The president’s cabinet provides Americans with their best view of how the next chief executive will govern. In normal times, presidents would use their appointing powers to balance competing policy interests, appease rebellious members of their own party, and even extend an olive branch to the opposition.
The Trump administration is not like that. Trump’s latest slate of candidates, filled with the ego of winning the polls and partisan right-wing media shaping their own reality, is nothing more than a sledgehammer to the federal government.
It’s also a sinister loyalty test designed to preemptively root out any remaining Republican opponents.
Trump’s nomination reads like self-parody. Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth is best known for his sidekick role on “Fox & Friends Weekend.” Pays back money to woman who claims he sexually assaulted herHe could become America’s next Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has no senior military command experience and rationalize war crimesBut those glaring red flags don’t matter in a Republican Party now completely dominated by America’s biggest crooks.
And then there’s former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who until last week was under active investigation in the House. engaging in sexual activity with a minor And he blames illegal drugs. That walking criminal will become America’s greatest cop.
The uniquely toxic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also features prominently. Kennedy previously made headlines with outrageous claims such as: COVID-19 was designed to save Jews. Now he is within his control of America’s health policy. What is one of his main priorities? Drastic reduction in medical regulations End federal funding for cancer research.
Lastly, there is Tulsi Gabbard, a long-suffering Putinist. Syria’s brutal Assad regime. She realizes that she is ready to take control of the situation. All U.S. intelligence agencies. Trump’s nomination of Gabbard as director of national intelligence rather than Gaetz appears to be a challenge to his own party. Go out.
furthermore a few minor complaintsThe majority of Senate Republicans chose to follow Trump. That’s a worrying sign of things to come.
Trump’s candidates are qualified only in that they offer him slavish personal devotion and are willing to endure any humiliation in exchange for power. This was especially the case for Kennedy, who scolded Americans for “poisoning” their bodies with unhealthy food. McDonald’s Big Mac and Fish fillets at Trump’s insistence. The pained grimace on Kennedy’s face said it all. He knows this is intentional humiliation. But its power is worth the embarrassment.
How Senate Republicans respond to Trump’s manifestly unqualified list of fraudsters will determine not only the next four years, but the shape of democracy in future administrations. History is full of painful stories of legislatures voluntarily giving up their independence to corrupt and powerful leaders. None of those stories have a happy ending.
Our country is already facing the first of many Trump-era tests of our constitutional republic, and voters have elected one of the weakest-willed Congresses in American history to meet that critical moment. That doesn’t mean hope is lost, but a Senate full of servile and cowardly Republicans will need to summon extraordinary moral courage to stand up to Trump’s abuses.
It won’t be easy. In a recent meeting with Republican lawmakers, Trump ally Elon Musk said his Americas PAC We will support primary challenges from Republicans who seek to thwart Trump’s agenda. Considering how successful Trump has been in ousting disloyal Republicans from the Republican Party, this is a real threat that will persuade a majority of House and Senate Republicans to do the same.
Some Republicans don’t need to be intimidated. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson took the extraordinary step of asking the House Ethics Committee to do so. keep a secret Reports on possible sexual misconduct by Gaetz. Johnson’s unprecedented demand comes a day after he pledged to have no role in the committee’s decision. It was a huge pivot that enraged conservatives like Yuval Levin. national review.
“Any member of Congress would be outraged by the very idea that the Speaker of the House would collude with the President to undermine the Constitutional role of the Senate and turn the legislative branch into a passive plaything of the executive branch,” Levin wrote.
Trump delights in the idea that his candidates are already creating headline-grabbing controversies. He also made it clear that this was not a stunt pick and that he expects Republicans to give full confirmation votes to all candidates. The vote would be an explicit stress test of the Senate’s independence. Because if lawmakers are willing to deny their eyes and ears to elevate Hegseth, Kennedy, Gabbard and Gaetz to America’s most important offices, they may also be pressured to take the credit. The rest of Trump’s authoritarian agenda.
Trump is one of the least intelligent people He may not occupy the White House, but he has an innate understanding of how weak people react to pressure. Each candidate demands that Republicans declare their loyalty to Trump in different ways.
Kennedy demands that the Republican Party elevate known nerds and science deniers to important science-based gigs. Gaetz explicitly acknowledged that the Justice Department is now the agency Trump has arrested. Hegseth acknowledges that the Republican Party’s decades of hard-line talk of siding with the military was a lie. And for Gabbard, it was the final acceptance that the Republican Party was now a party that was clearly pro-Russian, pro-Putin, and NATO-sceptical.
Each nomination requires Republicans to make a final, painful repudiation of the party they had before Trump began his seemingly impossible transition. This is Trump’s politics of humiliation and domination, and this time he is demanding the Senate’s complete submission to his unpredictable whims. If their recent public comments are a warning, we should prepare for the worst.
Trump’s incompetent and unqualified primary nomination sets the stage for a fight that will reshape not only the Republican Party, but the relationship between Congress and the executive branch. These changes will outlast the Trump administration and shift the political balance of power for years to come. Senate Republicans have an opportunity to put the brakes on Trump’s dangerous nominees. Do they have something like that in them?
