• Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state. By Trump standards, Rubio is massively overqualified, being an actual senator who has served on the foreign relations committee. He is, however, reportedly quite lazy —he had a 2.1 GPA in high school—and famously said, during the 2016 Republican primary, that Trump has a small penis.

The investigation into Gaetz stemmed from a probe into the Florida congressman’s one-time friend, former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, who was sentenced in 2022 to 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including sex trafficking a minor and introducing the minor to other “adult men.”

GOP Whip John Thune of South Dakota was elected by the Senate Republican Conference to succeed Mitch McConnell as leader in a secret election.

In an interview with POLITICO Magazine, Liam Donovan, a former GOP political operative and lobbyist who’s a close observer of Capitol Hill, laid out the political landmines facing the candidates to be the next Senate majority leader and the sway that Trump holds — or doesn’t hold — in the contest.

U.S. Senator John Thune (R-SD) walks on Capitol Hill on the day U.S. Senate Republicans meet to vote on leadership positions, including Senate Majority (Republican) Leader, for the 119th Congress in Washington,

President-elect Donald Trump congratulated Sen. John Thune on winning election to the role of Senate majority leader, declaring that the lawmaker "will do an outstanding job."

The South Dakota senator prevailed over John Cornyn and Trump ally Rick Scott in the vote Wednesday.