Sunday Issues-November 17, 2024
Bizarre nominations. What will the Senate do?
I wish I could say you could see it coming—see Donald Trump nominate people so unqualified for Cabinet service to prompt questions about whether the president-elect is planning to implode the deep state by driving out career public servants and turning agencies into laughing stocks. Can you think of a better way to destroy “the deep state?”
Too much has already been written about Matt Gaetz, Trump’s choice to head the Department of Justice. Pundits now doubt Gaetz will be confirmed and have shifted their analyses from who Gaetz is to why Trump nominated him. We have learned that Trump has declined to use the FBI to conduct background checks. A non-government firm vetted Matt Gaetz, but it is unclear whether Trump even looked at their report, if one was delivered, before choosing Gaetz during an airplane flight.
The only way Gaetz will be confirmed is if the Senate acquiesces to Trump’s request that the Senate adjourn for 10 days at the start of his administration to allow Gaetz and other controversial personnel to be put in office without Senate hearings or a vote. The recess appointments would enable the officials to remain in office through the end of the 119th Congress.
Allowing Trump to bypass the Senate confirmation process undermines the system of checks and balances established in the Constitution. Still, if new Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) caves into Trump, more will be lost. The Senate will be viewed as nothing more than a rubber stamp for Trump and lose public credibility. With the Senate looking like a weak, spineless entity, Trump will push his most radical proposals through the Senate with little opposition.
While a pathetic, laughable Senate may result from Trump’s electoral win, the House of Representatives will be worse. The razor-thin majority and Mike Johnson as speaker will encourage Trump to use the House in the same way he did for the last two years—as a thorn in the side of Democrats. The abusive hearings and spurious investigations of the previous two years will continue. Could we see the House attempt to impeach Former President Biden? Probably not, but I bet someone in the Republican party has suggested it.
A dysfunctional Department of Justice prioritizing “retribution” and likely directed to seek indictment of Joe Biden for his business dealings with Hunter Biden will leave a void in the administration of justice. Not only will work on civil rights, environmental justice, anti-trust, and other critical areas of law stop during the Trump administration, but the repurposing of the Department of Justice will drive career attorneys out of the Department. The Department will be gutted. It could take decades to rebuild it once Republicans are voted out.
Everything to fear about Gaetz as AG pales compared to Pete Hegseth heading the Department of Defense. Hegseth’s issues have been well documented. Late last week, we learned he was investigated for sexual assault but not charged. The Washington Post reports that Hegseth paid the accuser but denies the assault.
We also have learned that he was considered an “insider threat” and excused from duties during President Biden’s 2021 Inauguration.
Hegseth has joined Gaetz on the list of appointments unlikely to receive Senate approval. Another appointment, Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, is now being scrutinized. The former Hawaii Congressman, a Democrat turned Republican, has been described as “likely a Russian asset” by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL).
Why did Trump make the appointments?
Any hope that a second Trump administration would be less chaotic and more mature than the first has disappeared. The bizarre Trump appointments prove that birds of a feather fly together. Trump did not nominate Gaetz, Gabbard, and Hegseth to give the government a one-finger salute; he did it because these (and other) nominees are like himself. They believe in conspiracy theories, disdain science and data, are reckless, and lack empathy.
It is safe to assume that before announcing these cabinet choices, Trump did not consider the difficulty of securing approval or what their approval, if it occurs, would mean to the national security of the U.S. or the rule of law. That is why it can be said that Trump has not made the worst personnel choices this year. The American people did. In voting for Trump and his clownish VP-elect, Vance, the American people made a choice that makes Trump’s choice of Matt Gaetz look brilliant.
Let’s hope the American people don’t reap what they sowed.
Trump fundamentally misunderstands the structure of government. The operations of the Federal government are carried out by a few million federal employees working in departments and agencies under the direction of laws passed by Congress and funding appropriated by Congress. Putting skilled, experienced and knowledgeable people into hundreds of significant and key positions is what allows an Administration to move forward in a manner consistent with a President's policy preferences. The President and others on the 14 acres of the White House do not run things nearly as much as Trump and his people think. The power to appoint is extraordinarily important and determines success and failure. So far, failure seems a more likely outcome.
Gene Kranz offered a memoir of his life during the early days of NASA: "Failure is Not an Option."
I fear Trump's only option is complete failure for the American public. His primary concerns are revenge against those who took action against him for the lunacy of his first term, power and enriching himself and a select few others.
I'm not sure if the Senate has the courage to stand up to the orange menace. I know the House will follow Trump's lead, with Johnson licking his master's boots every step of the way.