The Trump Stink Is Already Contaminating Senate Republicans

Senate Republicans are already concerned about the toxicity of Trump and his nominees and fretting that they could lose seats.

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Senate Republicans Are Already Worried Trump Will Cost Them Seats

The thing that makes being an officeholder such a grind is that elective politics is always about the next election.

After Roger Stone criticized Trump’s first slate of mostly normie cabinet nominees, the president-elect took back the reins and promptly steered the ship toward the iceberg with a slate of nominees that feature more alleged crimes committed than qualifications for the positions that they are seeking.

This has put Senate Republicans in a bind. Their majority is far from huge, but it should have been more than big enough for cabinet nominees to sail through the confirmation process if they were a qualified group of public servants and not a collection of Batman villains.

The Senate finds itself forced to vote on an anti-vaxxer to run HHS, a propagandist for dictators to be the Director of National Intelligence, A Defense Secretary nominee who has been credibly accused of sexual assault, and an attorney general nominee who has been investigated multiple times for sex trafficking.

Matt Gaetz is the biggest worry for Senate Republicans at the moment.

Politico reported:

Numerous GOP members have indicated to Trump and his team that they believe Gaetz has little chance of being confirmed, according to multiple Senate Republican and Trump world sources. And they’re privately hoping Trump doesn’t make them walk the plank.

Knowing how toxic a character they are dealing with, Senate Republicans are worried about getting tarnished by the process. They fear that senators up for reelection in 2026 (looking at you, THOM TILLIS) could face a MAGA primary challenge if they oppose his nomination — while possibly kissing their seats goodbye in a general election if they back him.

It’s not just the politically vulnerable who are fretting. There’s a fear that Trump is going to waste precious political capital trying to push Gaetz through when he could instead be working on advancing other, more feasible nominations — not to mention his governing agenda. Consider, they say, just how distracting Gaetz confirmation hearings will be as Trump moves to dismantle JOE BIDEN’s regulatory and legislative legacy.

It is not just political capital. Trump is an old man who comes into office as a lame duck. Every day that Donald Trump wastes on confirmations is one day close to the end of his term.

Senate Republicans Know Somebody Else Always Takes The Fall