After Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth squeaked through the Senate by the thinnest possible margin, it will be another critical week for President Donald Trump’s nominees as he looks to quickly fill out his administration. And the White House is seeking to send a clear message to GOP senators that any of them who oppose even a single nominee will face political consequences. Three of Trump’s most embattled picks have Senate confirmation hearings scheduled this week: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, and Kash Patel for FBI director. All of them face a rocky path, and the hearings could be decisive. Gabbard is widely seen as the most endangered, due to concerns over her past dealings with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, with whom she had a secret meeting in 2017, and questions about her past opposition to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. individuals. “She's where the balance of firepower is shifting, and she's the one who has to do the most work for herself,” a senior White House official said. “She needs to emphasize that she knows how critical intelligence is, and this is a life or death matter.” Patel has come under fire from skeptics as unqualified and driven to use prosecutorial power to address personal grievances and target Trump’s critics. But the White House official sounded more optimistic about his chances. “Hegseth and Kash both worked really hard. They're tough and smart and they worked around the clock. That's what you have to do to be successful.” Kennedy, for his part, faces opposition due to his past support for abortion rights from a group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, which is spending money on ads to derail his nomination. The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board also called on GOP senators to reject Kennedy, warning that he could use his powers to undermine vaccines and “assist his trial-lawyer pals” who have "sued vaccine and drug makers.” The three Republicans who opposed Hegseth were Maine’s Susan Collins, a blue-state GOP senator facing re-election in 2026; Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, a moderate who has overcome challenges from the right for many years; and Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, who recently stepped down as the longest-serving leader in Senate history and is widely expected to retire after his term ends in January 2027. Trump has less leverage over those three senators than the other 50 Republicans, and they are expected to be potential wild cards for the president's other nominees moving forward. If the three of them banded together at some point again, it would take just one other GOP defection to sink a nominee, assuming Democrats were united in opposition. There are no obvious candidates, as of now, for a fourth defection. | 