President-elect Donald Trump will tap Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York — the House Republican Conference chair — as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. More on that below.
Trump gravity: Trump doesn’t get sworn in for another 10 weeks, but he’s already changing things in Washington.
Trump wants Republicans to block confirmation of any of President Joe Biden’s remaining judicial nominees — this won’t happen — and has ideas about how the Senate should handle some presidential appointments. Trump warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against expanding the war in Ukraine. Even high-profile political opponents like Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) are acknowledging that they have to work with Trump to get anything done.
Speculation over whether Trump is going to endorse in the Senate GOP leadership race — and efforts to persuade him to do so — is already having a big impact on the contest.
In fact, Trump is testing whether Senate Republicans will defend the chamber’s independence as an institution or bow toward his victory and his agenda.
State of the race: Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott is seen as the underdog compared to his rivals, Senate Minority Whip John Thune and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
But Scott is making a play for Trump’s endorsement, and prominent conservative figures including Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk are backing him. Even mega-billionaire and Trump confidante Elon Musk is supporting Scott. Musk — who was with Trump on Sunday — ran his own poll that Scott won.
Conservatives argue that Thune and Cornyn are “RINOs” who are too close to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. For their part, the two senior Republicans argue they have the experience and know-how to turn Trump’s agenda into reality.
Trump had stayed out of the race publicly to this point, though he’s been bringing it up in conversations with GOP senators in the days since his election victory.
There was furious speculation this weekend among GOP senators, top aides and Trump allies over whether that was about to change. Is Trump inching closer to a potential endorsement that could completely upend everything? Does Trump want someone who’s not currently in the race to jump in?
Out of the blue: Trump on Sunday demanded that the next majority leader commit to allowing recess appointments. Scott quickly fell in line, pledging to do “whatever it takes” to get Trump’s nominees confirmed. Thune and Cornyn also signaled they’d make confirmation of Trump’s nominees a top priority, including looking at recess appointments.
Some important context here: Senate leaders of both parties have worked to prevent recess appointments through “pro forma” Senate sessions that occur every few days during a scheduled recess. The House does something similar. This goes back to the Obama era.
But recall that in 2020, McConnell and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposed Trump’s suggestion that he’d adjourn Congress in order to make recess appointments, bypassing the Senate confirmation process. Whether Trump could do this is constitutionally questionable. Adjourning takes a vote in the House and the Senate.
Yet this is “Mandate Trump,” who helped Republicans win the Senate majority. Trump won’t go along with things he was forced to accept in his first term. And his allies argue he shouldn’t have to, even if that means bypassing the Senate confirmation process. This will be a big challenge for Senate Republicans.
Scott’s play: Scott isn’t publicly encouraging this show of support from Trump’s base. Scott also isn’t explicitly attacking Thune or Cornyn. His allies are doing that for him.
It’s getting tense, however, and a number of Republican senators and aides are privately complaining about what they see as an effort by outside forces to influence an internal decision for the GOP Conference.
Remember that this is a secret ballot election, so there’s nothing forcing senators to go public with their picks. And it’s getting so that no GOP senator has an incentive to come out for Thune or Cornyn. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Cornyn’s only public backer, got pilloried by conservative media figures after we scooped that the Missouri Republican is backing Cornyn.
We’ve also heard from several top GOP aides and senators whose offices are being flooded with phone calls from constituents pressuring them to back Scott.
Of the three candidates, Scott has the most public endorsements from GOP senators so far, although none are particularly surprising. The question is whether the pressure campaign will translate into a Trump endorsement for Scott and, in turn, enough votes to be elected leader.
‘They’re trying to bully us’: We spoke with a GOP senator who sees this as an effort to intimidate Republicans and isolate Thune and Cornyn. This senator won’t vote for Scott but hasn’t decided whether to support Thune or Cornyn.
“I really don’t much care what Tucker Carlson thinks. They’re trying to bully us. That’s not how these elections work,” said the GOP senator, who was granted anonymity to give a candid assessment. “President Trump won decisively, and he deserves to have someone with actual experience who can get his agenda enacted.”
The senator is referring to Thune and Cornyn’s extensive records of passing legislation — including the Trump tax cuts — which far exceeds what Scott has done.
