Donald Trump likes to test the limits of the system. It has long been the norm for presidents to appoint men and women of experience, ability, integrity, and character to cabinet and staff positions. Not all presidents have succeeded in this, but it has been a nearly consistent aspiration.
During his first term, President Trump appointed patriots such as General John Kelly, General Mark Esper, General John Bolton, and General Jim Mattis to push back against some of Trump's most extreme and reckless executive actions. For this, they were punished with a Trump-esque “you're fired.” President Trump clearly doesn't want something like this to happen again.
This time, President Trump has appointed to his cabinet a man whose fundamental virtue is loyalty to him rather than the Constitution. They are willing to resist President Trump's desire to round up and deport immigrants, arrest political opponents, use the military against Americans, and dismantle the government he calls the “deep state.” There isn't.
Journalist Maggie Haberman, who has closely studied Trump for more than a decade, has researched some of the most controversial figures, including former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, Robert Kennedy Jr., and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. This is what he says about the cabinet appointments he made. he wants to “By shocking and overwhelming the system, you can maximize what it can tolerate.”
Trump likes to beat the system, and the legal system itself has proven inadequate to address his crimes, effectively putting him above the law. He learned the method from his mentor, disgraced lawyer Roy Cohn, and perfected the approach by improvising.
He violently incited a mob to storm the Capitol, during which he performed for nearly three hours, taking no action to stop the rally. he got it done. According to the plain language of the 14th Amendment's Insurrection Clause, this would have disqualified him from holding the office of president. He tried it and won. He stole classified documents, stored them in a dangerous location within the Mar-a-Lago enclave, and showed them to unauthorized people, but thanks to an inexperienced and gullible judge, the documents also escaped. I did.
Before becoming president, Trump falsified business records to cover up secret meetings with a porn star and concealed the payments he made to keep her hush in the run-up to the 2016 election. The case will be dismissed or “Freeze” for 4 years Despite a jury verdict finding him guilty of 34 felonies.
This legal feat was nothing short of a miracle, and historians will analyze the combination of misinformation, luck, prosecutorial incompetence, and shrewd lawyers that led to this outcome.
Roy Cohn was acquitted at trial of three federal charges. Mr. Trump was impeached twice, twice federally indicted, and twice by state indictments. The disciple has surpassed the master.
Now a popularly elected member of the Republican Congress, he has been given a four-year reprieve from criminal prosecution. Thanks to the Supreme Court, he is free to commit crimes while in office, and with Senate confirmation, the satrap will help him accomplish his crimes.
The cornerstone of President Trump's domestic policy is large-scale roundups of illegal immigrants and subsequent mass deportations. This will either destroy families or result in the deportation of their children, many Americans with constitutional birthrights that he refuses to recognize.
And his intention is to arrest and prosecute the “enemy within”: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, members of the media, General Mark Milley, and others who don't see things his way. We'll have to wait and see what even the ultra-conservative Supreme Court has to say about the latest list of enemies. There are very few lawyers who can help with this from the attorney general's post, but Gaetz fits the bill very well.
Gates is a shockingly controversial figure, but he doesn't have a great reputation for integrity. When the appointment was announced, Lawrence Tribe, a professor at Harvard Law School, said: erupted: “Matt Gaetz is Attorney General? You’re hurting me!
Gaetz is the subject of an unreleased House ethics report related to suspicion He revealed that he attended numerous “sex parties” and had sex with underage women during his first term in the House of Representatives. Gaetz resigned from Congress after his appointment was announced, and Speaker Mike Johnson immediately acted to bury the report.
President Trump may be forgiven for one appointee with a zipper issue, but two appointments are causing alarm. said Hegseth, a Fox News political commentator who is President Trump's nominee for secretary of defense. cash payment In 2020, in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement with a woman who accused him of sexual assault. Like Gaetz, Hegseth denies any wrongdoing.
More importantly than the assault charge, Hegseth is completely unqualified for the job. He has no executive experience, and the Pentagon is one of the world's largest employers, with a budget of more than $850 billion. It is disqualifying that Hegseth wants to politicize the military. He claims he is dangerously “woke” and says he will relieve “woke” police officers from their duties. President Trump said he supports his side.
Other questionable appointments have led to rejections in the Senate. President Trump is seeking to circumvent the customary vetting process by seeking recess appointments. But incoming Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said it would not be easy for President Trump to suspend Congress beyond the constitutionally required 10 days so he could make appointments without Senate confirmation. Although Republicans are expected to control the Senate by a slim margin of 53-47, Thune acknowledged that many Republican senators will not give up their constitutional advice and consent functions. Meanwhile, Republican senators are also calling for a House ethics report on Gaetz.
Our national security is at stake. We may all agree that our Constitution, which some judges have thought gives the president special powers, is: It's not a suicide pact.
Author and legal analyst James D. Gillin is a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. He is also a public television talk show and podcast host. Conversation with Jim Gillin.
