One of Donald Trump's most controversial cabinet picks will try to win over the Senate next week when confirmation hearings begin.

For the national security nominees, their hearings come in an awkward moment,

just as Trump is threatening allies and friends from Denmark to Panama, giving new meaning to the term America first.

Next.

This is Washington Week with the Atlantic.

Good evening and welcome to Washington Week.

Next week's going to be a busy one when Senate confirmation hearings

or signed with Donald Trump's cabinet picks begin.

But the biggest news this week are the wildfires in Southern California.

Joining me at the table to discuss all of this, Laura Barone Lopez, the White House correspondent

for PBS News Hour. Carl Hulse is the chief Washington correspondent at the New York Times.

Tom Nichols is my colleague and a staff writer at the Atlantic, and Vivian Salama is a national politics reporter

at the Wall Street Journal.

Thank you all for being here.

I want to talk a little bit about the terrible, terrible fires

in Los Angeles and around Los Angeles.

And I want to talk about it in the context

of Washington politics and national politics for a moment.

So in ordinary times, a president or a president-elect will show support for local leadership while they're dealing with an actual emergency in the hour of need, as it were.

But this is what President-elect Trump wrote recently on Truth Social, his platform.

As of this moment, Gavin Newscum and his Los Angeles crew have contained exactly 0% of the fire.

It is burning at levels that even surpassed last night. This is not government. I can't wait till January 20th. Put aside, if we can,

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