More Trump appointees
As has been rumored for a couple of days, Marco Rubio is Trump’s pick for Secretary of State:
“He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump added. “I look forward to working with Marco to Make America, and the World, Safe and Great Again!”
And Tulsi Gabbard has been named Director of National Intelligence:
Gabbard, a former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee who endorsed Trump and joined the Republican party late in the 2024 campaign, will oversee America’s 17 intelligence agencies in the powerful post.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are joint directors of the Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE, which is some sort of meme about a Japanese dog and crytopcurrency). Although “government efficiency” sounds like a classic oxymoron, perhaps Musk and Ramaswamy – two unusual guys with very high intelligence – might be able to change that.
Moving right along!
ADDENDUM: And wow, I see that Matt Gaetz will be AG. That’s certainly a bold pick.
For anyone who cares, here’s an explanation of the whole “doge” thing. Shiba inu dogs have become pretty popular in recent years largely due to the meme.
I would have thought Gabbard might have been handed a role in the Veterans Administration.
I’m still hoping retired LTC Allen West maybe ends up as Secretary of the Army.
Might be wise to put in a 48-hour moratorium on believing anything in the legacy media on who Trump is “appointing” or anything else he plans to do. Right now a lot of people looking for jobs are leaking to friendly reporters, and unfriendly reporters are trying to make sure Trump looks bad. Things Trump tweets himself may be a reliable guide to his intentions, at least on the day tweeted…
All these people need Senate confirmation anyway, which won’t happen until next year. Except maybe Musk and Ramaswamy, because the “Department of Government Efficiency” is not a real department of the Executive, and I’ve not read of any plan to ask Congress to make it one (and if they did it would probably turn into a mess like Homeland Security by the time they got their snouts in the legislation).
Does Trump not want a House majority? We are now at 3 vacancies which may all be filled by Republicans after special elections but that will be some time out in the meantime the tiny majority is even tinier.
I’ll miss Marco Rubio here in Florida—he’s been great, IMHO, but has outgrown the Senator role, and is perfectly suited for Secretary of State.
Niketas Choniates – please stop throwing cold water on the party! 😉
@Karmi:Niketas Choniates – please stop throwing cold water on the party!
I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase “high on your own supply”, and on other posts here there have been showcased the sad, but hilarious, reactions of Dems who did that very thing with this election.
People on the Right like to think they are more realistic than people on the Left, and I try to help them stay that way.
The people who are twisting their knickers and clutching their pearls about the election of the Bad Orange Man are clowns, lunatics, and talking heads. Their sweet, sweet tears distract us from the serious MFs who have their knives out for us, who still occupy the leadership positions in all our institutions, and are super-pissed.
Karmi – Wasn’t Rubio considering retiring after his last term? I never thought he was long for the Senate. You may have been losing him one way or another before too long.
Per your remark to Niketas Choniates – let us hope that is the case with the Matt Gaetz/AG thing. I’m a little skeptical of Kristi Noem, but other than that I was onboard with Trump’s appointees until the Gaetz/AG thing.
Appointing Matt Gaetz as Attorney General is a bad joke. Jeez, the guy barely practiced law before going into politics and has no experience with the DOJ other than on the receiving end of his recently-concluded criminal investigation. He’ll be good at causing problems and breaking things, but not much else. If Trump goes through with this, it is “hanging out with Laura Loomer on the eve of the debate” levels of stupid.
That’s the thing about Trump. If you squint hard enough you can make yourself think that he’s going to do something good, and then pulls something like this that is nuclear levels of idiotic.
On further thought, the chances of the Senate confirming Matt Gaetz as AG are approximately zero.
Could there be a strategic reason that Trump is floating Gaetz? Maybe he has someone else in mind and wants to try to smooth their confirmation by offering them as a “compromise” candidate after Gaetz inevitably withdraws.
One can hope. Otherwise, mark this down as the first significant self-own of the second Trump administration.
Just for fun, I wonder if there was a quid pro quo discussion wherein Trump stays out of the Senate Majority Leader fight and Gaetz gets confirmed.
