Happy Wednesday! President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday night that he would tap X owner Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which looks to be a blue ribbon commission without much teeth. To that, we say “much wow” and “so productivity.”
Up to Speed
- President-elect Donald Trump announced several more appointments in his administration this week, with lots of news on the foreign policy front. Trump revealed that he will nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense. “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 release. Hegseth is a retired Army officer with two Bronze Stars, a graduate of Princeton and Harvard, and a former leader of veterans advocacy groups.
- The New York Times first reported Monday evening Trump is likely to select Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for secretary of state. Multiple other outlets have reported the same, and Rubio is likely the most hawkish option under consideration. Meanwhile, another Floridian, Rep. Mike Waltz, whose hawkishness is similar to Rubio’s, will serve as national security adviser—a role that does not require Senate confirmation—Trump’s transition team announced Tuesday. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda, and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Trump said in a statement.
- Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner who served in the White House during Trump’s first term, will be a deputy chief of staff for policy, CNN reported Monday. Miller is an architect of Trump’s plans for mass deportations of immigrants here illegally, which he has said will begin on Inauguration Day. Additionally, Trump said Tuesday he would nominate South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, an early supporter of his 2024 campaign, to lead the Department of Homeland Security. “Kristi has been very strong on Border Security. She was the first Governor to send National Guard Soldiers to help Texas fight the Biden Border Crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times,” Trump said.
- And what’s more, Trump announced Tuesday he will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be his ambassador to Israel. “Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!” Trump also chose former Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York to be his director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Decision Desk HQ declared Republicans Gabe Evans of Colorado’s 8th Congressional District and Rep. Juan Ciscomani of Arizona’s 6th District to be the winners of their races Monday. Those calls officially gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives, according to that results watcher. Its latest count sits at 219-211. Meanwhile, the Associated Press and New York Times put the count at 216-207 in the GOP’s favor. For the Senate, the Pennsylvania race between Republican challenger Dave McCormick and Democratic Sen. Bob Casey is the only race yet to be totally determined. AP called the race for McCormick last week, though Decision Desk HQ and the Times have yet to do so. As of now, McCormick’s margin is less than 0.5 percent, which will trigger an automatic recount if it holds. Should McCormick pull through, his victory would give Republicans a 53-47 majority.
Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Collaborating on Vance Replacement
When J.D. Vance is inaugurated as vice president in mid-January, a plum Senate seat in Ohio will open up.
That forthcoming vacancy has already kicked off a negotiation between Vance’s running mate, President-elect Donald Trump, and the governor with the power to appoint a replacement: Republican Mike DeWine. GOP sources in Ohio tell Dispatch Politics that at this point, both Trump and DeWine—a traditional Republican in his final term in Columbus—are looking to work together on a selection that will leave both satisfied.
“At least at this point it will be a collaborative exercise,” said one person familiar with how the two sides are proceeding. “[There are] no indications at this point that there’s going to be an appointment in which one side is happy and the other side is furious.”
For DeWine, that likely means picking a Republican who can avoid a primary fight and win a general election in 2026, when Ohio law requires a special election to fill out the remaining two years of Vance’s term. The selection also would need to be able to win a full six-year term in 2028. For Trump, it means picking a Republican who will be loyal to him and his agenda.
The list of potential appointees is long, in part thanks to a deep bench of elected Republicans in the Buckeye State. All three of the next highest-ranking statewide elected officials are in the mix: Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, Attorney General Dave Yost, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose. All three are also possible candidates for governor in 2026, with both Husted and Yost in particular on a potential collision course in the Republican primary. Republican operatives from Ohio tell Dispatch Politics DeWine may be looking for a way to avoid an ugly primary for his successor and that appointing one of them to the Senate solves two problems at once. (Yost, other sources say, is not seeking the Senate appointment and would not accept it if offered.)
Among the other names being floated is Jane Timken, the former state Republican party chair and current Republican National Committee member. Timken ran for the Senate in 2022, losing in a crowded primary to Vance, but remains well-liked by most within the party and, more importantly, is a good fundraiser.
What all of these possible appointees have in common is that they would be broadly acceptable to both DeWine and Trump. That may not be the case with another potential appointee who has thrown his hat into the ring: state Sen. Matt Dolan, whom DeWine endorsed in the 2024 GOP primary for Senate (and who came in second to Bernie Moreno, who won his general election race last week). Dolan has reportedly told DeWine directly that he is interested in the appointment.
“He talks about wanting somebody who goes to the Senate with experience, a workhorse, get things done for Ohio. I think I check those boxes,” Dolan told a reporter at the Columbus Dispatch on Tuesday.
And while Dolan did not run explicitly as an anti-Trump candidate in his 2024 and 2022 bids for the Senate, he avoided positioning himself as a devoted follower of the former president, differentiating himself from a field of Trump acolytes by claiming to be a conservative problem-solver in the mold of DeWine himself. In a party where fealty to Trump is not just highly prized but a requirement among aspiring candidates, Dolan may be considered too out-of-step, though if the collaboration between Trump and DeWine breaks down, all bets may be off.
“The nuclear option would be Matt Dolan,” said the person familiar with the effort to find common ground between the president-elect and the governor.
One wild-card selection was Vivek Ramaswamy, the Cincinnati-born entrepreneur who ran for president in 2024 before dropping out and endorsing Trump. Ramaswamy remains popular among the online grassroots of the Republican party and is clearly a Trump loyalist. But on Tuesday, Ramaswamy took himself out of consideration for the appointment after being selected by Trump to lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” with Elon Musk.
A spokesman for DeWine pointed Dispatch Politics to DeWine’s comments to reporters last week, when the governor listed several requirements for a new senator. “It takes someone who really will focus on the state of Ohio, will focus on national issues, someone who will really work hard, someone who wants to get things done,” DeWine said. The spokesman noted that DeWine will make a decision that draws on his own two terms in the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1995 to 2007.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, told Dispatch Politics he “can’t get ahead” of what the president-elect will do or how he’s thinking about the Ohio Senate seat.
Notable and Quotable
“I will not be voting for Thune or Cornyn for Senate Majority Leader. Do not attempt to change my mind.”
—GOP Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia—who has a penchant for trolling and, being a member of the House of Representatives, cannot vote in the Senate Republican leadership election—in an X post, November 10, 2024
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