to unite his party and shore up its most embattled nominees.
The message comes just days before Republicans take control of the Senate, and key candidates, including their pick for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, face potentially brutal confirmation hearings.
Trump’s problems will come in the Senate, which his party will control 53-47, even though it is the closely divided Republican House that poses the biggest difficulties this week. President Mike Johnson must rely on his closely divided conference to prevail in a vote to retain his office on Friday, with one Republican already publicly announcing his opposition. A defeat would risk the new Congress starting a repeat of the dysfunction of the previous one, with Congress set to reconvene to count the electoral votes for Trump’s victory on January 6.
“We just won a historic landslide mandate from the American people, but Senate Democrats are organizing to unduly halt and delay the confirmation process for many of our great nominees,” Trump posted on his Truth Social website.
‘They will try all kinds of tricks very soon. Republicans should not allow them to do that. We have a country to govern and many important problems to solve, mostly created by Democrats. REPUBLICANS, BE SMART AND TOUGH!!!’
Trump did not specify which Democratic actions were inappropriate. Several have been demanding hearings to examine allegations against controversial nominees, including Hegseth, a former Fox News host. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, also faces criticism for his stance on vaccines and other issues.
Senate Democrats, who have made positive noises about Sen. Marco Rubio for Secretary of State and other candidates, have been brandishing their constitutional role of “advice and consent,” which may be code for delaying or digging up dirt through investigations of committees and detailed questionnaires.
Trump has raised the stakes by choosing golf buddies, wealthy donors, friendly news anchors and family members for positions requiring Senate confirmation.
Trump is pushing to have Kash Patel confirmed as FBI director, after current director Chris Wray announced his retirement after Trump expressed opposition. Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat turned Republican, faces criticism for times she pushed issues that were also talking points in the Kremlin, and for meeting with brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted from power in December. and fled to Russia. .
Despite his demands that his fellow Republicans hold firm, the vast majority of his nominees will move forward based on Senate rules that allow a simple majority to confirm them. Team Trump turned up the heat after his pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, dropped out amid sex trafficking allegations, which he denies.
The conflict culminated last week with the release of a damning House Ethics Committee report that found he paid $90,000 for sex, including with a minor.
“Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Rep. Gaetz that night, which she understood to be payment for sex,” according to the bipartisan panel’s report. “Victim A stated that she did not inform Rep. Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did she ask him her age.” Gaetz’s lawyers He said the report included “false and defamatory information” and that the committee no longer had jurisdiction over a former member of Congress.
Many political experts have questioned Trump’s claim to have won in a landslide. He defeated Vice President Kamala Harris by 49.8 to 48.3 percent of the popular vote, although he beat her in the seven battleground states that counted the most.
His attempt to put Republicans on the front foot at the start of his term comes as leaders of both parties prepare to gather for a memorial service in honor of President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at age 100.
Trump’s letter came amid a civil war brewing within the MAGA coalition over policy and who will have their hand at the helm of key decisions.
Billionaire Elon Musk has had extraordinary access and influence over Donald Trump, but now some influential Trump allies are calling him “leniable” and saying Trump is angry at his long-stay guest.
Among those burning the world’s richest man for his enormous influence is MAGA devotee Laura Loomer, who helped fuel a MAGA civil war over visas for high-tech workers.
“I think a lot of people have a hard time speaking truth to power, and a lot of people are afraid to take on billionaires,” Loomer told Steve Bannon on his War Room Pandemic podcast. “He’s the richest man in the world, so he orbits around President Trump.”
“When I called him the other day, I said he was a Stage 5 clinger,” he added. “It seems like people are afraid to cross paths with the king, the king of the world, Elon Musk, the monarch,” he said. told conservative commentator Eric Bolling in another interview. “This is the problem when you allow a billionaire to make a $200 million donation.”
Amid the ongoing battle for influence in Trump’s circle, some insiders are pursuing the billionaire with blind and direct dates.
‘Trump is 100 percent upset,’ said Trump insider who worked on last campaign he told media. ‘There is a Chinese saying: ‘two tigers cannot live on the top of a mountain.’
That line points to a long-standing annoyance of Trump’s about being upstaged, something Democrats tried to stoke before Christmas by mocking him as “Vice President Trump” and claiming that Musk was really in charge.
Billionaire Elon Musk has been a frequent companion of Trump and has weighed in on X-related political matters, playing a role in vicious exchanges over high-tech visas. Some insiders now say Trump is getting tired of his frequent guest
In fact, Musk, who is taking on an outside and advisory role, is just one of more than a dozen billionaires Trump is bringing into government.
But at times he has seemed omnipresent, both in person at Mar-a-Lago, where the New York Times reported he is pay $2,000 a night to crash in a cabin at the president-elect’s private golf club and online on his X platform.
That’s where some of Musk’s posts have upset long-time MAGA followers. Musk gutted a bipartisan spending measure to keep the government open, helping to scuttle the deal and leaving Republicans with a short-term funding extension that doesn’t meet Trump’s demand to end or raise the debt ceiling. .
And South Africa-born Musk published an incendiary post on Saturday defending visas for foreign high-tech workers, weeks after a campaign in which Trump demanded a mass deportation operation to expel millions of immigrants who came to the country illegally.
‘The reason I am in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B. Take a big step back and F*** in the face. “I will go to war over this issue that you cannot understand,” Musk wrote.
That led Bannon to call Musk a “little boy.”
Right-wing political activist Laura Loomer criticized Musk online and in a podcast.
‘You stole their lives’! Trump ally Steve Bannon demanded compensation for high-tech workers while railing against H-1B visas in the latest skirmish in the MAGA civil war over the issue.
Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles (to Trump’s left), told the nominees to approve their social media posts.
Donald Trump sided with Elon Musk in a MAGA ‘civil war’ over visas for skilled migrant workers
The flap forced Trump to leave. He ultimately came out in favor of visas and Musk called for reforming the program, an idea Bannon also ridiculed.
The uproar was presumably why new White House chief of staff Susie Wiles issued a stunning memo ordering new lieutenants to pre-approve any of their online posts on X or other platforms.
Parlor games got to the point where Trump decided to publicly address them in remarks at the Turning Point USA activist meeting in Phoenix on December 22.
“He’s not going to be president, I can tell you that,” Trump said. ‘I’m safe. Do you know why? It can’t be. “He wasn’t born in this country,” Trump said, laughing. “But the fake news knows it.”
Only Trump really knows his feelings for the billionaire who spent $277 million supporting Trump and other Republicans, although one idea comes from a cryptic online missive that Trump posted publicly on Friday the X.
‘Where are you?’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. ‘When are you coming to the ‘Center of the Universe’, Mar-a-Lago? He then suggested that Bill Gates would come to visit. ‘We miss you yax!’ Trump wrote, presumably referring to Musk’s son, X Æ A-Xii, known as X. ‘New Year’s Eve is going to be AMAZING!!! DJT.’
The tone and personal nature of the message then sparked speculation that Trump intended to send it as a private direct message. If so, that would indicate that Trump hasn’t had enough of Musk yet.
And on Tuesday afternoon, the Trump transition leveraged its relationship with Musk to sell white MAGA hats for the inauguration. ‘Trump could wear this hat on Inauguration Day. Elon could wear this hat on Inauguration Day. Melania could wear this hat on Inauguration Day. And many other MAGA Patriots,’ the application said.