Billionaire businessman and Cantor Fitzgerald head Howard Lutnick — who’s reportedly a top contender for secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury in Donald Trump’s Cabinet — “caused a huge uproar” in the former president’s “orbit” — and led to Trumps’ decision to appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Department of Health and Human Services secretary, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reports.
Collins interviewed Lutnick 10 days before the election, and the billionaire businessman “unequivocally said RFK Jr. would not be getting a Cabinet position” in Trump’s administration.
“That is kind of maybe what led to today,” Collins said Thursday on CNN. “It caused a huge uproar internally in Trump’s orbit.”
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“People were so upset that 10 days before the election he was bluntly saying it and they thought it was too early,” Colins explained. “RFK Jr. was upset. He and Trump had discussions — Trump has said that he would let him ‘go crazy’ on health policy.”
“It was pretty clear the writing was on the wall that RFK Jr. was likely to get something,” Collins continued. “They talked about a health czar role. But this is another instance of Trump basically daring the Senate to say, ‘Block my nominee. Tell me I’m not going to do this.’ He has put up pick after pick that has caused a lot of skeptical Republicans to say, ‘Let’s wait and see how the confirmation hearings go.’”
Collins dismissed suggestions that Trump is floating these nominees as a trial balloon to help usher in a spate of less controversial picks.
“They fully expect all of these picks to get confirmed,” Collins said. “They are not putting these up as a false flag to then put someone less controversial up. They fully believe these people should be confirmed — and very well might.”
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