'Not going according to plan': Trump team reportedly faces urgent 'political challenges'

Donald Trump is marching to the beat of his own drum and throwing off his own team in the process, according to a new report.

Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election, and then immediately began naming new officials for his administration. While some of his transition team put together extensive reviews for potential nominees, Trump is going in another direction, the Washington Post reports.

"The president-elect has been operating off his own script, making Cabinet picks that have posed immediate political challenges," according to the Post.

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The article goes on to use as an example the nomination of former lawmaker Matt Gaetz, who has been accused of sex trafficking an underage girl, to the powerful post of Attorney General. Gaetz has not been charged or convicted of a crime.

The face of the transition team, according to one GOP strategist quoted by the Post, is simply on "cloud nine at all times."

"But beyond the celebration and behind closed doors, much was not going according to plan," the article states. "The transition has properly vetted some potential nominees, but Trump has also been operating off his own script with many of his personnel choices — choosing unvetted candidates and acting outside the transition structure in a way that has immediately created serious political challenges, according to interviews with 18 people involved, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly. The president-elect has been largely unfazed, ebullient and soaking in his win on the Mar-a-Lago patio."

Trump has said he has been granted a mandate by voters to appoint who he wishes, but that isn't coming without some blowback.

"But some of those people brought baggage," the article states. "Senior transition officials have grown concerned about the confirmation process for both Gaetz and Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to be defense secretary, four people close to Trump said. But Trump made clear he was not inclined to withdraw either selection, convinced that the incoming Republican-controlled Senate would support them, people close to him said."

Read it here.