60 Minutes Australia has an interview with Swan and Habermann the authors of the book Regime Change about Trump.
In the interview they talk about how Trump uses bullying and fear to run the party and they use Ernst as an example. Trump wanted to get Gaetz in as AG to see how far Congress would let him go, they fought back so when he got to Hegseth he was insistent to his people I won't take no for an answer no matter what.
Ernst was a rape victim and she expressed massive concerns about Hegseth because of his own alleged history of sexual malfeasance and she made it clear she wasn't going to vote for him. And then suddenly she started getting threats, and then someone started leaking confidntial information from her divorce settlement that only the lawyers and her ex husband had access to. And she then got more threats that made it clear they would doxx her, put her address in public. If you don't vote to confirm Hegseth we will destroy your career and your life. Publicly we were told it was Trump threatening to primary her and Elon promising to pay for it but in reality she voted to confirm Hegseth because she was afraid for her life, it was clear to her that Trump and his circle would not hesitate to put her life in danger.