Trump expected to draw heavily from Senate to fill Cabinet

Republican allies of former President Trump expect him to draw heavily from the Senate GOP conference to fill his Cabinet if he is elected to a second term in November, with Sens. Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) in contention for top-level jobs.

Republicans feel confident about Trump’s chances against Vice President Harris in November and are buzzing about who could lead the departments of Treasury, Defense, State and Education if Trump wins.

GOP lawmakers expect Trump, if elected, to push big reforms to overhaul the federal bureaucracy, and they believe that senators are well positioned to manage Washington’s sprawling departments and agencies to make changes and produce results.

Serving in a new Trump administration could be appealing to senators who are frustrated with the lack of legislative action on Capitol Hill at a time when partisanship has ground work to a halt, making the 118th Congress one of the least productive in recent history.

Republicans expect to win back control of the Senate in the November election, but some GOP senators would be eager to raise their profiles by leaving Congress to head powerful federal departments.

“I think we’d have a bunch of individuals that would be very good as Cabinet members,” said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who highlighted colleagues who were under consideration to be Trump’s vice presidential running mate as likely choices.

Braun, a Trump ally, said “talent” is needed on the “executive side” to “rein in the agencies that are all poorly managed, terribly expensive, not producing outcomes.”

“Many might be gauging where does it make more sense to spend your time,” he said of Senate Republican colleagues eyeing jobs in a Trump administration.

Here are some of the names considered in contention.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.)

Hagerty is being floated as a possible Treasury secretary.

He had a successful career in private equity before coming to Congress, working at Trident Capital in Silicon Valley before founding his own private equity firm. He also served as national finance chair on Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) 2012 presidential campaign.

“If he were chosen, he would be outstanding,” said Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho), the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee. “He’s got the right kind of understanding of the economy and the right kind of understanding of the financial world and the right approach to free-market policy in our country.”

Hagerty is also seen as a potential secretary of State for Trump after serving as the former president’s ambassador to Japan.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

Rubio is the vice chair of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence and has established himself as one of the Senate’s leading foreign policy experts, putting him in position to head the CIA, serve as director of national intelligence or lead the State Department.

Rubio, who in 2022 introduced the Taiwan Peace Through Strength Act, is a leading advocate for countering China’s territorial and economic ambitions in Asia and the Pacific.

He is also an outspoken advocate for ousting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and for maintaining a muscular foreign policy toward Cuba.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said Rubio would be a strong pick to head the State Department.

“Marco Rubio would be very good. He’s got a great background in foreign relations. He speaks Spanish fluently and it’s an area we’ve been neglectful on with regard to our neighbors to the south,” he said. “He’s ranking [Republican] on Intel so he understands what’s going on in the rest of the world.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)

Cotton served two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne and a provincial reconstruction team, during which he won a Bronze Star, a Combat Infantry Badge and a Ranger Tab.

He has become an influential voice on defense issues in the Senate and serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Some senators had touted Cotton as a strong candidate to serve as Trump’s running mate.

The Arkansas senator has a close relationship with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who is expected to focus on increasing the Pentagon’s budget after he steps down from leadership at the end of the year.

One Republican senator praised Cotton as “smart as a whip” and predicted he would take an aggressive approach to reforming the Pentagon’s bureaucracy.

“He’s legitimately in the mix,” the senator said.

Some senators, however, view former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as the front-runner to become Trump’s secretary of Defense.

“Pompeo would be good, Cotton would be great. Cotton would kick some ass and that needs to happen,” the source said.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)

One senator close to Trump said that Tuberville’s name is being floated to head the Department of Education.

The Alabama senator, a former big-time college football coach, has more than 40 years of experience working for college- and university-level athletic programs. He is also a member of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Tuberville said he hasn’t thought much about jumping to Trump’s Cabinet but said he would carefully evaluate any offer.

“That’d probably be me. They’d put me in there and then they’d close it down,” Tuberville joked when asked about getting tapped to head the Education Department.

“I’ve had no conversations, anything, about that,” he said.

Tuberville, however, noted that he has a wealth of experience that could be useful.

“That’s all I did for 40 years,” he said. “I’d have to do my background work. It’s like taking another job in coaching.”

One Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on Tuberville’s future laughed at the possibility of him heading the Department of Education.

“I guess his goal would be not to pay the power bill to shut the building down,” the senator joked.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.)

For months, Scott was considered by Senate colleagues to be the front-runner to become Trump’s running mate, and he jockeyed aggressively for the job by raising money and campaigning for the GOP nominee.

Republican senators still think there’s a good chance Scott will wind up in a Trump administration, either as secretary of Health and Human Services or secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

“Tim Scott clearly has an opportunity,” said Rounds, who endorsed Scott’s presidential bid.

Rounds floated Scott as a smart choice to head Health and Human Services “because of what he wants to do in terms of taking care of poverty.”

“He’s got a background in insurance to begin with,” Rounds noted. “With regard to health care, he could be very helpful on that.”

Scott, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, spearheaded the development of “Opportunity Zones” in Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to promote economic development in low-income areas.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.)

Schmitt is a staunch Trump ally who previously served as Missouri’s attorney general, and Senate colleagues say he would be a strong choice to head the Justice Department in a new Trump administration.

The Missouri senator has emerged as a forceful advocate for cracking down on the administrative state, which would be one of Trump’s top priorities in a second term.

Schmitt is known for his strong views in favor of limiting abortion, which would make his selection as attorney general well received by Trump’s conservative base. As state attorney general, he signed a proclamation banning abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.