The Senate comes in tonight to confirm Howard Lutnick as the new commerce secretary. Senators will also take a procedural vote that will allow Senate Majority Leader John Thune to file cloture on Kash Patel’s nomination as FBI director.
Then it will be decision time for Thune and Senate GOP leaders on whether to bring up Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) “skinny” budget resolution covering defense-border security-energy policy. We’re told this is likely to happen, but there may be no official word until after the GOP leadership huddles prior to this evening’s votes.
A Bridge too far? President Donald Trump’s nomination of Elbridge Colby to serve as the Pentagon’s policy chief is emerging as the next big fight in the Republican Party’s internal clash over U.S. foreign policy.
Those divisions were on full display this past week in Europe, where Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth trampled on decades of GOP orthodoxy on national security.
But the GOP hawks are looking to reassert themselves by using Colby’s nomination to strike back — ensuring the confirmation process will be yet another proxy battle over the party’s direction on foreign policy.
That’s what prompted an online barrage from MAGA personalities accusing GOP senators of seeking to derail Colby’s nomination to serve as under secretary of defense for policy, the No. 3 job in the Pentagon.
“The effort to undermine President Trump continues in the US Senate,” MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk wrote on X on Sunday, calling out Senate GOP Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) specifically.
“Colby is one of the most important pieces to stop the Bush/Cheney cabal at DOD,” Kirk added. “Why is Tom Cotton doing this?”
Vance joined the chorus, defending Colby and insisting that he should be confirmed “easily.”
Behind the scenes: The reality is a bit more nuanced than what Kirk described. Cotton isn’t the only one raising concerns.
Cotton and other GOP defense hawks on the Senate Armed Services Committee are making it known privately that they want to probe Colby’s record and past writings, which include a suggestion that a nuclear-armed Iran would be containable.
Cotton, obviously, disagrees. As do most Senate Republicans. They believe U.S. policy should be to prevent Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon by whatever means necessary.
Using Colby’s nomination as the vehicle for a broader defense policy discussion is especially important for GOP hawks since Hegseth’s confirmation process focused far more on personal issues than policy.
A source familiar with the matter told us that Cotton is “working to get those concerns addressed with meetings and a hearing. He wants all defense noms to be on the same page as Trump.”
“[The] issue is a question of Iran policy for SASC members and the White House to resolve. Not a personal thing,” the source added.
Still, it was surprising to many GOP senators that Kirk and Vance aired this publicly, especially since there wasn’t any indication that Colby’s nomination could be in trouble. Colby has all the right allies, including Donald Trump Jr., who was instrumental in the confirmations of other controversial nominees.
And as Thune told us last week, Vance is playing a key role — and thus far a successful one — in getting skeptical GOP senators to a “yes” on some of the most problematic Trump nominees.
Who exactly is Bridge? “Bridge,” as he’s referred to, served in the Pentagon during Trump’s first administration and has long been seen as somewhat of a contrarian in GOP foreign policy circles.
While he’s not as much of an outlier as, say, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Colby was intensely critical of U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More recently, Vance and others in the “America First” camp have echoed Colby’s view that American support for Ukraine against Russia and heightened involvement in the Middle East detracts from efforts to deter China.
That’s likely to put Colby in the crosshairs of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in particular. McConnell has long criticized those who believe the United States should retreat from Europe or the Middle East in the name of countering China, arguing the three issues are closely interconnected. McConnell wields the defense appropriations gavel this Congress.
Yet Colby’s supporters see him as someone who can appeal to different factions within the GOP.
“He’s kind of the perfect bridge, for lack of a better word, between the two camps,” said a GOP senator who was granted anonymity to candidly assess the nominee.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) recently acknowledged that some Republicans have concerns about Colby. But sources cautioned that this shouldn’t be interpreted as a statement of opposition.
Recall, however, that Wicker criticized Hegseth’s remarks last week on Ukraine and NATO. Wicker said the speech could have been written by Tucker Carlson, whom he called a “fool.” Colby recently appeared on Carlson’s show.
Meanwhile, Colby’s nomination is being dogged by the very same paperwork delays that have delayed other high-profile nominees. Once his financial and ethics paperwork is complete, the Armed Services panel will schedule a confirmation hearing.
