The GOP-led Senate is picking up the pace when it comes to confirming President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees in his second term, Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) assured Fox News viewers on Sunday Morning Futures. Despite criticism that Democrats are slowing the process through procedural hurdles, Thune revealed that the Senate is operating ahead of what he called the “Obama standard” for confirmations.
Speaking with Maria Bartiromo nearly a week into Trump’s second term, Thune addressed concerns over delays in seating Trump’s Cabinet picks. Bartiromo pointedly asked why more confirmations hadn’t already been finalized, suggesting that the 53 Senate Republicans appeared to be yielding too much ground to the 47-member Democratic minority. Thune, however, was quick to push back on that perception.
“Well, actually, we’re ahead of schedule. We’re going back to what is the Obama standard,” Thune explained, referencing the timeline from President Obama’s first term. “Obama got 12 of his Cabinet nominees through in 15 days. It took Trump 43 days to get his first 12 through back in 2017.” In comparison, Thune said, the current Senate is moving at a brisker clip to confirm Trump’s team this time around.
Today on @SundayFutures with @MariaBartiromo, Senate Majority Leader @LeaderJohnThune spoke about the Senate confirmation process for President Trump's cabinet nominees.@FoxNews pic.twitter.com/J4EY5xIZzw
— SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) January 26, 2025
Of course, Thune acknowledged, Senate rules give the minority party tools to slow things down. “There are constraints that are imposed by the rules of the Senate,” he noted. “The minority in the Senate has ways that can slow things down and drag it out.”
Despite this, Thune remained optimistic, asserting, “We’re actually, at the current point, ahead of the Obama standard. And so we’re going to keep moving aggressively, moving quickly, forcing people to stay and to take votes on weekends, which we did this weekend.”
The Senate’s efforts are already showing results. Thus far, they’ve confirmed Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, John Ratcliffe as CIA Director, Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary, and, most recently, Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security. Votes for Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent and Transportation Secretary nominee Sean Duffy are expected in the coming days.
Thune emphasized the importance of getting Trump’s team in place quickly to advance the administration’s ambitious second-term agenda. “We’re starting with the national security positions, which are critically important with everything that’s going on in the world and everything that’s going on at our southern border,” he said, noting the urgency of confirming Governor Kristi Noem to lead DHS. The administration has already begun cracking down on illegal immigration, and Thune highlighted Noem’s leadership as essential to those efforts.
Beyond national security, Thune pointed to nominees like Bessent and Duffy as crucial to implementing Trump’s domestic priorities. “You have a window of time,” Thune explained. “This doesn’t come along all that often and sometimes doesn’t last that long. So we want to make sure the president has his team in place so he’s able to deliver on the agenda that he talked with the American people about and that they voted for in November.”