•Senate hurdle: Gaetz, RFK Jr. and other Cabinet picks will be subject to Senate approval, setting up the potential for a provocative confirmation process.
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Supreme Court Justice tears into regulations but avoids discussing Trump at annual gathering
From CNN's John Fritze
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch ripped into government regulations at the conservative Federalist Society on Thursday, even as he avoided discussing an incoming Trump administration that has vowed to unwind the “administrative state.”
Riffing on a theme he raised earlier this year in a new book, Gorsuch said there were far too many instances of ordinary Americans getting hammered by government regulations. Gorsuch noted that he had recently learned of one such case that caught his attention.
“Yes, I’m speaking of Peanut the Squirrel,” Gorsuch said, referring to the story of a New York man who took in a squirrel that became a social media sensation and was later euthanized. The room erupted into laugher.
Gorsuch was joined on stage by Justice Stephen Breyer, a liberal who retired from the Supreme Court in 2022. Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, both of whom were also nominated by Trump, attended but did not speak.
The two jurists addressed the convention of more than 1,000 lawyers at an uncertain moment for the conservative legal movement, with many establishment figures associated with the Federalist Society unsure of their place in the incoming Trump administration. While much of the society’s membership may ultimately agree with Trump on the outcome of certain legal controversies, it’s not yet clear the two will align on tactics or approach.
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Gaetz, who would oversee US prisons as attorney general, thinks El Salvador’s hardline lockups are a model
From CNN's David Culver and Rachel Clarke
Matt Gaetz stands in a sector of Cecot, flanked on either side by group cells containing prisoners that the El Salvador authorities call "the worst of the worst."
Courtesy Damian Merlo
Donald Trump has picked Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general – a role that would oversee the Federal Bureau of Prisons if his appointment gets approved by the Senate.
Gaetz has visited El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), where gang leaders and murderers are locked up — and from which they are never released.
“There’s a lot more discipline in this prison than we see in a lot of the prisons in the United States,” said Gaetz, who was then a congressman during the visit.
And he’s a fan of the hardline rule of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who is often berated by human rights groups for flouting norms but largely credited inside his country for returning safety to the streets.
Bukele is well aware of the emotions he stirs — both positive and negative — and has dubbed himself the “world’s coolest dictator.”
Trump has at times both praised and denounced Bukele — when he was in the White House he lauded cooperation with El Salvador’s then-new leader, but he turned critic once he was out of power and focused on immigration, saying Bukele was sending criminals to the US
But Gaetz told Time Magazine he considered Bukele a “kindred spirit,” and the pair greeted each other warmly as Gaetz led other congressmen into Bukele’s office during the July visit.
