The Clown Car
By
All the people Donald Trump has named as part of his administration are awful. We knew they would be, but some are more awful than others. I was talking to a friend in the State Department, and she felt they missed a bullet by getting Marco Rubio, who in other circumstances would have looked pretty bad. Thoughts on Matt Gaetz and the others from Chris Geidner (Law Dork).
Random thoughts about the clown car, in no particular order. All questions are rhetorical, more to make us think than to be answered.
Are these picks intended to be truly in charge beyond transmitting Trump’s orders? Are they primarily intended to provide a showy Trump-branded look, with a Project 2025 wonk just below them to carry out the purges? The second in command approach was how the Soviets did it.
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When Pete Hegseth was named for Secretary of Defense, I thought about the time I walked past the Secretary’s office in the Pentagon and about what kind of things the Secretary has to do besides look pretty. If I were dropped into that office, I could at least ask some of the right questions and find some of the right people to get things done. I doubt Hegseth can do that.
He is a strong Christian nationalist, with a set of tattoos to match. He also carries that Trump view of soldiers as “killing machines.” That is as insulting to the military as Trump’s characterization of them as “suckers and losers.” There are officers who may share some of Hegseth’s views, but most don’t. Pissing off the officer corps is not a good idea.
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People spend a lot of time to try to figure out a Trump strategy with stuff like this. Is it to bend Republicans to his will? Is it to “disrupt” the government, as argued by co-President Elon Musk? Are they random thoughts that burped out of a brainworm? All of the above?
Most times that doesn’t matter, and the whole discussion should be skipped. My approach will be to make a quick assessment as to whether an action emerges from something we should think about or how it might be pushed back, then concentrate on whether it should be countered and how.
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We’re seeing some indications of Republican concern. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, you had your chance. This might be another chance, but Republicans have failed so badly at this, we can’t figure that this is the one thing that might turn them against Trump.
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If this term is like the last, none of these people will last more than a few months in their jobs. That doesn’t make them less of a danger, although it will interrupt some things. Their successors will be worse.