There has never been a week like this one in the long history of U.S. presidential transitions. There have of course, over the past two and a half centuries, been missteps, bad nominees, and questionable calls by incoming administrations. But in this past week alone, we have seen at least five—perhaps more—of the worst nominations by any president for any senior level government position in American history.
They have come in such rapid succession, that has been next to impossible to contemplate one unfathomable, indefensible choice before the next is made. Indeed, that appears to be part of the objective—more flooding the zone.
The choices that Donald Trump has made to lead his administration have been so extreme as to appear to be a kind of unprecedented can-you-top-this challenge to late night comedians. It is tempting to respond with nervous laughter.
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The pet-murdering former South Dakota Snow Queen to head the Department of Homeland Security? Ron Burgundy to head the Department of Defense? An accused pedophile and sex-trafficker to be Attorney General? A woman Russian television proudly proclaims is an agent for them to be the top intelligence official in the U.S. government? The anti-vaxx conspiracy theorist with a brain worm to head the Department of Health and Human Services?
It would be funny if it were not so dangerous. It would be dark comedy were it not a calculated effort to turn the United States into an autocracy, to place loyalty to a single individual above that shown to the Constitution, our institutions of government or the well-being of the American people.
It does not take much to reveal the threats that lurk within these choices.
At a basic level, there is the peril associated with the inexperience and inappropriateness of each of these nominees for the positions to which they were named. Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee to head DHS, has zero experience with immigration issues, virtually none with other major DHS concerns like combatting terror threats.
Pete Hegseth, the nominee to head the more than three-million-person Department of Defense and its $850 billion budget, has zero management experience, zero defense policy experience.
Attorney General-designate Matt Gaetz has never prosecuted or defended a case, has virtually no experience working as a lawyer. Tulsi Gabbard has never worked in the U.S. intelligence community, never managed an organization of any size. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has zero experience in any aspect of the medical or health care professions or related industries.
But incompetence is not our only concerns when it comes to these choices. Each holds views that should be sources of deep concern.
First among such views, of course, is the fact that all have effectively promised to place their loyalty to Trump ahead of any oath they may end up taking to the Constitution. But Kennedy, of course, is a renowned anti-vaxxer, holding views that reject two hundred years of established science. He has spread unfounded, sometimes racist conspiracy theories, and espoused views that if adopted would lead to massive suffering and potential deaths among U.S. citizens.
Gabbard has been an active proponent of Kremlin propaganda—including proven lies—and has embraced and defended not just war criminal Vladimir Putin but war criminal Bashar al Assad as well. Gaetz, subject of a protracted probe into his own involvement in sex-trafficking, has called for shutting down the FBI, the Department of Justice, ATF and other “three-letter agencies.”
Hegseth has also defended war criminals within the U.S. military, has called for an end to women in combat roles and has espoused extreme Christian nationalist views. Noem has embraced and spread Trumpian lies about the “invasion” at the U.S. border and at the same time has joined Trump in questioning the results to the 2020 elections (election security is a responsibility of DHS) and has tacitly embraced Trump’s defenses of January 6 rioters (homeland security also being an important responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security).
Just as disconcerting should be the fact that in making these choices—like many others he has already announced—Trump appears to be focusing on the worst choices, failures and misdeeds of his previous administration and doubling down on them.
That is not to say, by the way, that all of Trump’s choices have been bad or even out-of-the-ordinary. Marco Rubio to the State Department, Mike Waltz to the National Security Council, John Sauer to be Solicitor General, Susie Wiles to be White House Chief of Staff are all choices that, even if you disagree with their politics and philosophies, appear to be consistent with the traditions of experience and suitability that normally come with such top level nods.
Experts say Trump’s mismanagement of the COVID epidemic led to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. So, he appoints a man who condemned the vaccine mandate that saved the lives of millions. Law enforcement and intelligence officials concluded Trump colluded with Russia to win election, leaked secrets to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador, and defended Putin’s views ahead of those of the U.S. intelligence community.
So why not put in charge of that intelligence community someone who is seen as an active cheerleader for the Kremlin? Both Trump and Gaetz hate the Department of Justice because they were targets of investigations. Trump tried to bully the DoJ into doing his political bidding the last time he was president.
Now, he has found a kindred spirit to follow through on the job of, in Gaetz’s own words, bring the Department of Justice “to heel.” Trump failed at his goal of building a border wall, was frustrated he could not create the Muslim ban he sought or crack down on immigrants as he had hoped. So he has brought in a team to aggressively up the ante on all those efforts led by Noem, enforcement tough guy Tom Homan and incoming Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The choices are therefore each menacing on multiple levels and each (with the possible exception of Noem because she is an elected governor) would have been swiftly rejected by bi-partisan majorities in the Senate at almost any time in our past. Some, like Gaetz, who is widely despised by members of both parties, would never even make it to committee hearings.
But word is already filtering out from Republicans on Capitol Hill that many will simply honor what they see as Trump’s mandate by using their Senate majority to confirm these nominees.
Trump has also raised the possibility that he be enabled to make some or all recess appointments, taking advantage of a loophole that allows a president to name a person to a top post for up to two years when the Senate is not in session. Further, incoming Senate majority leader John Thune has indicated that he might be willing to accommodate Trump on that front. (Trump has also indicated he might seek ways to granted these officials security clearances without the benefit of background checks.)
Thus, not only are these nominees grossly inappropriate choices for the jobs the president-elect wants them to hold, not only are their views a threat to our institutions and the country itself, but by forcing outrageous choices into offices they should never hold, Trump is seeking to establish himself even before he assumes the presidency as a strongman, above the traditional advise and consent checks on presidential authority granted the Senate by the U.S. Constitution.
If Thune and the Senate capitulate, if these Trump loyalists assume control of critical arms of the government, and as Trump operates empowered by the immunity conferred upon him by the GOP-controlled Supreme Court, this week’s raucous theater of the absurd could very quickly become a tragedy for American democracy.
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