In the nine days since his victory in the 2024 US presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump made appointments to certain key positions in his administration.

With President-elect Trump’s Republican Party holding majorities in the Senate, House and Supreme Court, many are wondering whether or not the nominations are likely to face any pushback.

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KPRC 2’s Bill Spencer And Lisa Hernandez spoke with David Froomkin, a law professor at the University of Houston.

Lisa Hernández, CPRP 2: President-elect Trump has announced his nominees. We just learned that RFK Jr. was actually chosen to lead Health and Human Services. Matt Gaetz has been appointed attorney general.

We know that he was involved in a sex trafficking investigation by Donald Trump’s Justice Department and that he was the subject of scrutiny by the House Ethics Committee for alleged sexual misconduct. It should be noted that he has denied all claims. What we’re hearing about the possibility of recess appointments, which would bypass Senate hearings and a confirmation vote, can that happen? And do you think the new majority leader will allow that?

David Froomkin, University of Houston: Of course, usually all Cabinet nominations require Senate confirmation. Under the Constitution, the president can only make recess appointments without Senate confirmation when the Senate is actually in recess. The Supreme Court has made it clear that the Senate has the authority to decide when it is in recess. So the question is whether the Senate will grant Trump’s request, which would be truly shocking — essentially, for the Senate to preemptively abandon its most important constitutional function of confirming Cabinet nominees. But we’ll have to see.

I think the more important question to ask is why Trump might want to avoid the confirmation process? I think there are basically three possible reasons. First, nominees might be too extremist or too off-putting to be confirmed by the Senate; second, he may want to avoid public scrutiny, especially if a candidate has skeletons in his closet; or three, Trump said he wanted to be a “dictator” and just didn’t like the idea of ​​his power being checked.

Bill Spencer, CPRP 2: Donald Trump also tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a brand new department: the Department of Government Effectiveness, supposed to reduce government waste. Can the president unilaterally create a new department like that?

David Froomkin, University of Houston: Absolutely not. According to the Constitution, the president does not have the unilateral authority to create an executive department. Departments can only be created by law, that is, by Congress. The president can only unilaterally create an office within the White House, which would only have an advisory function. So, if Trump attempted to give the new office powers beyond a strictly advisory role, it would be flouting the law and the Constitution.

Bill Spencer, CPRP 2: Given Elon Musk’s existing government contracts, would Elon Musk’s role pose a conflict of interest if appointed to the administration?

David Froomkin, University of Houston: If the office actually plays a purely advisory role, then I think the conflict doesn’t really matter: everyone has the right to express their opinion. On the other hand, if the process is designed to empower in a way that circumvents Senate confirmation and disclosures, that would be very concerning.

Lisa Hernandez, CPRP 2: Trump promised mass deportations. Stephen Miller, his top immigration adviser, said that in 2025 we could even see denaturalization of those who have been naturalized. Is this even a legally valid argument to make?

David Froomkin, University of Houston: I don’t think there is any legal basis for this. On the one hand, the Constitution guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States. So, to the extent that we are instead talking about naturalized people, then we are dealing with federal immigration law, which only allows denaturalization in very rare circumstances. It is also important to note that mass denaturalization would constitute a flagrant violation of international human rights law.

But I think the problem we are looking at is not limited to that. Trump said he planned to use the military to round up and deport immigrants in the United States. But the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law, prohibits members of the military from participating in domestic law enforcement activities. So I fear that we are entering a new era in which government officials will increasingly disobey the law.

Watch the full interview in the video above.