A cabinet of curiosities: what Trump's wildcard nominations mean for the US on the world stage

Controversial picks for top roles show that a second administration could 'look like the first term on steroids', expert says

Tulsi Gabbard, Marco Rubio and Matt Gaetz have been nominated to top roles in Donald Trump's coming administration. AFP

A “treasonous” Russian asset, a “Gonzo agent of chaos”, “unserious men” – these are just some of the words establishment Washington politicians have used to describe president-elect Donald Trump's picks for crucial cabinet positions.

The rumours that Mr Trump would be selecting long-time senator Marco Rubio, a seasoned Washington hawk well-liked by his colleagues on Capitol Hill, to be his secretary of state initially alleviated concerns that “Trump 2.0" would bring chaos to the new government.

But several other nominations have confused and even shocked many in Washington, including the naming of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to serve as heads of the new Department of Government Efficiency – a move Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly called “an unserious proposal offered by an unserious man and led by two other unserious men doing one unserious job”.

Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth, a veteran who has been criticised over some of his tattoos that include symbols associated with the US far-right, has been nominated as secretary of defence. Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor and Trump campaign donor with no known regional experience, has been named special envoy to the Middle East. Also, Mike Huckabee, a former governor who insists on calling the occupied West Bank “Judea and Samaria”, has been tapped as the next US ambassador to Israel.

Brian Katulis with the Washington-based Middle East Institute told The National that this new Trump administration is “going to look like the first term on steroids”.

This is likely to include making mass deportations of undocumented immigrants a “top priority”, a hawkishness on China and “a basic instinct to try to 'end wars in Ukraine, in the Middle East', whatever that means”, Mr Katulis added.

These facets of the Trump agenda are not necessarily surprising for those who have watched the president-elect's political career unfold. However, while the naming of Mr Hegseth and others has raised eyebrows, his nominations of Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and Matt Gaetz as attorney general have sent shock waves across Washington.

Ms Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman-turned-Republican who has been described on Russian television as Moscow's “girlfriend” and who met Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in 2017, signals a new Trump administration could lean into the president-elect's anti-Nato and pro-Russia inclinations.

She would also come to the job – in which she would serve as Mr Trump's chief intelligence adviser and oversee 18 intelligence agencies with a budget of about $70 billion – without any experience in the field.

John Bolton, an anti-Iran hawk who continues to defend Washington's 2003 invasion of Iraq, described her appointment to CNN on Thursday as the “worst appointment in US history”.

Ms Gabbard has frequently parroted pro-Kremlin talking points and has asserted that Russian-backed Mr Al Assad is “not an enemy” of Washington. That position puts her at odds with a majority of US politicians, who have condemned Mr Al Assad's use of chemical weapons on civilian populations and harsh crackdowns during the Syrian civil war.

Mitt Romney, a departing Republican senator and the party's candidate for the presidency against Barack Obama in 2012, has described her pro-Russian statements as “treasonous”.

Even still, Republican leaders in Washington maintain faith that the party's mainstay foreign policy goals, and not obstructionism, will most define US relations in the new government.

Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Mike McCaul, a vocal critic of Mr Al Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin, dodged questions about Ms Gabbard's positions on Damascus and Moscow, but told The National: “A GOP-controlled Washington will re-establish deterrence against Iran and its proxies in the Middle East.”

Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican senator among those tasked with voting to confirm the president-elect's nominees, was among those on Capitol Hill to endorse Ms Gabbard's nomination.

Merissa Khurma, programme director at the Wilson Centre's Middle East programme, told The National that the broader line-up makes clear that Washington “will be returning to a more hawkish approach to the region, particularly when it comes to Iran” – but she emphasised that Washington is not the centre of the universe.

“All of these different individuals that have been nominated so far may come with their own agendas and views and perceptions, but they will have to reckon with a very different geopolitical reality in the region, and it has to be addressed. And it will not just be the United States basically calling all the shots.”

Leaders in the Middle East, especially, “have started to sort of take matters in their own hands”, Ms Khurma added, noting that cross-administrative efforts from Washington to disengage from the region led many countries to “look elsewhere and engage with others economically and politically”.

On the domestic front, Mr Gaetz's confirmation odds appear to be the most difficult.

The “Make America Great Again” hardliner and obstructionist former congressman resigned on Tuesday and is not much beloved among much of the party establishment, with Democratic Senator Chris Murphy describing him as “a Gonzo agent of chaos”.

There were audible gasps at the Capitol on Wednesday when the announcement of Mr Trump's pick for attorney general broke – and many politicians have ignored questions over whether he is capable of confirmation.

That is in the hands of the Senate, where Republicans will have a 53-seat majority and could rely on vice president-elect JD Vance to break a 50-50 tie, giving room for a few defections.

Mr Katulis argued that for Mr Trump, this nomination is “trying to prove a point and tell the Senate … that he doesn't want or need their confirmations”.

“He's trying to bend, if not break the checks and balances in the system,” Mr Katulis said, though he was sceptical Mr Trump would succeed in doing that.

Mr Gaetz's resignation this week gets to the crux of his controversy: the House Ethics Committee was set to release a report on its investigation into the Florida representative in the coming days, according to US media.

He was under investigation over allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, among other claims. The investigation was first opened in 2021 after the Department of Justice investigated whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.

His Republican colleagues have spoken about Mr Gaetz's conduct in Congress and it was part of their main issue with his leadership in removing former speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

However, even Markwayne Mullin, a senator who had previously criticised Mr Gaetz's conduct, has also said he “completely trusts” Mr Trump's decision to name him attorney general.

Mr Graham was among the many Republicans to evade questions on whether he would confirm Mr Gaetz, calling him “a smart, clever guy” but emphasising that “he’ll have to answer some tough questions in the hearing, and we’ll see how he does”.