Tricky Questions Facing Trump’s Candidates

Some of Donald Trump’s key allies will face criticism from senators this week as part of the process to approve or reject the roles the president-elect has nominated them for.

The hearings, which begin Tuesday, are the first chance for senators to publicly question some of Trump’s more controversial choices.

Candidates must then be confirmed by vote. And with the upper house of Congress now controlled by Trump’s Republican Party – just three defections could be enough to deny a candidate his job.

Here are some of the tough questions candidates are likely to face.

One of the first confirmation hearings will be one of the most watched.

Trump’s defense secretary nominee is expected to face questions Tuesday about his lack of managerial experience and alleged drinking.

Senators could ask Hegseth about an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman in a hotel room in California in 2017, Politico writes.

Hegseth denies the claim and claims the meeting was consensual. The allegation was investigated, but Hegseth — an Army veteran and former Fox News anchor — was never arrested or charged.

Hegseth and the unnamed plaintiff then reached a confidential financial settlement in 2023. His lawyer later told The Associated Press that the payment was intended to prevent a frivolous lawsuit.

Trump stood by his chosen one, who is among the nominees who have been busy courting senators in recent days to try to garner the necessary votes.

Rival Democrats on the committee also plan to consider Hegseth’s previous opposition to women serving in combat roles in the military, US media say.

In the spotlight Wednesday will be the woman who could be tasked with carrying out one of Trump’s top campaign promises — what his team describes as the largest mass deportation of illegal immigrants in American history.

As the president-elect for Secretary of Homeland Security, Noem might wonder about the practicalities of making this promise. A mass deportation program on the proposed scale would likely face logistical or legal difficulties, experts say.

Noem could also face questions about other potential immigration policies, such as Trump’s promise to end birthright citizenship.

She has been a loyal and vocal supporter of the president-elect’s promises, which is in line with other candidates and appointments for Trump’s second term in the White House.

The man handpicked to lead Trump’s foreign policy agenda was once on the other side of a confirmation hearing for Trump’s nominee for secretary of state.

During the 2017 session, he took a jab at Rex Tillerson — urging him to describe Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, which Tillerson refused to do.

If that session signaled a divergence of views between Rubio and Trump — then rivals — the two appear to have agreed much more eight years later.

Rubio is now in the running for one of the most coveted jobs in the Trump administration and is expected to face relatively little resistance on his way to confirmation.

But senators could test his loyalty on Wednesday with a series of questions about future US support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Trump has described it as a drain on US resources – a view that could contrast with Rubio’s hawkish views on foreign policy.

Another candidate facing a possible test of loyalty to Trump in a Senate committee hearing (yet to be scheduled) is one of the officials tasked with implementing Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

Trump has threatened import taxes on various goods coming into the US – including some of his major trading partners – in what he says is an effort to protect US jobs.

Lutnick, the billionaire chief executive of financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, has embraced the proposal – despite the view being at odds with others in his industry and some leading economists.

He is likely to face direct questions about the impact of the massive new tariffs on the US economy and consumers.

Trump’s choice to be director of national intelligence could raise questions from Republicans and Democrats alike about her past comments about US adversaries such as Russia and Syria.

Gabbard, another military veteran, has routinely opposed America’s interventionist foreign policy. In 2017, while still a Democratic congresswoman, she met with then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and cast doubt on US intelligence assessments that blamed him for using deadly chemical weapons.

And after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine five years later, it blamed NATO and repeated the Kremlin’s claim that there were US-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine.

Gabbard spoke about the need to talk with countries like Russia.

Democrats are reportedly delaying her hearing until they complete background checks.

One of Trump’s most unconventional choices was, like Gabbard, on a political path that actually began in the Democratic Party.

Kennedy has since become a Trump supporter and was rewarded with this nomination.

He has no medical qualifications – which could present an awkward starting line of questioning on both sides of the political divide.

And his past statements about established science could also come under scrutiny. He has repeatedly made widely disproved claims about the harmfulness of vaccines, but has more generally denied that he is against vaccines.

On other issues – such as food additive testing – Kennedy enjoys wider support.

Some critics of Trump’s choice to lead the FBI have expressed doubts that Patel is qualified to lead America’s top law enforcement agency. Others shared concerns that he might be working to retaliate against Trump’s opponents.

“We’re going to go after people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig the presidential election,” he said earlier, citing Trump’s baseless claim about the 2020 election.

Although former law enforcement officials have questioned his ability to lead the agency, Patel’s experience as a lawyer and in a range of national security roles has been praised by the Trump team and some Republicans.

Patel has a stated goal of dramatically reshaping the way the FBI operates, including removing some of its top employees.

North American correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of American politics in his twice-weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. UK readers can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.