I liked both Mark Paoletta and Mike Davis for AG and i think they would have been just as loyal as Gaetz but also more experienced and just plain better than Gaetz.
Not a fan of the Noem pick either but she may not be terrible.
Bauxite
Yeah, that Matt Gaetz as Attorney General caught me off guard, so am still mulling ‘n researching what it means or will mean…
Trump? He worked hard for the win, and deserved it, IMHO.
I had cut him a lot of slack during his 1st four years…waited 2-3 more years until I actually looked closely at what he did and/or accomplished. Tore him apart here for his terrible leadership & behavior, etc.
Have now moved on from those old four years, but will be paying extremely close attention during these next four years. Will credit him when it is due, and bash him when he deserves it. No passes from me this time…
So far, though, he is light years ahead of where he was at around March of 2017, IMHO.
DM has that Gaetz has been on the judiciary committee and has advocated for cleaning house at DoJ, so we will see. I am taken aback by this one.
Tulsa as director of National Intelligence….yes! Other than SoD, this is perfect for the colonel. I hope she can clean out those agencies. Like all the appointees, the Borg will be out to assimilate them.
The Gaetz pick makes it much, much less likely that Trump will get the recess appointments that he wants.
Mark Halperin insinuated there are some stories that might sink Pete Hegseth. Didn’t say what they were.
“I Think That There Are Going To Be News Stories About His Life” That Could Sink Hegseth With Senate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFtdFT1U2hc
Mike Johnson might have told Trump to promote Gaetz to get him out his own hair.
While New York state might drag heels in scheduling the special election to replace Stefanik, the other appointees from the House are from states that will likely schedule the races before the new House is seated in January. In any case, all three House appointees can stay in their seats until they are confirmed by the Senate which probably won’t happen until late January or February in any case.
Gaetz for DoJ is ok with me- he is an advocate for reform of the entire department and is young and aggressive about it. My main worry is that the Senate won’t confirm him because he is so abrasive.
What rank did Mr. Hegseth attain? Does anybody know? I don’t understand why none of the several articles I’ve read about him today mention this seemingly simple fact.
I think Gaetz is a great pick. Dismantling the rotten, corrupt DOJ is going to require a smart, relentless fighter. Gaetz is one of the very few people in Congress who actually has a record of bringing some accountability to government and he got results. Yeah Gaetz is abrasive. He upsets people. Good. There are a lot of people in this country who need to be upset.
Re: The Department of Government Efficiency. Does anyone really want the Government to be more efficient?I don’t mind going around cutting budgets and stopping bureaucratic work arounds. But Government efficiency scares me.
Even Trump’s surprise appointees are immune from serious doubt. Until Gaetz. Whether or not he’s a great guy and would turn out to be a fine AG, Gaetz has little or no criminal law or management experience, and his judgment is questionable-see the Speaker McCarthy affair.
JFM:
Yes, I want the government to be much, much smaller and more efficient. I spent 23 years working for the federal government and I’m quite confident in saying that the workforce could be cut by 70 to 80 percent if not more. In my experience most federal employees are conscientious people trying to do a good job. They are simply doing things that do not need doing and in some cases are doing things that are counterproductive.
I look forward to seeing what Musk and Ramaswamy can do
Did Dems criticize any of Bidens picks?
Me, I think Trump won, he gets who he wants. Kibbitzing from the sidelines, may be fun, but you don’t get to choose.
I think Hegseth was promoted to field grade ( major) just before separation.
Thanks, Sennacherib. Interesting detail.
“Mark Halperin insinuated there are some stories that might sink Pete Hegseth. Didn’t say what they were.”
The same Mark Halperin who touted rumors of “campaign ending stories” about Trump the week before the election?
@Ira:the Speaker McCarthy affair.
That’s when the New York Times and Washington Post told us that the conservatives in the House were the bad guys and we all just nodded along with that here.
McCarthy’s spending priorities, negotiated with Joe Biden, are still being followed by the current House leadership, and the promises made by that leadership have not been kept, and will not be. They are planning to run us up against the debt ceiling in 2025. Gaetz actually tried to change that, and we crapped on him in the comments here. Not our finest hour, to uncritically swallow the narrative from our enemies against the people trying to achieve the goals we think we believe in.
