After initial blip, Trump nominees have unbroken winning streak despite Democrat resistance

After an initial blip that came and left with Matt Gaetz’s shorted-lived nomination for Attorney General, President Donald Trump is pushing his top-level nominees through the Senate with a perfect record despite a ferocious opposition from Democrats.

That winning streak continued this week as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F  Kennedy Jr. and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — two ex-Democrats opposed by their former party — won confirmation despite earlier predictions of turbulence.

Kash Patel’s nomination to be the next FBI Director also cleared through committee Thursday and will advance for a full vote to be confirmed.

On a busy Thursday, the Senate also voted 52 to 45 to advance Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to a final vote while .  Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon used her confirmation hearing to argue for ending the position by shutting down the department.

 “I’m really all for the President’s mission, which is to return education to the states,” she told senators.

Here’s how Trump’s winning streak started:

• Florida Sen. Marco Rubio sailed through his confirmation process in a vote of 99 to 0 to become Secretary of State.
• For Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent was confirmed with a vote of 68 to 29;
• Secretary of the Interior Doug Bergum glided through 79 to 18;
• Brooke Rollins as Secretary of Agriculture was confirmed 72 to 28;
• Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy was approved 77 to 22;
• Attorney General Pam Bondi won confirmation 54 to 46;
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner was confirmed 55 to 44;
• Energy Secretary Chris Wright won confirmation 59 to 38;
• Doug Collins as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, was confirmed 77 to 23
• Kristi Noem for Secretary of Homeland Security was approved 59 to 34;
• Lee Zeldin became EPA Administrator by a vote of 56 to 42;
• Russ Vought won Director of the Office of Management and Budget on a vote of 53 to 47;
• And John Ratcliffe was confirmed as CIA Director 74 to 25. 

There were four nominees in particular who Democrats placed in their bullseyes for blocking: Kennedy, Gabbard, Patel and Secretary of Defense  Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth battled questions from senators about alleged misconduct and drinking  in 2017, alleged financial mismanagement of two non-profits, as well as contentious inquiry of his past comments regarding women in combat. In the end, he was confirmed by a vote of 51 to 50  JD  casting the tie-breaking vote.

Kennedy was subjected to broad accusations of being anti-vaccine. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. created a particularly bizarre moment when he held up infants’ onesies that read things like “NO VAX NO PROBLEM” and shouted, “can you tell us now that you’re going to have your organization take these products off the market?”

Kennedy responded that he had no power over the matter because he resigned from the board of the organization selling the items. Despite the onesie spectacle, Kennedy won confirmation.