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A proposal to honor vice president-elect J.D. Vance at a city council meeting in tiny Middleton, Ohio, was disrupted when a dispute broke out this week after his mother made a plea to the city fathers to acknowledge his part in Donald Trump's 2024 election win.

According to a report from WCOP, a local ABNC affiliate, Beverly Aikins, Vance’s mother, spoke to the city council on Thursday to request that her son get some type of honor for becoming vice president.

The report notes she explained, "I am just here because I am JD Vance’s mother and as you know he is our new vice president-elect and he thinks of Middletown as his home. I still live here and his sister still lives in Middletown. He’s got two nieces who live here and I just think it would be nice if we could acknowledge that this is his hometown and put up some signs."

ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Senate Dems consider whether Biden should ‘clear the slate’ and pardon Trump

She then added, "He graduated from Middletown High School, he comes back here frequently to visit me and take me to dinner, and I humbly request that.”

That, in turn, led to a debate, where, reportedly, her plea was not greeted with unanimous enthusiasm.

As Lauren Pack of the Journal-News reported, "Councilman Paul Lolli said there are two issues concerning the JD Vance recognition — what wasn’t done by the city after the election through social media and what is going to be done going forward."

Lolli proposed, "To me, our communication department should have done this weeks ago. I would like to ask the communications department to get something out by the end of the week. That is what a lot of people in Middletown are extremely upset about."

That received pushback from Councilwoman Jennifer Carter who claimed, “I would think that we would wait and see what happens. (Kayla Harrison, Kyle Schwarber, etc.) proved themselves before we put those signs up.”

After Lolli replied, "JD won,” Carter parried, "Let’s see what he does ... what’s the rush.”

“What we are saying is the fact that the city won’t even recognize that a Middletonian has been elected as vice president that is a problem. I would say the same thing if it were an independent or a Democrat. We should be proud," Councilman Steve West II, offered to which Mayor Elizabeth Slamka added, “It is fair to recognize. That is in the works. I am not a political person. It can be very polarizing. But I think we can recognize.”

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In an interview with Washington Post, a close ally of Donald Trump expressed worries that having to pull the nomination of Fox News personality Pete Hegseth to be the next secretary of defense would have a ripple effect that could impact some of his other controversial nominees.

The Post is reporting that the Hegseth nomination, which has a cloud over it due to allegations of public drunkenness and accusations of sexual assault, is on thin ice and that has some in Trump's inner circle fretting it could lead to some GOP lawmakers feeling they have a stronger hand when it comes to approving key members of the president-elect's administration.

According to the report from the Post's Isaac Arnsdorf, Ashley Parker, Marianne LeVine and Liz Goodwin, Trump is for the most part maintaining a hands-off approach to lobbying, with the report stating, " Trump has held back on pushing hard himself, according to advisers who, like many of the more than a dozen figures interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to relate private conversations"

ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Senate Dems consider whether Biden should ‘clear the slate’ and pardon Trump

The president-elect did post about the embattled Hegseth on Friday with a subdued, for him, post on Truth Social which was followed by his asserting support for the nominee in a clip from a "Meet the Press" interview to be aired in entirety on Sunday.

However, there are still worries in the Trump camp that it may not be enough with several GOP senators stating they are still unsure and want to hear more about Hegseth's views and history.

In an interview with the Post, a Trump ally warned, "If Hegseth gets pulled, it will weaken Trump’s standing with Senate Republicans and only embolden anti-Trump Republican senators to try to tank his other nominees that they don’t like,” before predicting, "It will be a feeding frenzy.”

Another Trump aide admitted what they are doing may not be enough.

"It’s smashmouth football at this point,” they stated. “We’re doing everything we can do to defend Pete. We’re doing everything we can do to let everyone know he has an exceptional background and the experience to do this job. We’re doing everything we can to make sure we’re fighting tooth and nail to push back on all the stories and all the negativity.”

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Any hope that Donald Trump's incoming team will hit the ground running on the first day and launch a flurry of changes in the government will likely need to be put on hold, reports Politico.

Even before the president-elect beat Vice President Kamala Harris in November, Trump's inner circle has delayed turning in paperwork that would allow his transition team to get clearance to see sensitive documents and begin learning the ins and outs of running the government.

As Politico is reporting, much of the documentation has been submitted but his people have yet to submit comprehensive "lists of people who will serve on the teams to the Biden administration," with just a few names trickling in On Friday.

ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE: Senate Dems consider whether Biden should ‘clear the slate’ and pardon Trump

According to Politico's Alice Miranda Ollstein, "That puts Trump officials nearly a month behind their recent predecessors, who began what is known as the 'agency review' process — meeting with existing agency staff and getting briefed on major policy issues and challenges — right after the election, to ensure their incoming administrations would be up to speed."

Those delays will come back to bite the president elect's team when they take over in late January.

"This lag in beginning the usual crash course in agency operations only adds to the obstacles Trump will face as he looks to rapidly implement his sweeping policy agenda. That’s particularly true in areas like health policy, where few of the president-elect’s picks to lead the agencies have any experience in government or in managing such large and complex bureaucracies."

According to Kathleen Sebelius, who served as secretary of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama, "They’re really operating, I would say, at a severe disadvantage. It has been decades and decades since somebody has been in these Cabinet offices without any sort of expertise or experience. And there are lots of barriers built into the structure of a huge agency like HHS, where you really can’t just come in and wave a magic wand and say, ‘You used to do things this way, and now we’re going to do it differently.’”

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