TrumpWorld Kakistocracy 2: Trolling?

 

In a timeline where Fox News personality Pete Hegseth could be SecDef, sure, why not float former Democratic Rep. Tulsi "Russia's Girlfriend" Gabbard for DNI and now-former GOP Rep. Matt "Hookers'n'blow" Gaetz to be Attorney General.

Senator John Fetterman suggests that the choice of Gaetz as "god-tier kind of trolling" on Trump's part, and while this is not wrong, I regretfully have to confess that I think just because it's trolling doesn't mean that he can't get in. I mean, my first thought was "stalking horse". That's the art of the deal, right? You throw out a name like Matt Gaetz, and then when he's cast aside, literally every other choice seems more sane. 

But that's assuming Trump is playing by regular rules, and I don't. I think the idea that he's considering wild stuff like adjourning congress and recess-appointing people is not really out of the question if he really does see Trump 2.0 as his revenge tour. 

Of course, it's wild that Gaetz just resigned from the House ahead of his ethics probe report being released. I personally hope that even if there is no consequence awaiting him in that body (censure, expulsion) the report is still released because the public has a right to know. There is an audacity in Gaetz being picked due to the possibility that he engaged in statutory rape and trafficking--but considering that he was picked by an adjudicated rapist--how surprised are we supposed to be?  (After the Kavanaugh "vetting"? Really?) 

We left the question of whether to take Trump literally or seriously behind a good while ago. Listen to Markwayne Mullin, who knows full well what kind of creep Gaetz is. Listen to senators like Tommy Taterhead and Lindsey Graham, and of course, VP 2B JD Vance, who somehow "forgets" that the problem with Gaetz heading DOJ isn't necessarily the weaponization of the office or the department for many detractors, but the idea that the department that does law and order should have a guy remotely interested in that sort of thing in charge. 

You know, and whether a guy who hasn't been able to practice because of not keeping up with his dues and trust obligations should be taken all that seriously BESIDES his ethics complaints. 

Tulsi Gabbard is just as noxious. An actual national security threat. Her appointment would wreck our intelligence partnerships with allies because she loves dictators as much or more than Trump and is a huge conspiracy theorist in love with the sound of her own propaganda. (I simply don't think any person who is incapable of truthfully determining that Putin and Assad are bad actors should have anything to do with coordinating US intelligence).

These are not the picks of someone interested in making America great--they are either the spiteful choices of someone who wants to destroy what America has and stands for, or the capricious, loyalty-rewarding choices of a blithering dope who hasn't a clue what even good would look like. 

If the US Senate Republicans by and large understand the assignment, they will do whatever they can to block these idiots from office. But these are folks who had two opportunities to convict Trump and bar him from future office and blew it, so I don't have the greatest faith in them. 

I'd love them to prove me wrong, or for Trump to actually just be trolling here. But some people thought Trump running for president at all in 2016 was a form of trolling, and now, here we are!