Confirmed in the Dark: How Over 100 Trump Appointees Slipped Into Power Without a Fight
No hearings. No oversight. Just 107 confirmations and a new rule that changed everything.
As Washington braced for a government shutdown, and the fight over the Epstein files ground into another week of chaos and leaks, something quietly and profoundly dangerous happened in the U.S. Senate.
On October 2, while the public was fixated elsewhere, the Senate confirmed 107 of President Trump’s nominees, all in a single, party-line vote.
There were no hearings. No public vetting. No transparency. Just one vote—done quickly, quietly, and with devastating consequences.
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A Rule Change with a Purpose
This didn’t happen in a vacuum.
A few weeks earlier, Senate Republicans rewrote the rules to allow non-Cabinet, non-judicial executive nominees to be confirmed in bulk. It was a modern-day version of the “nuclear option”—a change that eliminated the need for individual debate, committee hearings, or even basic ethical scrutiny. Just a simple majority would do.
And with that new tool in hand, they moved fast.
On October 2, with a 51–47 vote—every Democrat opposed—they installed more than one hundred Trump appointees into the federal government.
This wasn’t about efficiency. It was about evasion — of oversight, of accountability, and of the democratic process.
In the months leading up to this mass confirmation, Senate Democrats repeatedly pushed for hearings, ethics disclosures, and proper vetting. But with Republicans holding the majority, those efforts were consistently blocked or delayed. Committee chairs refused to schedule hearings. Nominees sat in limbo until the rules were changed and the whole list was rammed through in one vote. This wasn’t a rushed response to a backlog. It was a calculated blockade designed to prevent scrutiny.
The Faces We Don’t See
Who are these people?
That’s the problem. We don’t know. We were never meant to.
There was no opportunity for journalists to investigate them, no public forums where they could be questioned, and no ethics disclosures or qualifications made transparent. They entered power through a side door, unseen, while the public was looking elsewhere.
But even in the few cases where names have emerged, the implications are troubling.
At NOAA, for example, Neil Jacobs has returned, an appointee known for downplaying the severity of climate change during his previous stint. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission now includes Brittany Panuccio, whose confirmation restores a Republican majority, and with it, the power to stall or undo civil rights enforcement. And at FERC, David LaCerte now holds a vote over which energy projects, including pipelines, refineries, and infrastructure, get approved or denied.
These aren’t minor roles. They’re strategic positions at the heart of the government’s regulatory and oversight machinery. And now they’re in the hands of people we weren’t allowed to scrutinize.
Diplomacy Without Credentials
For many readers, the first sign that something strange had happened came not from an obscure agency appointment, but from the headline: “Herschel Walker Confirmed as Ambassador to Bermuda.”
Walker’s appointment made waves for good reason. As we recently reported, he has no relevant experience in diplomacy, law, or regional affairs. His confirmation raised the obvious question: How many more of these appointees were chosen for loyalty over legitimacy?
See our reporting on Walker here:
The answer: quite a few.
Among the 107 nominees confirmed on October 2 were more than a dozen ambassadors, many of whom were assigned to strategically important countries. And like Walker, several appear to have been selected less for their expertise than for their proximity to Trumpworld, or their ability to serve quietly and loyally.
Take Sergio Gor, now the U.S. Ambassador to India. Gor is a former communications aide and longtime Trump campaign surrogate with no diplomatic background. He’s also the publisher of a far-right propaganda outlet and a key figure in right-wing donor circles. Now he’s America’s top diplomat in a country with one of the most delicate, complex relationships in U.S. foreign policy.
Or Leandro Rizzuto, now representing the U.S. at the Organization of American States. Rizzuto’s previous ambassadorial nomination during Trump’s first term was rejected due to extremist social media posts, including conspiracy theories about Democrats and COVID-19. Under the new rules, he was confirmed without a single question asked.
There’s Brandon Judd, a staunch immigration hardliner, now Ambassador to Chile. Kenneth Howery, a PayPal co-founder and Trump megadonor, now heading to Denmark. Melinda Hildebrand, heiress to a Texas oil fortune, is going to Costa Rica. Stacey Feinberg, a film producer, is now representing the U.S. in Luxembourg.
None was subject to the traditional scrutiny of diplomatic appointees. These individuals now speak for the United States abroad, and we, the American people, were never given the chance to ask them why they should.
Designed to Be Forgotten
The genius of this maneuver isn’t in how loudly it flexes power, but in how quietly it hides it.
These aren’t headline-grabbing Cabinet posts. Most Americans won’t know these names. And yet, these appointees are the ones who decide whether civil rights laws get enforced, whether environmental protections are upheld, and whether government agencies even bother to investigate corruption or abuse.
They control the gates, and now the gates are locked from the inside.
It would take months of full-time investigative work to dig into all 107. That’s likely the point. By the time anyone connects the dots, they’ll already be making decisions, shaping policy, and insulating themselves from removal.
This Is How It Happens
You don’t need to tear down democracy in one dramatic gesture. Sometimes, all it takes is a procedural vote on a Thursday afternoon.
One vote to fill a hundred seats. One rule change to shut the public out. One distracted news cycle to make it all seem like just another day in Washington.
But this wasn’t normal. It was a coordinated, deliberate restructuring of power executed in the dark, and aimed not at improving government, but at capturing it.
We were told, years ago, that the swamp would be drained. Instead, it’s been flooded again, but this time, with operatives who don’t hold press conferences or campaign rallies. They sit quietly, deep inside the system, doing work the public doesn’t see. And that’s exactly how power consolidates—not with a bang, but with silence.
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Sources:
Senate confirms Herschel Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas — The Washington Post
Senate confirmation of Trump nominee cements his shake‑up of top civil rights agency — AP News
Senate Confirms 107 Trump Nominees After Battle Over Backlog — Bloomberg Government
Sergio Gor confirmed as US envoy to India — Hindustan Times
Divided Senate confirms 107 Trump nominees — UPI
As Senate goes ‘nuclear,’ dozens of Trump nominees are confirmed — Reuters
Senate confirms 48 of Trump’s nominees at once after changing the chamber’s rules — AP News
‘Unqualified to be US Ambassador to India’: Ex‑US NSA slams Sergio Gor nomination — The Times of India
List of ambassadors appointed in the second Trump presidency— Wikipedia
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Judges should be not lifetime appointments.. Very unlikely to happen under current system that requires passing house and senate and 2/3rd states to get a constitution amendment to eliminate this abuse. The system is gamed and there seems no reasonable way to make it fair.
The same mechanism that allowed the Republican Senators to make that happen can END the shutdown the SAME way!
Not that we the people would like that…but THEY truly have all the power.