President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that he could get involved in primary races against GOP senators if they put up “unreasonable” objections to his Cabinet nominees.
Mr. Trump spoke about his “great group” of nominees during a wide-ranging press conference, where he was asked if any Republican senators who oppose his Cabinet picks should be primaried.
“If they’re unreasonable, if they’re opposing somebody for political reasons or stupid reasons — I would say it has nothing to do with me — I would say they probably would be primaried,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump did provide some wiggle room for senators to vote against his nominees for valid reasons, although that appears to be a subjective call he would make later.
“But if they’re reasonable, fair and truly disagree with something or somebody, I could see that happening,” he said.
The comments come as some Trump allies with strong political operations have threatened to primary GOP senators who oppose the president-elect’s picks.
“We are prepared, along with a whole army of others, to primary these senators. This is not an empty threat,” said Charlie Kirk, whose Turning Point USA and affiliated foundation helped elect Mr. Trump.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who spent millions backing Mr. Trump’s most recent campaign for president, seemingly confirmed a report that he would fund primary challenges against Republicans who don’t fall in line with the president-elect’s agenda.
“How else? There is no other way,” he posted on X in response to a thread about the report.
While the majority of Mr. Trump’s picks have landed well on Capitol Hill, a few nominations have raised concerns among Republican senators, including Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary.
Nominees will need support from at least 50 of the 53 incoming Republican senators if Democrats unite in opposition. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance would provide the tiebreaking vote.
Mr. Hegseth’s standing has improved after a series of meetings he held with GOP senators, but he still has work to do to win enough votes to be confirmed.
After the primary chatter picked up, two Republicans who are up for reelection in red states in 2026, Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, issued statements last week offering encouragement for Mr. Hegseth to continue in the confirmation process. They said anyone raising misconduct allegations against him should come forward, rather than make anonymous complaints through the press.
And on Sunday, Mr. Graham signaled he was prepared to support Mr. Hegseth if there are no new claims.
“I’m in a good place with Pete, unless something I don’t know about comes out,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Mr. Hegseth’s defiant response to the various allegations levied against him “makes sense to me,” Mr. Graham said. “I believe him. Unless somebody is willing to come forward, I think he’s going to get through.”
Ms. Gabbard and Mr. Kennedy got a later start in the Senate meeting process but are also working to shore up support.
Mr. Trump defended his decision to tap Mr. Kennedy to serve as the government’s leading public health figure when asked several questions about the nominee’s history of vaccine skepticism.
“I think he’s gonna be much less radical than you would think,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump said he supported the polio vaccine, amid concerns that Mr. Kennedy is allied with people who sought to take it off the market.
“I’m a big believer in the polio vaccine,” the president-elect said.
Asked whether schools should continue to mandate vaccines, Mr. Trump replied, “I don’t like mandates, I’m not a big mandate person.”
The president-elect appeared to be referring, however, to the COVID-19 mandates that spurred controversy, rather than directly addressing the widespread rules that require kids to be vaccinated against certain diseases before attending public school.
Mr. Trump said the U.S. is paying more for medicines than other countries and seeing worse outcomes. He signaled his administration would go after “middlemen,” an allusion to pharmacy benefit managers that work with drugmakers and insurance companies to decide which drugs are available for patients.
“We’re going to get drug costs down at levels no one has ever seen before,” Mr. Trump said.
— Susan Ferrechio contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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