Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida during a September 2023 hearing in Washington, D.C. Gaetz is president-elect Donald. J. Trump's selection to become attorney general.

Former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, shown at a Nov. 3 rally in Pennsylvania, is President-elect Donald J. Trump's pick to become the director of national intelligence.

Pete Hegseth, a Fox News Channel host, is President-elect Donald J. Trump's pick to become defense secretary.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., shown earlier this month at a rally in Michigan, is President-elect Donald J. Trump's pick to become secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services.

As was the case eight years ago, President-elect Donald J. Trump is empowered to nominate members of his incoming Cabinet as he sees fit. And even the least-informed voters cast their ballots with a fairly good sense of the sort of people he was likely to favor for those key positions: Unconventional loyalists who were willing to execute his agenda would be favored over more mainstream picks with traditional public-service resumes.

But just as Article II of the U.S. Constitution enables the executive to put forth their preferred candidates, it expects the U.S. Senate to advise and consent to these selections. This process was a compromise that replaced an initial proposal in which the president would have been granted the exclusive power to appoint executive officers and the Senate would have the power to appoint federal judges. While this nation has surely seen its fair share of ill-suited or outright corrupt individuals working the gears and levers of executive and judicial power, this system of vetting has served us fairly well.

While several of Mr. Trump’s........

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