Attorney General, Trump’s Cabinet, and the Lottery

Hello everyone and welcome back to another week of Politics Explained. This week we have gotten more news on President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks and the House office selection process. That said, we hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving and now let’s dive right in. 

Thursday afternoon, President-elect Donald Trump’s Attorney General* nominee Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration amid a House Ethics Committee report possibly being leaked. This comes after Gatez had resigned from the House of Representatives in order to prepare for his confirmation hearings before the Senate. Trump then announced that Pam Bondi, a previous Florida Attorney General, would be nominated in Gaetz’s place. Bondi has long ties to President-elect Trump dating back to his 2016 campaign. She also worked with Trump in 2020, when she tried to help overturn the election results. Gaetz stated that he withdrew his nomination due to his becoming a distraction to the preparations for the Trump/Vance Administration. 

Since last week the President-elect has announced many more cabinet picks including:

• National Security Adviser: Michael Waltz

• Secretary of Transportation: Sean Duffy 

• Secretary of Commerce: Howard Lutnick

• Secretary of Education: Linda McMahon

• White House Counsel: William McGinley

• U.S. Ambassador to NATO: Matthew Whitaker 

• Solicitor General: Dean John Sauer

• FCC Chairman: Brendan Carr

• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator: Dr. Mehmet Oz

• U.S. Ambassador to Israel: Mike Huckabee

• U.S. Ambassador to Canada: Pete Hoekstra

• U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York: Jay Clayton

• Deputy Chief of Staff: Dan Scavino

• Deputy Attorney General: Todd Blanche 

• Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought

• "Border Czar": Tom Homan

• Deputy Chief of Staff for legislative, political and public affairs: James Blair

• Deputy Chief of Staff for communications and personnel: Taylor Budowich

• Presidential Personnel Office head: Sergio Gor

• White House communications director: Steven Cheung

• White House press secretary: Karoline Leavitt

Lastly, earlier this week the Freshman House Member office lottery happened, with many offices being chosen. The House office lottery happens once every 2 years, with all the new incoming House freshman randomly picking numbers to see which order they will get to choose their office for the next 2 years. The lower the number, the earlier they get their choice of an office. This year there were 61 incoming Members who were newly elected. The first Member-elect to choose in the lottery was Craig Goldman (R-TX), who chose number 48, and as you can guess was not too pleased with his draw. Rep.-elect Laura Gillen was the big winner of the day, as she got the first overall pick for an office. Another person who has been very prevalent around the Hill this week is Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE), who is the first transgender person to be elected to the House. After prodding from Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Speaker Mike Johnson implemented a rule that forbids transgender people (Members, staff, or visitors) from using bathrooms in the Capitol or in the House office buildings that are not aligned with their biological/birth sex. Mace is now introducing legislation to implement this same ban in any Federal government facility nationwide.

*Definition of the Week (Attorney General): A member of the President's cabinet and the nation’s top law enforcement officer.