Friday Insights-November 15, 2024
Secretary of Education Lauren Boebert?
Donald Trump is having a lot of fun in Mar-a-Lago. Since election day, he has shocked America with unexpected and often gasp-inducing nominations for his cabinet and political appointments. Trump missed being the center of attention, but he’s making up for lost time.
Since his November 5 win, Trump has also proven two things: that he is not over his anger at being indicted for crimes associated with the January 6, 2021, insurrection and how little he cares about America’s future. We are learning that the often-scary rhetoric heard at Trump rallies for the last two years wasn’t just the ravings of a declining 78-year-old but that Trump was serious—at least as serious as Trump can be.
During the campaign, Trump often railed against the “Department of Injustice” that was pursuing “Lawfare” against him and promised “retribution,” not only for himself but on behalf of the MAGA movement. The latter claim was a response to the perception that Trump was running for president so he could pardon himself for his crimes and kill pending indictments.
Since winning the election, Trump’s strategy objectives have gone beyond setting the stage for pardoning himself. He is undertaking a full-scale takeover of the Department of Justice, starting with the nomination of now-former Representative Matt Gaetz as Attorney General and continuing with the naming of Jay Clayton as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general.
The nomination of Gaetz shocked everyone, especially Gaetz’s Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives, most of whom hate him and some of whom saw him take drugs and share pornographic images with colleagues on the House Floor. Gaetz was seen as a clown. Many expected him to leave the House after the House Ethics Committee report was released. The report, rumored to confirm serious allegations against Gaetz, could have led to his expulsion from the House. To avoid that embarrassment, Gaetz quickly resigned from the House, expecting that the report would never be released once he was no longer a member.
Why did Trump nominate Gaetz? First, dozens of experienced, dedicated DOJ employees will leave the Department in anticipation of Trump converting the Department into his own law firm. This will happen even if the Gaetz nomination is defeated or withdrawn. Second, Trump wants to force the Senate to confirm Gaetz via recess appointment to emasculate the Senate. Because the nomination would likely be defeated if subjected to a vote, Trump wants the Senate to abdicate its Constitutional responsibility. If the Senate acquiesces to Trump’s demand, it will only encourage Trump on other nominees and policies.
It is not too much to compare what Trump is doing with the nominations of Gaetz, Hegseth at Defense, Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, and RFK, Jr., to Caligula planning to appoint a horse to the Roman Senate.
What about Trump’s other bizarre appointments, especially Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense?
The Department of Defense has over 2.9 million employees and an annual budget of over $840 billion. Hegseth is unqualified to run the department and lacks relevant executive and military experience. It is laughable that Trump's announcement of the appointment highlighted Hegseth’s service in the Army National Guard.
Hegseth has promised to fire generals because of their “wokeness,” but Trump’s real agenda may be to undermine the military's independence from partisan politics. Trump never recovered from General Mark Milley telephoning his Chinese counterpart to offer assurances that Trump was not about to attack China. Trump was humiliated and considered that call treasonous.
Unfortunately, Trump’s real motivation in nominating an incompetent loyalist to the Department is to undermine or kill the military’s independence from him. Under Hegseth and a new slate of Trump-appointed generals replacing existing leadership, Trump will be able to use the military to crush opposition to his policies and assist in his mass deportation of undocumented migrants.
RFK, Jr.
Like Hegseth, RFK, Jr. is unqualified to serve as Secretary of the massive Department of Health and Human Services. Why did Trump appoint him as Secretary rather than give him a White House staff job titled “Health Czar?” One theory is that Trump promised RFK, Jr. the job in exchange for ending his campaign. When Kennedy quit his quixotic independent candidacy and endorsed Trump, “never Harris” voters supporting him followed suit. Those votes helped cement Trump’s win.
Trump embarrassed himself and wreaked havoc for over a year with his mismanagement of the pandemic. Should another pandemic occur during Trump’s second term, Doctor Fauci will not contradict Trump’s policies.
Other nominations.
More Trump nominations are being made daily. More “big ones” are coming. The nomination of Gaetz for any position of responsibility was once inconceivable. Should we be on stand-by for Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), to be nominated to head the Department of Education (which Trump plans to terminate)? Boebert has a GED and might set the Department of Education headquarters on fire for Trump if asked.
Bottom line.
The Trump administration, part deux, will be different from the first. We are in for a period of radical proposals that seek to permanently reshape the government by eliminating the “deep state.” Major protests against Trump policies are likely, perhaps on or even before Inauguration Day. If Trump uses the military to respond to these protests, our worst fears about Trump wanting to be a dictator will have been realized.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading Friday Insights. I'd welcome hearing your choice for Trump’s worst nomination to date. Please leave it as a comment.