President-elect Donald Trump’s team has told “all intended nominees” for various positions in his cabinet to refrain from posting on social media in the leadup to the Senate confirmation process.
Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, sent a memo on Sunday to each nominee reiterating “that no member of the incoming administration or Transition speaks for the United States or the President-elect himself,” according to The New York Post, which obtained the document.
Wiles further stated that “all intended nominees should refrain from any public social media posts without prior approval of the incoming White House counsel.”
Trump’s nominees have been silent ahead of what is expected to be a fraught process for some in the GOP-controlled Senate. If Democrats band together against any nominee’s confirmation, Republicans can’t afford to lose any more than three votes from their own conference.
The Wiles memo, according to a Trump transition source, is not in response to the recent social media ruckus caused by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chairs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy over H-1B visas that had MAGA world spinning.
In a Tuesday post on Truth Social, Trump warned that Democrats will pull out all the stops to stymie the confirmation process for his nominees.
We just won a Historic Landslide and Mandate from the American People, but Senate Democrats are organizing to improperly stall and delay the confirmation process of many of our Great Nominees. They will try all sorts of tricks starting very soon. Republicans must not allow them to do that. We have a Country to run, and many big problems to solve, mostly created by Democrats. REPUBLICANS, BE SMART AND TOUGH!!!
The Senate is expected to start confirmation hearings for some of Trump’s nominees in the coming weeks. Fox News host Pete Hegseth, the president-elect’s nominee for Defense Secretary, is set to face the upper chamber on January 14, only six days before Trump is inaugurated.
This is a smart move on Trump’s part. Democrats are still smarting from their defeat on Election Day and will be looking to hamper the president-elect’s agenda in any way possible. All it takes is for one of the nominees to post something that the media can use against them. At this point, they could post a blueberry pie recipe and still get savaged by the left. Perhaps a bit of silence is warranted in this case.
Indeed, Democrats have already targeted Hegseth, highlighted questionable allegations of sexual assault and other forms of misconduct. It appears they plan to use the same strategy they used against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Trump has repeatedly affirmed his support for Hegseth. Hegseth told podcaster Megyn Kelly that during a phone call, Trump told him “You’re going to need to be tough as s**t.”
Pete Hegseth reveals what Trump said to him after he picked him for Defense Sec.pic.twitter.com/PR9SJAJG4h
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) December 22, 2024
The president-elect’s other nominees will also face tough confirmation hearings. Tulsi Gabbard, in particular, has already been aggressively targeted by left-wing media and politicians. Trump is nominating her to become the next Director of National Intelligence. Democrats have been on a full-court press to paint her as a Russian agent, a strategy with which Trump is all too familiar.
Still, with Republicans in control of the Senate, the odds seem to be in Trump’s favor. But it is worth noting that there are plenty of Republican senators who might not be as amenable to Trump’s agenda as others.
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