Donald Trump declares war with Democrats over his nominations in blunt New Year’s Eve message

Donald Trump demanded that his Republican allies toe the line in a New Year’s message aimed at uniting his party and supporting his most controversial nominees.

The message comes just days before Republicans look to take control of the Senate — with key nominees, including his pick for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, facing potentially brutal confirmation hearings.

Trump’s problems will play out in the Senate, where his party will gain 53-47 control, even if it is the narrowly divided Republican House that poses the biggest problems this week. Speaker Mike Johnson must rely on his narrowly divided conference to emerge victorious in a vote to retain his post Friday, with one Republican already publicly announcing opposition. Defeat would risk that the new Congress would embark on a repeat of the dysfunction of the previous one, with Congress meeting on January 6 to count the electoral votes for Trump’s victory.

“We just won a historic landslide and mandate from the American people, but Senate Democrats are organizing to inappropriately delay and delay the confirmation process of many of our Major Nominees,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website .

‘They’re going to try all kinds of tricks soon. The Republicans shouldn’t let them do that. We have a country to govern and many big problems to solve, many of which were created by Democrats. REPUBLICANS, BE SMART AND STRONG!!!’

Trump did not specify which Democratic steps were inappropriate. Several have demanded hearings to investigate allegations against controversial nominees, including Hegseth, a former Fox News host. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is also facing criticism over his vaccine stance and other issues.

Senate Democrats, who have made positive noises about Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state and other candidates, are brandishing their constitutional role of “advise and consent” — which could be code for delays or digging up dirt through committee investigations and detailed questionnaires.

Trump has raised the stakes by choosing positions that require Senate confirmation, golfing buddies, wealthy donors, friendly news anchors and family members.

Trump is pushing for Kash Patel to be confirmed as FBI director after current director Chris Wray announced his retirement after Trump expressed his opposition. Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat-turned-Republican, has been criticized for raising issues that were also Kremlin talking points and for meeting with brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was removed from power in December. power was forced and fled to Russia. .

Despite his demands for fellow Republicans to stand firm, the vast majority of his nominees will advance under Senate rules that allow a simple majority to confirm them. Team Trump turned up the pressure after his pick for attorney general Matt Gaetz withdrew amid sex trafficking allegations, which he denies.

The conflagration culminated last week with the release of a damning House Ethics Committee report that found he had paid $90,000 for sex, including with a minor.

“Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she believed was payment for sex,” the bipartisan panel report said. “Victim A stated that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under the age of 18 at the time, nor her age.” Gaetz’s lawyers said the report contained “false and defamatory information” and that the committee no longer had jurisdiction over a former member of Congress.

Many political pundits have complained about Trump’s claim that he won a historic landslide. He defeated Vice President Kamala Harris with 49.8 to 48.3 percent of the vote, although he defeated her in all seven of the most-counting battleground states.

His effort to rally Republicans at the start of their terms comes as leaders from both parties prepare to gather for a memorial service honoring President Jimmy Carter, who turned 100 on Sunday. died.

Trump’s message came amid a looming civil war within the MAGA coalition over policy and who will have a hand at the helm of key decisions.

Billionaire Elon Musk has had extraordinary access to and influence over Donald Trump, but now some influential Trump allies are calling him a “clinger” and saying Trump is sour about his overstay guest.

Among those torching the world’s richest man for his outsized influence is MAGA enthusiast Laura Loomer, who has helped foment a MAGA civil war over visas for high-tech workers.

“I think a lot of people have a hard time speaking truth to power, and a lot of people are afraid to stand up to billionaires,” Loomer told Steve Bannon on his War Room Pandemic podcast. “He’s the richest man in the world, so he kind of revolves around President Trump.”

“When I called him the other day, I said he’s a Stage 5 clinger,” she added. “It sounds like people are afraid to cross the king, the king of the world, Elon Musk, the monarch,” she says told conservative commentator Eric Bolling in another interview. “This is the problem with getting a billionaire to donate $200 million.”

Amid the ongoing battle for influence in Trump’s inner circle, some insiders are going after the billionaire with sharp blind quotes.

“100 percent Trump is annoyed,” a Trump insider who worked on the last campaign said told Mediaite. “There is a Chinese saying: ‘Two tigers cannot live on one mountain peak.’

This line points to Trump’s longstanding annoyance at being overshadowed — something Democrats tried to stoke before Christmas by deriding him as “Vice President Trump” and claiming Musk was really in charge .

In fact, Musk, who is taking on an outside and advisory role, is just one of more than a dozen billionaires Trump is bringing into government.

But at times he seemed ubiquitous — both in person at Mar-a-Lago, where the New York Times reported he is present. Paying $2,000 a night to crash in a cottage at the president-elect’s private golf club – and online on his X platform.

It’s that some of Musk’s posts have irritated longtime MAGA supporters. Musk tore up a bipartisan spending measure to keep the government open, helping to undermine the deal and leaving Republicans with a short-term funding extension that falls short of Trump’s demands to end or raise the debt ceiling.

And South Africa-born Musk published an incendiary post on Saturday defending visas for high-tech foreign workers, weeks after a campaign in which Trump demanded a mass deportation operation to drive out millions of migrants who came to the country illegally.

“The reason I’m in America, along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong, is because of H1B. Take a big step back and F*** yourself in the face. I will wage war on this issue that you cannot possibly understand,” Musk wrote.

That prompted Bannon to call Musk a “toddler.”

The flap forced Trump to come out. He ultimately advocated for the visas, and Musk called for reform of the program, an idea Bannon also ridiculed.

The uproar is believed to have prompted new White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to issue a stunning memo ordering new lieutenants to have all their online messages on X or other platforms pre-deleted.

The board games reached the point where Trump chose to address them publicly in remarks at the Turning Point USA activist conference in Phoenix on December 22.

“He’s not going to be president, I can tell you that,” Trump said. ‘I’m safe. Do you know why? He can’t be. He was not born in this country,” Trump said, laughing. “But the fake news knows that.”

Only Trump truly knows his feelings about the billionaire who has spent $277 million supporting Trump and other Republicans — although one insight comes from a cryptic online message Trump publicly posted on X Friday.

‘Where are you?’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “When are you coming to the ‘Center of the Universe’, Mar-a-Lago.” He then suggested that Bill Gates come visit. ‘We miss you and x!’ Trump wrote, presumably referring to Musk’s son X Æ A-Xii, known as D.J.T.’

Then the tone and personal nature of the message led to speculation that Trump intended to send it as a private direct message. If so, it would indicate that Trump hasn’t had enough of Musk.

And on Tuesday afternoon, the Trump transition leveraged his relationship with Musk to sell white MAGA hats for the inauguration. “Trump could wear this hat on Inauguration Day. Elon could wear this hat on Inauguration Day. Melania could wear this hat on Inauguration Day. And many other MAGA Patriots,” the request read.