In my last blog I dumped on Kamala Harris’s campaign. I hit Trump as a liar and “brow beater.” BUT I suggested that maybe the second stint in the White House might make him a new guy in an old suit, that there might be a change for the better from his first term and the depredation of his 2024 campaign.
Boy was I wrong about Trump, and I’m here to admit it.
You don’t need me to add to the condemnation heaped on Trump for some of his nominees who came subsequent to my last blog, the ones who are nincompoops or dangerous to the citizenry. Some are unqualified and dangerous wackos; others are deeply conflicted and destined to mouth what Master Trump dictates.
For those nominees requiring the Senate’s “advice and consent” as prescribed by the constitution, Trump proposes an end run. If the Senate is in recess for at least two weeks, Trump can make “recess appointments” thereby dispensing with messy Senate hearings and votes. There will be no recess in 2024 because the Senate has a lot to do for the remainder of the year. In 2025, under Republican control, it’s possible but highly unlikely.
If the Senate goes to “regular order” (i.e., hearings and votes) to consider Trump’s nominees, appalled senators who want to reject one or more of them may be afraid to do so. The pattern will be: Trump expresses dissatisfaction with a senator; threats of physical danger to the senator and his family from Trump’s followers; round-the-clock police protection; ultimately, acquiescence. As theater owner John J. Shubert wrote, “threats of physical force always work.” All Trump needs to do is angrily denounce a recalcitrant Senator and the rest will take care of itself with no Trump involvement after the initial condemnation. Fear can bring home the bacon for Trump.
There is another Trump pattern that deserves comment. Persons close to Trump on one day are condemned and ejected from his orbit (and their government function or job) on the next. I predict that this will happen to Elon Musk (too big for his britches and hogging Trump’s follow-spot) and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (too loudly nuts instead of keeping it to himself.)
Of course, it is possible that some of the worst nominees will be withdrawn because never serious in the first place where the nomination accomplished a collateral objective. So it is with Matt Gaetz’s resignation from the House and the resultant end to his ethics investigation and house ethics committee release of a report on his behavior after his loony nomination to be attorney general. A withdrawal may also come if bad behavior comes to light about a never-vetted nominee. Think the appointment to defense secretary of unqualified week-end Fox morning host Pete Hegseth.
And this is only the beginning. Trump doesn’t get to the White House until January 20. Worse to come.
Forgive me for being wrong, or as one reader put it, “walking on the sunny side of the street.”