People who had no qualms about picking the most unethical atty general in history that would be garland 20 of them
Gaetz called attention to the sham january 6th witchhunt including the murder of ashley babbitt
The bribery by foreign powers through hunter to joe
If im not mistaken, Peter Hegseth is a military veteran who served for over 20+ years. Which included multiple combat tours. He is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard.
Following graduation from Princeton in 2003, Hegseth joined Bear Stearns as an equity capital markets analyst. But he has never worked for any part of the military industrial complex. Which might disqualify him with some in the senate.
In 2020, Hegseth volunteered as one of the up-to-25,000 National Guard troops authorized by the Pentagon to be put on active duty to protect the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021, but was removed from that mission because he was one of twelve soldiers “linked to ‘right-wing militia groups,’ or found to have ‘posted extremist views online.'”
Hegseth said that he was removed from the assignment because of a “Jerusalem Cross tattoo, which is just a Christian symbol.”
This from WIKI and the NY Times
Mrs. X, you should watch the video.
I’ve enjoyed 2 Way, which includes Halperin, Sean Spicer and Democrat Dan.
Halperin is a journalist, but I’ve found him to be reasonably even handed on his show.
From a Newsweek article:
He didn’t spread the rumor, just reported it existed.
“He didn’t spread the rumor, just reported it existed.”
That’s a pretty fine distinction. Reporting that kind of unsubstantiated innuendo is not innocent.
Jimmy, that’s actually a big distinction, IMO.
For all we know, he was giving the Trump campaign a heads-up.
Ok – so NR is now reporting that Gaetz has already resigned from Congress. Apparently, the House Ethics Committee was planning was to release the results of its Gaetz investigation this Friday, and this is now cancelled because of his resignation.
Gaetz is not going to be confirmed as AG. That’s not a surprise. Unless Trump is mentally deficient, which he is not, he knew before today’s announcement that there was no way this side of Hades that Gaetz would be confirmed as AG.
My working theory now is that this is a choreographed maneuver and that neither man actually believed that Gaetz was going to be AG. So Trump gets an Obamaesque “stray voltage” maneuver to deflect attention from some of his other controversial nominees. Gaetz gets a golden parachute out of Congress ahead of the Ethics Committee report, so he can run for Governor or Senator in FL.
So I predict that Gaetz will withdraw, probably after some of Trump’s other outside-the-box nominees are confirmed and probably in time to run for Marco Rubio’s seat in FL.
I guess we’ll see.
Bauxite, the problem with your scenario is whether DeSantis would choose Gaetz to fill the seat. Hannity tonight said that Rubio’s seat may be offered to Lara Trump.
When he asked Mrs. Trump about that, she said she’d be honored if the position was offered to her.
There will then be an election in 2026.
I think Byron Donalds would be a great senator for Florida, offering the position to Lara Trump would be a good way for DeSantis to mend fences with the Trump administration. Plus she is a very capable person.
Brian E – Trump gets what he wants here regardless of whether Gaetz ends up in the Senate or FL Governor’s mansion. I suppose its possible that Trump didn’t promise him anything and that Gaetz had to accept without any assurances to beat the Ethics Committee rap. It’s also possible that Gaetz believes that he’s actually going to be AG.
This scenario really would be four-dimensional chess from Trump – purge a trouble maker and blame the fallout on the “RINO” Senators who won’t vote for him.
(Frankly, running Gaetz for Senate or Governor sounds like a great way to reverse all of the good work that DeSantis has done turning Florida red. I’d prefer Donalds for FL Senate over Gaetz and Laura Trump. I really don’t like the family dynasty thing. I wasn’t wild about W. and opposed Jeb! for the same reason.)
Bauxite, 20 Republicans voted to confirm Garland as AG in 2021. If Republicans fail to confirm Gaetz, it just shows what a slimy bunch of Republicans we still have in the Senate.
