Over the past few weeks, several of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees have gone through the process of Senate confirmation hearings. As of Feb. 11, thirteen secretaries have been confirmed.
The Cabinet is made up of the vice president along with fifteen heads of federal departments who advise the president and enact his agenda in the agencies. These cabinet members are given the title of secretary, except for the attorney general, who leads the Department of Justice.
During the hearings, committees question and assess the candidates to decide if they will be voted on by the rest of the Senate, where a majority vote is needed for a nomination to be confirmed.
The confirmed defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is a veteran and former Fox News host. Most notably, he will have oversight of the military, which he has said needs to have more of a “warrior ethos.”
Some students think that this mindset could have negative impacts.
“I don’t want America to fall into something … where we get into useless wars or wars that don’t serve us, just for the sake of showing off our might to other countries,” said senior Spencer Coral.
Hegseth has faced criticism due to his repeated remarks about diversity policies and women lessening the effectiveness of the military. He’s also been confronted by allegations of misconduct, including sexual assault and excessive drinking habits, which he has denied.
Senior Jose Callejas noted that Hegseth seemed to switch his opinion on women in combat during his hearing.
“That shows the hypocrisy of him trying to change his narrative,” Callejas said. “But of course, the committee knows [about his comments], they’ve seen the videos where he’s just stating that. To me, that’s crazy.”
While Hegseth does have experience from being in the military, he has not spent as much time in government or major leadership roles compared to previous defense secretaries.
“His appointment is Trump pushing the limits, testing the boundaries of his influence,” Coral said. “Through his nomination of Hegseth, [Trump] was seeing how much the Senate would be willing to bend to his will.”
Despite the controversies surrounding Hegseth, he was confirmed by a margin of one vote, with the Senate split fifty-fifty and the tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President JD Vance.
Another one of Trump’s more contentious cabinet picks is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominated for secretary of Health and Human Services. This position oversees agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the federal research agency National Institutes of Health.
Kennedy is an environmental lawyer who ran for president in the 2024 election, initially as a Democrat, but later as an Independent. He helped start an anti-vaccine organization in 2016, Children’s Health Defense, which has promoted misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccine safety.
“It’s just so hypocritical when he’s endorsing unhealthy behaviors such as avoiding vaccines and conspiracy theories,” said freshman Dresden Pham. “If we have another pandemic or epidemic or some sort of medical disaster in the future, we might be screwed because he’s not willing to believe in vaccines. He’s not willing to believe in actual safe measures.”
On the other hand, senior Nolan Moore commented on what he views as a positive side of Kennedy’s stances. Moore believes that he will push for “traditional” approaches to combating diseases, which he said relies more on nutrition rather than medicine.
“RFK doesn’t want to get the government telling the parents, you have to get this [vaccine],” Moore said. “He doesn’t want kids to be barred from school just because they haven’t been checked up recently. So he wants to give more power to American citizens … But still, there has to be some power left for the federal government, because they have more resources for health than parents do.”
Another nominee is Linda McMahon for education secretary, who was in charge of the Small Business Administration in Trump’s first cabinet.
Linda McMahon, former United States Administrator of the Small Business Administration, is the nominee for Secretary of Education. This role entails supervising the Department of Education, which Trump has mentioned planning to close down. In order to shut down the department, it would have to pass through Congress. This would mean more state control over public education and changes to how federal student financial aid and loan programs are handled.
“There should be some federal grants given to states just to ensure a certain bare minimum level of education countrywide,” Coral said. “So that a [public] education in California isn’t a complete 180-degree difference from an education in Florida.
McMahon, a co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment, served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year and was a trustee for a private university. Other than that, she does not have the same kind or amount of experience in the education field as some who have been in this position in the past.
The remaining cabinet nominees will continue to undergo Senate hearings and voting, the dates for which vary with each candidate.
