Well before and since his swearing in on January 20, President Trump has been moving aggressively to secure Senate approval of a team of cabinet and sub-cabinet members to implement his Make America Great Again agenda.
To date he has achieved significant, but not yet universal success on those approvals.
Currently there are at least three of his nominations where Senate approval is in various stages of uncertainty.
They are Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Tulsi Gabbard for National Intelligence Director.
Earlier last month Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth to serve as Secretary of Defense was approved in the Senate by the narrowest of margins.
Following contentious committee hearings on his background and competence, Hegseth was confirmed only after Vice President Vance broke a 50 -50 vote tie vote with a yes vote for him.
If any of the pending Trump nominations fail to receive full Senate approval, it will be the first time since 1925 when a Republican-controlled Senate rejected a Republican President’s cabinet nomination. The President then was Calvin Coolidge and failed nominee was Charles Warren for Attorney General.
Trump’s immediate Democratic predecessors – Barack Obama and Joe Biden had all their cabinet nominations approved by the Senate. In both cases there were Democratic majorities in the Senate and some of their more controversial nominations were withdrawn from consideration before full Senate consideration of their nominations.
The reasons for resistance to Trump are not surprising.
Over five hundred years ago political observer and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli wrote the following timeless observation on change.
“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.”
In 2024 Trump ran and won on a change platform and his commitment to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things in Washington.
That is similar to the goal that former President Obama expressed when he first ran for the presidency.
Early and often on the campaign trail Obama said, “Washington is broken. My whole campaign has been premised from the start on the idea that we have to fundamentally change how Washington works.”
After the election to his first term, Obama said with confidence that he had not miscalculated how difficult it would be to change Washington.
He said, “I didn’t overpromise. And I didn’t underestimate how tough this was gonna be.”
After four years in office and his election to a second term Obama acknowledged with a combination of frustration, regret, and self-reflection, that he had in fact miscalculated and underestimated how hard making changes was going to be.
He said “I’m the first one to confess that the spirit that I brought to Washington, that I wanted to see instituted, where we weren’t constantly in a political slugfest … I haven’t fully accomplished that. Haven’t even come close in some instances. And, you know, if you ask me what’s my biggest disappointment [it] is that we haven’t changed the tone in Washington as much as I would have liked.”
Time will tell if Donald Trump acknowledges and says much the same thing after the end of his second term.
The first test of success or failure for Trump will occur in less than two years.
In November 2026, all the seats in the House of Representatives and one third of the seats in the Senate will be up for election.
Historically, but not always, these elections are largely a referendum on a President’s performance and agenda.
If the Republicans do lose control of the House and/or the Senate in 2026, any unapproved elements of Trump’s MAGA agenda will likely be stalled, if not stopped completely.
Conversely, if that does not occur, the odds for success for Trump in continuing to advance his MAGA agenda are greatly increased.
It also increases the odds for Vice President Vance securing the Republican nomination for and winning the election as President in 2028.
Going forward, only one thing is certain.
Either way, we will soon be better able to affirm or challenge the thinking that in the political world, pursuing real change is often an exercise in futility, no matter who is elected president.
David Reel is a public affairs and public relations consultant in Easton.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.