Lindsey Graham was on Hannity and made the case that the President should get the cabinet he chooses.
As to Donalds, I like him but the House can’t afford to lose anymore members. Donalds will have his chance.
Over at Yahoo News, the TDS is on full display.
More about Hegseth, his career and qualifications, and his tattoos (h/t Karmi).
The TDS goes all the way “down the ballot.”
https://notthebee.com/article/check-out-the-very-sane-liberal-reactions-to-trumps-pick-for-defense-secretary
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14077417/Fox-News-host-Pete-Hegseths-tattoos-decoded-Donald-Trump-Secretary-Defense.html
His tattoos are only controversial if you are a leftist.
And he has a LOT of them!
Also, the Daily Mail is ignorant.
“He also has a modern depiction of the current flag with a sniper at the bottom of the stars and stripes.”
Under a picture of the tattooed flag with 13 stars.
They give a long list of his accomplishments, and remarks about the current DOD leadership which they think are negative, but convinced me he is more apt for the position than even Gabbard would be.*
“Critics of his appointment have pointed to his lack of experience in high office.”
You betcha!
PS Has anyone else noticed how many of our shop-worn idioms are not always as applicable as the authors suppose?
For instance, this out of “left-field” pick is most clearly out of the right field, but that’s not the idiomatic baseball term.
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/62065/origin-and-meaning-of-from-out-of-left-field
*https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/113
(2) A person may not be appointed as Secretary of Defense—
(A) within seven years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force in a grade below O–7; or
(B) within 10 years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force in the grade of O–7 or above.
That doesn’t seem to include National Guard or Reserves; anybody know for sure?
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/505
Per Wikipedia:
Gabbard’s current reserve rank: “In 2020, after serving with them for 17 years, Gabbard left the Hawaii Army National Guard for a new assignment with a California-based Army Reserve unit. On July 4, 2021, Gabbard was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant colonel, while she was deployed to the Horn of Africa working as a Civil Affairs officer in support of a Special Operations mission.”
Hegseth’s highest rank: “By 2015 or 2016, Hegseth had been promoted to the rank of major, and was assigned to the Army Individual Ready Reserve….In 2020, Hegseth volunteered as one of the up-to-25,000 National Guard troops”
Major is O-4, Lt. Col. is O-5. An O-7 is a Brigadier General.
@ JFM > “They are simply doing things that do not need doing and in some cases are doing things that are counterproductive.”
Exactly so!
Remember that Musk fired about 80% of Twitter’s employees without any decline in effectiveness.
Whenever the pundits or politicians complain about the legislature wrangling over “shutting down the government,” my opinion is that the shutting down isn’t the problem it’s the starting it back up again!
Why Gaetz resigned Wednesday has little to do with the Ethics investigation; it’s procedural.
https://redstate.com/smoosieq/2024/11/13/bombshell-gaetz-resigns-from-congress-n2181975
Quoting Speaker Mike Johnson:
Good points in these posts. There were others at Red State and TownHall, but these will do. Separately considered, and in no particular order, but there is a bit of a thematic connection.
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/11/12/trumps-doing-exactly-what-past-presidents-have-done-and-the-left-cant-cope-n4934225
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/11/13/scott-jennings-gives-masterclass-in-shutting-down-lib-outrage-over-trumps-defense-secretary-pick-n4934236
Several commenters made relevant observations:
But this is my favorite —
The headline is kind of click-baity, because Taft’s suggestion is pretty obvious; it’s the implementation that will be hard.
“How Will Trump Get Rid of the ‘Deep State’? Not the Way You Think.”
https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2024/11/13/deep-state-n4934222
Take a look at the list if you haven’t already seen it.
ATTENTION Gregory Harper, et al.
ADDING TO THE Matt Gaetz discussion, a Democrat State legislator in Florida has enthusiastic words in support for his AG candidacy, from JustTheNews:
Florida Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday appeared to praise President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of GOP Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as his attorney general, claiming that Gaetz was “extremely loyal” and “extremely competent.”
Trump officially nominated Gaetz as Attorney General Merrick Garland’s successor on Wednesday, claiming he was a “deeply gifted and tenacious attorney,” who “distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice.”
Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, said he knows Gaetz well and that he played an important role in getting him confirmed as the emergency management director in Florida in 2019.
“Trump was not shy about what he wanted to do in this country,” Moskowitz told CNN. “In Matt Gaetz he does not only get someone who is fiercely loyal, but fiercely competent. Matt Gaetz knows exactly what to do in the attorney general’s office and he will turn that into the most powerful attorney general in American history.”
https://justthenews.com/government/congress/matt-gaetz-attorney-general-gets-unexpected-support-florida-democrat
Now THAT’S an endorsement!
Yeah, it’s the one you’re thinking of.
https://pjmedia.com/charlie-martin/2024/11/12/the-lesson-of-robespierre-n4934208
Of course, as we’ve discussed here before, the Democrats always count on the Republicans NOT doing unto them the things they’ve done unto us.
Some of that can, and should, change without anyone becoming Robespierre (or his opponents).
If they did something illegal, they should be prosecuted just like anyone else ought to be.
That can be done without Republicans breaking any laws themselves.
If what they did was unethical but not strictly illegal, then put them on the “window seat” so that they know their behavior was unacceptable, and so they can no longer profit by it, and are in no position to repeat it.
That consequence is not itself unethical, or every effective parent would stand condemned.
And always remember that, when Democrats (as presently constituted) return to power (never, if we are blessed), they WILL continue to do illegal and unethical things whether the Republicans did any to them or not.
They will start where the original Robespierre left off.
One doesn’t become an “accomplished attorney” by practicing law full time for two years and then part time for six.
And the whole thing about working with the entire Democrat caucus to oust McCarthy with absolutely no plan as to what would come next? Either he’s not as intelligent as you think or he’s a profoundly cynical chaos agent. (I tend to believe he’s the latter.)
And about this being about avoiding absences? You have a man who resigned from the House two days before an Ethics Committee report about his shenanigans with a high-school age girl is set to drop. He claims that he actually resigned to “avoid absences.” And you believe him? Bless your heart.
My guess is that Johnson is thrilled to be rid of Gaetz and that his statement is just politics.
Regardless, he’s an absolutely terrible pick who will never be confirmed, and should never be confirmed.
Bauxite
Jeff Sessions was an “accomplished attorney” — that idiot basically opened the door for DEMs & their Swamp to take Trump down and wreck the Republican party.
I’ll take Matt Gaetz over any
1,000100,000 so-called “accomplished” attorneys…Clearly then, Matt Gaetz must be the Attorney General, since the deep-state has declared him enemy number one, their greatest, most feared threat. Thanks for the heads up, deep-state! And thanks for standing forward to declare yourselves as opponents of American recovery from bureaucratic tyranny.
Karmi – I was reacting to the Mike Johnson statement. I think Johnson is blowing smoke for political purposes because Trump just got rid of a problem for him.
Regardless, though, your logic is very suspect. Jeff Sessions was an accomplished attorney and a terrible AG. That doesn’t mean that Jeff Sessions was a terrible AG BECAUSE he was an accomplished attorney, or that someone who is not an accomplished attorney is more likely to be a good AG. I submit that both of those things are false.
And frankly, if Matt Gaetz is confirmed, which is unlikely, he will be just as terrible an AG as Jeff Sessions, albeit for entirely different reasons.
sdferr – Sometimes an incompetent media-hounding hack is just an incompetent media-houding hack, and not a secret signal from the deep state.
So we see: marks rarely know they’re marks. Insist on it, even.
Bauxite
I didn’t vote against Harris and the Democrats to get another MILQUETOAST Attorney General and/or cabinet.
I wanted a meaner, nastier, and younger version Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. One who wouldn’t even be afraid to take down the Soros Crime Family.
Yeah, I didn’t like a lot of Matt Gaetz’s actions in the House, but that same type of mentality could make him the best Attorney General that America has ever had.
Trump deserves the cabinet he asks for – any Senator taking a stand against any pick should be pressured to a breaking point. Give Trump what he wants, and then he owns it…