My Prediction: Trump Picks

You know the quality of Trumps picks many of them will probably not pass mustard even with a Republican controlled Senate.

So I predict…

How Trump can install his controversial Cabinet picks — with or without the help of the Senate
CBS News
By Kaia Hubbard
November 19, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump has selected for some of the top roles in his administration controversial picks who may not win universal support from Republican senators. He can only afford to lose a few Republicans in the confirmation process, but he's opened the door to the possibility of forgoing the traditional route altogether, utilizing a Constitutional power known as recess appointments to effectively bypass the Senate — and swiftly approve his nominees.

The possible strategy, raised by Trump in a post on social media last week, has generated mixed reviews among senators, who would stand to forfeit their key advice and consent role. And the president-elect made it something of a litmus test for Senate leadership as Republicans won majority control in the November elections.

Thanks to his Supreme Court ruling he is above the law we are going to see Trump ignore the laws because the only way to stop him is to impeach him something a Republican Congress will never do.

So my prediction is that Trump will thumb his nose at Congressional approval.

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Update" 11/28 @ 2:00AM

The Hill writes in a Opinion piece...

The Trump transition team may think it has a game plan to install controversial nominees in Cabinet jobs, but the conservative Supreme Court is likely to block it.

The regular order would be for the Senate to take up the nominees on inauguration day and quickly confirm them. Several of Donald Trump’s picks, however, are already under fire for lack of qualifications or questionable personal behaviors.

[...]

The Trump team probably doesn’t realize that conservative justices believe that use of recess appointments to avoid Senate advice and consent is a perversion of the constitutional order.

[...]

“I would hold that the recess-appointment power is limited to vacancies that arise during the recess in which they are filled, and I would hold that the appointments at issue here — which undisputedly filled pre-recess vacancies — are invalid for that reason as well as for the reason that they were made during the session. The Court’s contrary conclusion is inconsistent with the Constitution’s text and structure, and it further undermines the balance the Framers struck between Presidential and Senatorial power. Historical practice also fails to support the majority’s conclusion on this issue…  For the reasons just given, it is clear that the Constitution authorizes the President to fill unilaterally only those vacancies that arise during a recess, not every vacancy that happens to exist during a recess.”

What’s enormously significant here is that Scalia was joined in his opinion by the court’s most conservative members at the time: Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. To remain consistent, they would have to oppose recess appointments to fill vacancies existing before the recess.

May we live in interesting times!