Some of Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet nominations, recently Kash Patel for FBI director and Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, have been met with firm resistance from career military, intelligence and government professionals. Patel was a supporter of the Jan. 6 insurrection, has promised to “go after” American politicians and journalists, and has vowed to purge the ranks of the FBI. Hegseth, a Fox News host with no experience in government but with infantry experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, has similarly pledged to purge the Pentagon and has categorized liberals as “domestic enemies.”

Watch the above video as Straight Arrow News contributor Newt Gingrich reviews some of Trump’s more controversial picks and weighs in with how he says their nominations might fare in the Senate confirmation process.

The following is an excerpt from the above video:

And it’s typical of President Trump, he is not going to back down. He’s named his person [Kash Patel], has every right as a president to recommend who he wants in his government. Now that doesn’t mean he gets them all. Remember, under our constitutional system, the Senate gets to advise and consent on these kinds of things, and if the Senate finds somebody that they think is unacceptable, they just won’t vote for him, and that’s part of what happened to Congressman Gaetz, who was the first really controversial person named to be attorney general. And after a week, it was obvious that there were enough senators who were going to vote no that he had no hope, and so his name was withdrawn.

But I don’t think that bothered President Trump, because he already had in the former Attorney General of Florida Pam Bondi, a really intelligent, smart, hard-working and very experienced attorney general that he could nominate almost immediately to stay back on offense. So you’re going to see some of this, and you’re going to see different senators raise different issues.

Pete Hegseth is probably the most controversial current nominee, and that’s partly because there are a lot of stuff coming out, rumors and innuendos and accusations about his private life and some things coming out about his management skills. On the other hand, the senators who have met with Hegseth have said, you know, ‘He’s very impressive, and he’s very committed to a strong American military, and we think he would do a great job.’ So I think even the most controversial current nominee may well get accepted by the Senate.