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Promptly after the election, President-elect Trump announced some of some of his close support group:

Secretary of state: Marco Rubio

Attorney general: Matt Gaetz

Deputy attorney general: Todd Blanche

HHS secretary: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

U.N. ambassador: Elise Stefanik

Border czar: Tom Homan

Defense secretary: Pete Hegseth

Secretary of veterans affairs: Doug Collins

National security adviser: Michael Waltz

Interior secretary: Doug Burgum

White House counsel: William McGinley

Solicitor general: Dean John Sauer

Secretary of homeland security: Kristi Noem

CIA director: John Ratcliffe

Director of national intelligence: Tulsi Gabbard

EPA administrator: Lee Zeldin

U.S. ambassador to Israel: Mike Huckabee

U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York: Jay Clayton

Department of Government Efficiency: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy

Deputy chief of staff: Dan Scavino

Deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser: Stephen Miller

Deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs: James Blair

Deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel: Taylor Budowich

Presidential Personnel Office head: Sergio Gor

White House communications director: Steven Cheung

White House press secretary: Karoline Leavitt

White House chief of staff: Susie Wiles

Wow! I thought. They have their act together in just a few days after winning the election.

Ordinarily, most of these people would now look for confirmation by a majority in the U.S. Senate before taking office. But the Trump forces want to skip this step so Trump’s team can go into official action when he is inaugurated on January 20.

I was shocked to see Matt Gaetz’s name Trump’s list and his nomination to be the attorney general. Gaetz, a congressman from Florida, is wildly unpopular with his fellow lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Last week he resigned his seat in congress in an effort to prevent the release of information about allegations of improper actions.

Journalist Michelle Goldberg explained Trump’s motives in The New York Times on November 14: “By tapping Gaetz to be the highest law enforcement official in the land, Trump has done us the favor of stripping away whatever plausible deniability remained about his intentions. It’s a show of dominance directed more at Republicans than Democrats, meant to make them abase themselves by acquiescing to a nomination they know is indefensible.

“Some social conservatives are aghast: The Christian legal group Liberty Counsel put out a press release describing the choice of Gaetz as ‘shocking and disappointing,’ and Ben Domenech, a co-founder of the right-wing website The Federalist, called him ‘absolutely vile,’ among other insults I can’t repeat here.

“If Gaetz makes it all the way to the confirmation hearings, the proceedings will be a popcorn-worthy carnival of scandal and backbiting. Having won the presidency and both houses of Congress, Trump could have launched his new administration in an atmosphere of confident Republican unity. Instead, it will commence with the crisis, degradation and melodrama that is his natural habitat.”

Other Trump nominees could face opposition. For instance, Pete Hegseth, an Army veteran turned Fox News host, is Trump’s nominee for defense secretary.  But he also has problems. Hegseth was investigated for an alleged sexual assault in 2017, officials in Monterey, California, confirmed.

Still, Trump supports him: “Pete has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country. Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,” Trump said in a statement.

Hegseth, 44, was a co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekends” and author of the book “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” which rails against what he calls the “warped, woke, and caustic policies of our current military.”

Trump praised Hegseth’s military record as an Army combat veteran who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. His experience working in large organizations such as the Department of Defense is limited. More information about the alleged sexual assault in 2017 could present an obstacle to his confirmation

But what Trump really wants is for the Senate and its members to step aside and let him make these decisions without oversight from Congress.

D.G. Martin, a retired lawyer, served as UNC-System’s vice president for public affairs and hosted PBS-NC’s North Carolina Bookwatch.

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