In nominating Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Pete Hegseth to helm the Pentagon, President-elect Donald Trump has picked two pugnacious candidates with a mandate to gut and transform the institutions they would take over.

And for them, it's personal.

Like many of the president-elect's picks, Gaetz, 42, and Hegseth, 44, are Trump loyalists who lack the experience typically expected for such high-level roles.