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Newly elected President Donald Trump’s cabinet choices are becoming increasingly bizarre, which may be part of the point.

Attorney General? Rep. Matt Gaetz, the right-wing provocateur under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Minister of Defense? Pete Hegseth, a weekend Fox News anchor who served in the Army National Guard.

Director of National Intelligence? Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman who has expressed sympathy for Russia.

“Some of it is intended to shake up Washington,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican and senior CNN political commentator who appeared on CNN after Gaetz’s surprise choice. Trump’s other choices, such as Senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state, are more conventional.

Jennings said no one should underestimate Trump’s ability to get some of these nominees through the Senate as he claims a mandate after winning the presidential election.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat who has served with Gaetz in both the Florida Legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives, said it should come as no surprise that Trump would choose Gaetz, who has been one of Trump’s most effective advocates in Congress has been.

Gaetz is known for his scorched-earth tactics in the House of Representatives and was instrumental in ousting then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year over his negotiations with Democrats. He could be controversial enough to even call into question Trump’s ability to get an attorney general confirmed.

“Matt Gaetz knows exactly what to do with the attorney general’s office,” Moskowitz said, noting that Gaetz is loyal to Trump and “competent.” He added that Gaetz will be “the most powerful attorney general in American history.”

Trump has previously expressed a desire to dramatically overhaul both the national security apparatus and the Justice Department, which he continues to blame for the investigation into Russian election interference in the 2016 election.

Trump already demanded an accelerated process for the Senate confirmation process when he encouraged Republicans to support the concept of “recess appointments” for his choices.

It would be a major evolution if Republican senators supported such appointments, which could be made when the Senate is no longer in session. Ten years ago, Senate Republicans took the Obama administration to the U.S. Supreme Court on this issue, winning a unanimous ruling and guaranteeing their constitutional ability to have input into who runs the U.S. government.

At the time, Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican who is now a key Trump ally, called President Barack Obama’s attempt to use a recess appointment to keep the National Labor Relations Board functioning an attempt to “circumvent Congress and to ignore the Constitution in order to achieve his controversial political agenda.”

Now it’s a bit strange that some Senate Republicans want to give Trump the power to make recess appointments without their input after he demanded it this weekend.

Recess appointments are temporary appointments that can last a year or two. The goal is speed, as the clock is already ticking on Trump’s next presidency.

“We know that President Trump has just four years to reform our federal government,” Senator Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, told Fox Business.

Four years can be optimistic. Each of the last three presidents – Obama, Trump and Joe Biden – scored their major legislative victories in the first two years of their presidencies before losing control of the House of Representatives as part of a now-normal response to presidents’ be power.

Republicans are poised to gain a 53-47 Senate majority if they win the race in Pennsylvania, where Republican candidate David McCormick has a narrow lead. That should give them enough votes to push through an eventual Trump nomination, even as some Republican senators backed Hegseth’s choice.

“Wow,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

“WHO?” asked Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, according to NBC.

“Interesting,” said Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Others were supportive. Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma praised Hegseth for not being politically correct.

“The requirement is that President Trump can nominate the person and the Senate must confirm him. I trust President Trump’s decision,” Mullin told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday.

Mullin was less convinced of the Gaetz choice.

“He needs to come to the Senate and sell himself,” Mullin said. “There are a lot of questions.”

If there’s a theme for this new Trump administration in the making, it’s that the president-elect wants to go big fast, rewrite some of the rules in Washington, seize more power so the president can bypass Congress and cut the federal bureaucracy can form.

Daniel Farber is a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and the author of a book on presidential power. He told me in an email that there is a long-term trend of presidents trying to consolidate power in the executive branch.

“One thing that has kept this from going to extremes is that most presidents understand that they need skilled, experienced staff across the government to effectively implement their programs. I don’t think Trump has that view,” he said.

Reports from a special committee to reassess generals’ loyalty are outside the norm and could put Trump-approved generals in the Pentagon.

Then there’s the selection of Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to lead a new ‘Department of Government Efficiency’, crossed with Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, DOGE.

Many are wondering where these two businessmen will find $2 trillion to cut from the expanding federal government. Trump promised they would figure out how to “dismantle the federal bureaucracy,” but they currently have no official power or mandate from Congress. Musk said a suggestion box would come online and could also show how government money is being wasted.

There are ways Trump could give Musk and Ramaswamy official power or even officially hire them without forcing Musk to divest from Tesla and SpaceX — but it’s telling that Trump doesn’t appear to be pursuing those options, according to Norm Eisen, a senior fellow in the sector. Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, who also served as “ethics czar” in the Obama administration.

“It’s the beginning of the end for them,” Eisen predicted of their relationship with Trump, pointing to the many recommendations from government commissions that have long been forgotten without any action. “Trump doesn’t really want to share with strong personalities who could be rivals.”

Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine skeptic who supported Trump, wants wide latitude over U.S. health policy but apparently won’t get a Cabinet role.

When it comes to recess appointments, there are some indications that top Republicans in the Senate will not be willing to give away their power so easily to have input into appointments.

All of the candidates vying to become Republican Senate majority leader when Republicans win the majority in January have expressed openness to the idea of ​​recess appointments, including the eventual winner, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota.

But speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday after winning the post, Thune pointed out that the Senate “has an advisory and consenting role in the Constitution.”

While Thune did not reject the idea of ​​recess appointments, he was clear that senators are not giving up on anything yet.

“We want to make sure that our committees conduct confirmation hearings as they normally do,” he said, although he warned Democrats not to overextend the process or Senate Republicans will “explore all options.”

Thune also pledged that Republicans will respect the legislative filibuster, the practice that allows a minority of senators to kill most legislation.

“As you know, the Senate, by the Founder’s design, is a place where the minority has a voice in our process,” he said.

Anyone who remembers 2017 – the first year of Trump’s first term, when Republicans held the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House as they will next year – will remember that Trump routinely grumbled at the time about the filibuster as an obstacle to passing legislation.

CNN predicted on Wednesday that Republicans will have a majority in the House of Representatives, but it will certainly be much smaller than the majority Republicans had when Trump first governed. That means it will be harder to pass legislation with only Republicans.