Trump’s transition was supposed to be a show of force. What happened?

Over the last 24 hours, Donald Trump lost his pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration. His choice for Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is struggling to gain support from Senate Republicans. The president-elect is now even considering his onetime rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis, to lead the Pentagon.

And these shake-ups to his not-yet-formed administration come after former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration as Trump’s choice for attorney general.

All told, the setbacks are raising new questions about Trump’s power over his party, whether Republicans would submit to any and all of his demands — and the expectation that his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, would bring order to Trump’s transition and White House.

On Tuesday, Chad Chronister, Trump’s choice for DEA administrator, abruptly withdrew from consideration just days after being announced, saying in a post on X he made the decision “as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in,” without citing a specific reason. Chronister, a county sheriff in Florida, had drawn criticism from some conservatives over his actions during the Covid-19 pandemic but was not seen as one of Trump’s more controversial administration picks.

He was the second Trump nominee to drop out of consideration in as many weeks, following Gaetz’s brief, whiplash-inducing candidacy, which thrust Capitol Hill into chaos over a sealed ethics report into the former Florida congressman. Trump ultimately replaced Gaetz with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

And now, as new reports come out about Hegseth that could further impede his confirmation by the Senate — including allegations of sexual assault and alcohol abuse — Trump is considering dropping the former Fox host and installing another Florida man: his, and Wiles’, old foe DeSantis.

Hegseth took to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with Senate Republicans, including the chamber’s incoming leadership and Sen. Joni Ernst, who is seen as a potential swing vote on his nomination. He told reporters he was still in the race — and that Trump himself had told him to “keep fighting.”

“Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fighter,” Hegseth said.

Not all of the senators in his party are convinced. "We absolutely cannot have a secretary of Defense that gets drunk on a regular basis. … I got to know that he's got that problem licked," Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who will meet with Hegseth soon, told The Washington Post.

Trump’s thinking on potentially replacing Hegseth with DeSantis was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Trump has also floated other names, including Ernst, a Senate Armed Services Committee member and sexual assault survivor, and Elbridge Colby, a Trump ally and former Pentagon official, according to the Journal.

Swapping Hegseth for DeSantis could be politically savvy for Trump: DeSantis is a rising star in the party who, as governor, likely has far fewer skeletons in his closet than Trump’s other, more controversial picks. But it would also sting for Trump, who sparred publicly with DeSantis during his short-lived GOP primary campaign — which Wiles is credited with obliterating as part of a longstanding feud.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, the rivalry between Trump and DeSantis turned ugly fast — and the political warfare didn’t stop at nicknames like “pudding fingers” and “Ron DeSanctimonious” and petty blows about shoe-lifts. Trump considered DeSantis’ challenge to be an act of disloyalty — a trait Trump may despise above all others.

Since DeSantis bowed out of the race and endorsed Trump, their relationship has begun to thaw, and elevating a former critic to high places isn’t exactly novel for the president-elect (just look at former-never-Trumper-turned-Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance).

But Trump’s consideration of the Florida governor also signals that his Cabinet nominees may need more than loyalty to survive a Senate confirmation.

Chronister, a county sheriff in Florida with little experience outside local law enforcement, was seen as a potentially odd pick to lead the DEA — but relatively uncontroversial compared to the other bombastic figures in Trump’s roster.

But his actions during the Covid-19 pandemic, support for red flag gun laws, and previous donations to Democrats, according to the Florida Phoenix, had drawn criticism some conservatives, including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

On Wednesday, Trump slammed a Wall Street Journal headline saying Chronister had decided to reject the nomination, asserting instead that he had “pulled him out, because I did not like what he said to my pastors and other supporters.” In 2020, Chronister oversaw the arrest of a pastor for violating quarantine orders to hold services — an oft-cited example of his liberal tendencies from conservative critics.

In a statement to POLITICO, incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung said “President Trump has nominated high-caliber and extremely qualified individuals to serve the American people, who gave him a historic mandate to Make America Great Again.”