But there are also brewing policy clashes between nominees and the Republican senators tasked with holding hearings and confirming them, lawmakers who have otherwise offered Trump a great deal of deference in supporting his choices.

Policy disagreements have already become a flashpoint in the nominations of Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) for labor secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to be treasury secretary.

Chavez-DeRemer, who lost her reelection bid, has a pro-union track record in Congress. This includes her vote as one of three Republicans for the PRO Act, which would bolster workers’ ability to unionize. She is also one of few GOP lawmakers to back the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act that would expand collective bargaining rights for local and state government workers.

“I will need to get a better understanding of her support for Democrat legislation in Congress that would strip Louisiana’s ability to be a right-to-work state, and if that will be her position going forward,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the incoming chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Groups critical of unions, such as the National Right to Work Committee, have also scrutinized Chavez-DeRemer. Prior to Trump naming her, it lobbied Trump against selecting her.

“Chavez-DeRemer supports policies that go so far in the opposite direction that she would not be out of place in the Biden-Harris Department of Labor, which completely sold out to Big Labor from the start,” National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix wrote in a letter to Trump. “Lori Chavez-DeRemer should have no place in the Trump administration.”

Kennedy, the former third-party presidential candidate and vaccine skeptic who’s promoted conspiracy theories, has sounded alarm bells among anti-abortion advocates for his stance on access to the procedure.

He supports codifying Roe v. Wade into law to restore federal protections and opposes a ban at the federal level. Positioning that represents a reversal of a 2023 statement in favor of a 15-week federal ban. He also backs FDA approval of abortion pills, even in states where abortion is heavily restricted.  

“There’s no question that we need a pro-life HHS secretary, and of course, we have concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, recently told the Washington Examiner. “I believe that no matter who is HHS secretary, baseline policies set by President Trump during his first term will be re-established.”

Key lawmakers on the Senate Finance and HELP Committees, which will be charged with advancing Kennedy’s nomination, such as Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), have foreshadowed a robust discussion on the subject at confirmation hearings.

However, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) was skeptical that Kennedy would allow his personal beliefs to outweigh Trump’s policy directives. Hawley does not sit on either panel that will oversee Kennedy’s confirmation, but he is a staunch anti-abortion advocate and husband to Erin Hawley, an attorney who argued before the Supreme Court to restrict abortion pill access.

“My presumption is I’ll support him, as I’ve supported all the president’s nominees,” Hawley said. “My other presumption is that, as HHS secretary for this president, he supports this president’s positions on life, which were really clear in his last term. I would be shocked if he didn’t, whatever his own views are.”

Bessent’s relative skepticism toward tariffs is likely a positive sign for Beijing but perhaps less so for Republicans wanting the incoming president to make good on his threats to levy steep tariffs against China and imports from other nations. Economists fear tariffs would raise prices, with United States companies reliant on foreign products warning they are prepared to pass along the increased costs to consumers.

Bessent, whose pick was praised by Wall Street, countered that tariffs alone would not be inflationary unless coupled with increased government spending.

“Tariffs can’t be inflationary because if the price of one thing goes up, unless you give people more money, then they have less money to spend on the other thing, so there is no inflation,” he said Saturday in a radio interview with Larry Kudlow. “The inflation comes through either increasing the money supply or increasing the government spending, and that’s what happened under Biden.”

But Bessent’s nomination has shown minimal signs of GOP resistance so far. A South Carolina native, Bessent was lauded by incoming Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC), whose panel will hold a confirmation hearing.

“I’m looking forward to working with Scott to extend and expand my Opportunity Zones initiative and usher in a tax code that enhances growth, investment, and economic opportunity for all Americans,” Scott said.

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), set to be the top Democrat on Senate Banking in the new Congress, was far less pleased.

“Mr. Bessent’s expertise is helping rich investors make more money, not cutting costs for families squeezed by corporate profiteering,” Warren said. “It would be a serious error for the Trump administration to interfere with the Fed’s independence, as Mr. Bessent has suggested.”