At the start of Donald Trump’s second term, the Senate had a very important job: provide advice and consent on the newly elected president’s Cabinet picks, as enumerated in Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution.
These hearings don’t always come with fireworks, controversy and drama — in 2017, for example, all but one of Trump’s nominations were confirmed. In 2021, all but one of Joe Biden’s picks were confirmed.
But in all fairness, neither 2017 nor 2021 was the wild and wacky clown show of 2025.
Trump’s second-term Cabinet reads like a list of who’s who of questionable and unsavory characters from the quackiest corners of the MAGA mediasphere.
There was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose “Fox & Friends” weekend co-host gig may have gotten him the job, but whose personal life — accusations of infidelity, sexual assault and alcohol abuse — became a humiliating and alarming side story that nearly derailed his confirmation. Emphasis on “nearly.”
There was Justice Department head Pam Bondi, who had actively worked to undermine the 2020 election results, had faced accusations of corruption while Florida attorney general and was presumed to be a willing accomplice in Trump’s efforts to weaponize the DOJ against his political enemies.
There was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known science-denier and conspiracy theorist whose weird interactions with a dead bear, a dead dog, a dead brain worm— and a living New York magazine reporter— very much should have ended his confirmation bid.
And let’s not forget Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Kristi Noem and Howard Lutnick — a “Star Wars” bar of unqualified, attention-seeking sycophants who definitely weren’t “the best people.”
But every one was confirmed, in many cases with every Republican voting yes — only five of the 53 Republicans voted against at least one of the president’s nominees, despite their clear and concerning controversies. It was an embarrassing look for the upper chamber.
But what a difference a year — and a midterm election — makes.
The Senate seems to have finally found its voice in standing up to Trump as he — and maybe because he — actively imperils their majority with every primary challenge, impolitic distraction, and election denial he offers.
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has resisted pressure from Trump to eliminate the 60-vote legislative filibuster, and is now openly stating his frustration with Trump’s demands that Republicans pass his election-denialism Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, telling Trump to “get on the phone and get the votes.”
Despite Trump’s insistence, Thune is pushing for senators to go home so they can campaign for their reelections, something Trump seems wholly disinterested in.
Meanwhile, retiring Sens. Thom Tillis, R-Texas, and John Cornyn, R-N.C., — both victims of Trump’s capricious and needless primarying — have held up his nomination of Todd Blanche to be attorney general, insisting Blanche provide a written guarantee the administration will not pursue a $1.8 billion weaponization slush fund.
Trump, who can only afford to lose one Republican vote, said Thursday that he may withdraw Blanche’s name until Tillis and Cornyn are out of office next year.
Three other Republicans — Bill Cassidy, R-La., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska — banded together to oppose Bill Pulte’s appointment to be director of national intelligence, effectively forcing Trump to give up.
And a group of Republicans, including Cassidy and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., joined Democrats to limit Trump’s unilateral war powers, hoping to force an ending to his unpopular, ill-advised and spiraling Iran war adventure.
It’s perhaps a taste of the continued pressure Trump may face from his own party in his lame-duck years, or maybe it’s a foreshadowing of his life under a Democratic majority if Republicans get voted out in November.
But either way, it’s a welcome sight — senators, finally doing the job they were elected to do.
S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.