When Donald Trump laid out his cabinet choices last week, the strategy consigliere Steve Bannon described during the newly elected president’s first term naturally came to mind: ‘Flood the area with s….’ Overwhelm the media, the public, and political opponents, including fellow Republicans, so completely that they can’t process it all, and some nonsense comes along.
That could well be the case for the incoming cabinet. Bipartisan alarm greeted the news that former Reps. Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard, Fox News provocateur Pete Hegseth and anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump’s selections are to lead the nation’s law enforcement, intelligence, defense and health care programs, respectively. In normal times, they would all probably be disqualified, given the damning details in their bios. Yet Trump is flooding the zone.
However, during the flood, let us not lose sight of where the outrage belongs: about the man who chose them.
That Trump would choose such candidates for essential roles confirms his poor judgment and his own unfitness for office. But the fact that these nominees were among his first choices underlines something else: his priority as president is indeed retaliation.
Trump could have first nominated people to run the Treasury Department and other agencies responsible for the issue that probably elected him more than any other: the economy. But no. Trump’s main goal is revenge against the institutions he baselessly believes wronged him when he previously held office.
The Justice Department, for investigating his 2016 campaign’s complicity with Russia, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and sweeping government secrets, and for his former appointees’ refusal to be complicit in his plot of 2020 to retain power. Intelligence services because they discovered that Russia tried to get him elected in 2016. The Department of Defense, because its civilian and military leaders resisted are calls to shoot demonstrators in 2020 and to help him undermine the 2020 election. And last but not least, the Department of Health and Human Services, for putting science and public health ahead of its 2020 re-election politics and rejecting its crazy tricks during the pandemic.
In condemn Trump’s pick for attorney general, the Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board called Gaetz “an artist and provocateur” and “a candidate for those who want the law to be used for political revenge.”
My, who could that be? Just say it: Trump.
From Trump’s perspective, who would be better positioned to turn the DOJ into Trump LLC than the Florida Man? For Gaetz, being attorney general would be a double retribution, as the Justice Department has also long investigated him, including for alleged sex trafficking and sex with a minor, and reportedly declined to charge him only because of witness credibility issues. (The House Ethics Committee subsequently reopened its own committee broad research of Gaetz, which he short-circuited last week by resigning from Congress.)
Approving as an advisor to Trump told the Bulwark last week, other AG wannabes talked about the law and the constitution, but Gaetz was the only one who said he would cut spending”[expletive] heads.”
Then there are the other avengers Trump has in mind.
For director of national intelligence, he wants Gabbard, the former Democratic House member turned MAGA warrior best known as an apologist for dictators Vladimir Putin of Russia and Bashar Assad of Syria (but that includes Trump). She is called ‘our friend Tulsi’ and is a Russian agent on state-controlled Russian television.
Gabbard, an opponent of US aid to Ukraine (again like Trump), posted a video that prompted Senator Mitt Romney accuse her of “reenacting false Russian propaganda” and of anger: “Her treacherous lies could cost lives.” She is called for leniency towards intelligence leakers Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.
Hegseth’s qualifications to lead the Pentagon are limited to his experience as an Army National Guard veteran of the Afghanistan conflict and his loyalty to Trump. His long record of on-air provocations includes support for alleged American war criminals and opposition to women in the military. “I would ask him, ‘Where do you think I lost my legs? In a bar fight?’ ” said Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, an Iraq war veteran. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, she could get an opportunity – as there is a confirmation hearing.
It is easy to believe that Hegseth would not hesitate to order the military to fire on protesters if Trump so desired, and it is unlikely that he would have any qualms about firing the military officers on a list that Trump’s transition team has established. reportedly is putting together, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown, a Biden appointee. Hegseth once suggested Brown got the job because he is a black man. A complication for Hegseth: reports of an alleged sexual assault in Monterey, California, in 2017, which he has denied.
And who better “go wild” on food and drug policy, in the words of Trump, than Kennedy, who has said, “There is no vaccine that is safe and effective.” As secretary of Health and Human Services, Kennedy would have jurisdiction over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which Trump came to view as his nemesis during the pandemic, and the Food and Drug Administration. Kennedy tweeted in October that people at the FDA “1. Save your details and 2. Pack your bags.’
The widely loathed Gaetz is most likely to fail, either rejected next year in a new Republican-controlled Senate or forced to withdraw beforehand amid the public backlash. That’s not certain, considering the Republicans sycophancy and Trump’s stubbornness.
Given the quality of such nominees, it is no wonder that Trump after the election demanded that Republican Senators lose their Constitution “advice and consent” power.
If they don’t, and the Senate effectively damns its avengers, Trump will only incur further retaliation: on them. After all, this is what they voted for.
@jackiekcalmes
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
