What Americans think about Hegseth, Gabbard and key Trump Cabinet picks:
AP-NORC poll
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 [December 13, 2024]
By LINLEY SANDERS and MEG KINNARD
WASHINGTON (AP) — As several of President-elect Donald Trump’s choices
for high-level positions in his incoming administration face scrutiny on
Capitol Hill, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research shows that Americans have their own doubts.
Relatively few Americans overall approve of Pete Hegseth, Trump's choice
to lead the Department of Defense, or Tulsi Gabbard, his pick for
intelligence chief, although a substantial share doesn’t know who those
figures are. The other selections who were included in the poll, Robert
F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary and Marco Rubio for secretary of
state, are more well-known but not much more popular among Americans
overall.
Trump and his allies are pushing Republican senators to confirm his
picks, who are meeting with lawmakers before Trump returns to the White
House next month. Given the Republicans' slim majority in the Senate,
the stakes are high for each Trump pick.
Only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of Hegseth's nomination
An Army veteran and former Fox News commentator, Hegseth has been trying
to make his case amid allegations of excessive drinking and the
revelation that he made a settlement payment after being accused of a
sexual assault that he denies. Trump has reiterated his support for
Hegseth, who appears to have won over some of the senators who were once
critical of his selection.
Hegseth is still an unknown quantity for many Americans. About 4 in 10
don't know enough about him to give an opinion, according to the poll.
But his selection is viewed more negatively than positively among
Americans who do know who he is. About 2 in 10 U.S. adults approve of
Hegseth being picked for Trump's Cabinet, while 36% disapprove and about
1 in 10 don't know enough to have an opinion.
He has higher support among Republicans, but it's not overwhelming. Many
Republicans do not have an opinion of Hegseth: About 4 in 10 say they
don’t know enough about him. About one-third of Republicans approve of
him as a pick, and 16% disapprove. Another 1 in 10 Republicans, roughly,
are neutral and say they neither approve nor disapprove.
Those approval numbers among Republicans are at least slightly lower for
Hegseth than any of the other names included in the poll.
Approval of Gabbard's nomination is also low
Gabbard, who represented Hawaii in the House for four terms as a
Democrat, sought the 2020 presidential nomination before leaving her
party. She was one of Trump's most sought-after surrogates in the 2024
campaign. Gabbard has faced new questions about her proximity to Syria
amid the sudden end of Syrian President Bashar Assad's long hold on
power.
Gabbard is as unknown as Hegseth is, but Americans are a little less
likely to disapprove of her nomination. About 2 in 10 Americans approve
of Trump's pick of Gabbard, while about 3 in 10 disapprove. The rest
either do not know enough to say — about 4 in 10 said this — or have a
neutral view.
Approval is slightly higher among Republicans than Hegseth's, though.
About 4 in 10 Republicans approve of the choice, while very few
disapprove and 16% have a neutral view. Similar to Americans overall,
about 4 in 10 Republicans don't know enough to say.
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Tulsi Gabbard arrives to speak before Republican presidential
nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Lititz,
Pa., Nov. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is better known — and less well-liked
A scion of a famous Democratic dynasty, Kennedy made a name in his
own right as an environmental attorney who successfully took on
large corporations. In recent decades, he has increasingly devoted
his energy to promoting claims about vaccines that contradict the
overwhelming consensus of scientists. Trump has said he would give
Kennedy free rein over health policy — from drug, vaccine and food
safety to medical research and the social safety net programs
Medicare and Medicaid.
Only 14% of Americans say they don't know enough to have an opinion
about Trump's move to name Kennedy, but that greater name
recognition doesn't translate into warmer feelings. About 4 in 10
Americans disapprove of Trump's selection of Kennedy, while about 3
in 10 approve and 14% are neutral.
Once a contender for the Democratic presidential primary, Kennedy
has become something of a GOP darling, with a strong majority of
Republicans approving of him joining the Trump administration. About
6 in 10 Republicans approve, and only about 1 in 10 disapprove.
About 2 in 10 are neutral, and about 1 in 10 don’t know enough about
him to say.
Americans split on Marco Rubio
In his third Senate term from Florida, Rubio has gone from a Trump
rival for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination to one of his
staunchest congressional allies. Rubio is seen as having the
incoming president's ear on foreign policy issues, particularly
related to Latin America.
Americans are divided about Rubio being elevated to a key Cabinet
role: About 3 in 10 approve, and a similar share disapprove, while
about 2 in 10 don't know enough to say and 15% neither approve nor
disapprove.
Most Republicans, nearly 6 in 10, approve, making his selection
nearly as popular with this group as Kennedy's. Only about 1 in 10
Republicans disapprove, while 14% are neutral and about 2 in 10
don't know enough to say.
Rubio, who is Cuban American, earns higher approval among Hispanic
adults than some of Trump’s other high-profile choices, but more
still disapprove than approve.
___
The poll of 1,251 adults was conducted Dec. 5-9, 2024, using a
sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which
is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin
of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.7 percentage
points.
___
Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina.
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