Presented by BP.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Playbook co-author Rachel Bade. It's Tuesday, November 19th, and here's what's driving the day.

When it comes to Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, the company line in the Senate Republican conference is this.

The incoming president deserves deference to confirm his own people.

And they say they'll keep an open mind for his selections. But behind the scenes, Senate Republicans

are delivering a starkly different message to Donald Trump when it comes to one particular

nominee. You guessed it, Matt Gates. Numerous Senate Republicans have indicated to Trump and his team that Gates has little shot of being confirmed.

That's according to multiple Senate Republican and Trump world sources that I spoke to yesterday.

And right now, they're just hoping Trump doesn't make them walk the plank.

Senate Republicans are worried about getting tarnished by this process, knowing how

toxic Gates is. Those up for re-election in 2026 fear that if they oppose his nomination, they could

face a primary challenge from the MAGA base. But if they back him, they could be kissing their

sweet seats goodbye in a general election. But it's not just the politically vulnerable who are fretting.

There's a fear that Trump is going to waste precious political capital trying to push gates

through when the chamber could be working on an agenda or other nominations. And that's not to

mention the explosive hearings they expect that they're going to need to do to advance gates.

Those, they say, will be a distraction

from, say, scaling back Joe Biden's regulations or Republicans cracking down on the border.

The message we're told has been delivered to the president-elect himself, his chief of staff,

Susie Wiles, Gates' unofficial Sherpa of sorts, senator-turned vice president-elect J.D. Vance,

and it appears to at least

partially be sinking in. Trump has indicated that he thinks Gates has less than even odds of being

...