By The Jerusalem Post (World News) | Created at 2024-12-26 02:30:07 | Updated at 2024-12-26 14:16:42
12 hours ago
Trump no longer boasts about hiring “the best people.” It seems the adults in the room were a big pain in the ass in the first term, especially when they had the temerity to disagree with the boss.
By DOUGLAS BLOOMFIELD DECEMBER 26, 2024 03:35
US REPRESENTATIVE Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is applauded by US House Speaker Mike Johnson during a meeting with House Republicans in Washington, last week. President-elect Donald Trump has named Stefanik the next US ambassador to the UN, among other pro-Israel cabinet choices.
(photo credit: Allison Robbert/Reuters)
The House Ethics Committee report on US President-elect Donald Trump’s aborted choice for attorney-general, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, contained no real surprises. Even the finding that he may have committed statutory rape was not new – his colleagues have talked about it for years. He himself admits he “partied, womanized, drank, and smoked more than I should have.”
It is puzzling that Trump’s allies, especially Republicans on the bipartisan Ethics Committee, didn’t warn him as soon as the appointment rumors leaked.
The report itself is anticlimactic and less important for what it tells about the disgraced former congressman – who can kiss goodbye his plans to run for governor or senator – than what it says about the president-elect who wanted to make the confessed party animal and womanizer the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.
It reveals a fundamental flaw that typifies Trump’s decision-making. He is known to prefer going with his gut. That may have served him well in business, but it can wreak havoc in running the government.
It led him to announce some appointments before his staff had a chance to perform even cursory examinations for fitness and conflicts. Gaetz may be the most egregious, but he is not the only unfit candidate for a high administration post.
Last week’s budget debacle got the incoming administration off to a chaotic start nearly a month before taking office. The president-elect seemed to be taking cues from the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who triggered an embarrassing series of events orchestrated by his own Republicans.
Trump apparently wants to keep the vetting in house – his own house – because he doesn’t trust anyone who tells him what he doesn’t want to hear, especially the FBI, which he – falsely –accuses of wrongly invading his home and seizing his stash of classified documents. (I wonder if when he moves back into the White House, he will return all those boxes of purloined papers.)
In rejecting outside input on potential appointees, he is cheating himself and the people who voted for him. They need to know that the people in charge are the best fit for the job. Trump’s scheme to bypass the Senate’s constitutional advise-and-consent role was shot down by Republicans as well as Democrats who wanted to decide for themselves.
Analysing Trump's picks
I AGREE that Trump has the right to pick anyone he wants (with the Senate’s eventual hechsher), but it is increasingly obvious that he rejects any effort to recruit the best and brightest and instead gravitates to unqualified sycophantic hacks whose only qualification is their blind loyalty to the Gospel of MAGA.
MSNBC said Trump’s new team includes “ex-cons, billionaires, and failed candidates” as well as television talking heads and a few accused sexual offenders.
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Surely there are many far more qualified, respected, and credentialed conservatives and Trump supporters to take the top jobs than Pam Bondi, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Kari Lake, Linda McMahon, Devin Nunes, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Dr. Oz, and assorted Fox News fugitives.
Several GOP nominees plucked from Congress and statehouses bring experience and reputations that the Senate will appreciate and easily confirm, including Sen. Marco Rubio, Reps. Mike Waltz, Elise Stefanik, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and governors Doug Burgum and Kristi Noem.
The underlying problem with too many of his choices is not philosophy or politics but integrity, competence, and suitability. Trump’s strategy appears to be to flood the zone with so many losers that they begin to look like the norm, and the very bad ones make the only bad ones look acceptable.
I understand the long-standing and ill-used tradition of rewarding wealthy donors, friends, failed candidates, and relatives with ambassadorships to third-tier countries. Sometimes, it even works out, especially when the foreign hosts think the new envoy is their personal link to the Oval Office.
Ex-NFL star and Trump pal Herschel Walker was picked to be Trump’s ambassador to the Bahamas, a job once held by former Sen. Chic Hecht (R-Nevada). He is one of nearly two dozen election losers getting jobs in the new administration.
Mark Burnett, producer and creator of Trump’s TV program The Apprentice, is set to be a special envoy to the United Kingdom. So far, the job is undefined, but one qualification appears to be that the London-born Burnett at least speaks the language.
The Trump Foundation gave an “illegal” $25,000 contribution to a political group supporting then-Florida attorney-general Bondi as her office was deciding whether to investigate fraud and other allegations against Trump University, according to the non-partisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group said the donation “was personally solicited by Bondi from Trump.” The investigation disappeared.
IF YOU ever thought Trump’s election was about governing, think again. The proof is in Patel, who is to be the bloodthirsty point man for Trump’s revenge. His first assignment is to prosecute the January 6 committee and send its members to jail, starting with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney.
The most likely outcome of the retribution crusade will be a further undermining of the American people’s confidence in the rule of law and federal law enforcement.
Trump expects the Republican-controlled Senate to rubber-stamp his nominations but has been running into some problems. If all 47 Democrats vote in bloc against some of the most unfit, Trump can only afford to lose three Republican senators.
To shore up support, he is personally calling senators and dispatching co-president Elon Musk and other big contributors in a high-pressure campaign that includes the threat of funding primary opposition.
One wonders whether he would have made so many poor choices if Democrats still controlled the Senate.
Some observers suggest that Trump hasn’t sought out top people because he intends to abolish some departments (education) or emasculate others and concentrate power in the White House, where the real decisions will be made.
Among the few respected exceptions are his picks of hedge-fund manager Scott Bessent for treasury secretary and investment banker Howard Lutnick for commerce secretary, who many business leaders consider qualified and competent.
In the wake of so much unexpected blowback, the transition team has agreed to some vetting by the FBI and CIA. The next hurdle is likely to be security clearances. When intelligence officials opposed giving Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner a top-secret clearance in the first term, the president overruled them. He can do that for anyone, even Gaetz, regardless of objections from the agencies.
Trump no longer boasts about hiring “the best people.” It seems the adults in the room were a big pain in the ass in the first term, especially when they had the temerity to disagree with the boss. This time, Trump seems determined to avoid such hindrances.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and a former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
