Trump’s Shock, Mock, and Roll 'Em StrategyThe president-elect isn’t worried about Senate Republicans growing a backbone. They're unlikely to prove him wrong.
A headline not from The Onion: The Onion now owns Infowars. Oliver Darcy of Status reports:
It’s not all bad out there, is what we’re saying. Happy Thursday.
Those Poor, Poor Vichy Republicansby William Kristol What a 24 hours! The lightest of lightweights, Pete Hegseth, is nominated for secretary of defense. A leading Assad and Putin apologist, Tulsi Gabbard, is announced as director of national intelligence. The poster child of moral degradation, Matt Gaetz, is selected for attorney general. If you’re surprised, you’re a dupe. President Trump is going to do in his second term what he said he’d do on the campaign trail, and what he tried fitfully to do in his first term. He’s going to turn the federal government into an instrument of MAGA policy and grievance. He’s going to pursue retribution against enemies. He’s going to destroy what remains of the older norms that guide the operations of the government, and of the institutional checks that constrain the abuse of power. He told us this was his plan. The only surprise is how quickly he’s acting on it. Yet the Republican elected officials who’ve supported Trump for almost a decade, and the conservative leaders who’ve accommodated and rationalized him, were shocked. Shocked! They all sound like Captain Renault in Casablanca. After the patrons at Rick’s Cafe, led by resistance leader Victor Laszlo, drown out German soldiers singing “Die Wacht am Rhein” by rising to belt out “La Marseillaise,” the offended Germans tell the Vichy authorities to shut down the establishment. Captain Renault does so. His excuse? “I’m shocked, shocked, to find that gambling is going on here.” We then see the croupier handing Renault his winnings from that evening. Today’s Vichy Republicans also profess to be shocked to see in the new Trump administration authoritarianism and cronyism, sleaziness and craziness. Where could that have come from? What did they think Trump was going to do? Or did they go out of their way to avoid thinking about it at all? So: Will Republicans and conservatives now stand up to Trump? Was yesterday a real wake up call for them, or simply the latest of dozens such moments when the alarm sounds, and they first mute it, then turn it off, and then conveniently forget that it ever sounded in the first place? We’ll see. Republicans will only act if there’s pressure to do so from outside. There needs to be a real uproar from Democrats and pro-democracy groups (who could, if I may say, use at this moment some of the spirit of Victor Laszlo). But it would also be nice if decent Republicans in the donor and pundit class chose this moment, à la Humphrey Bogart, to overcome their cynicism and speak up. (Alas, the party’s biggest benefactor—co-president Elon Musk—is gleefully encouraging it all.) And will the opposition go beyond these particular appointments to Trump’s broader intention to transform the federal government into his personal fiefdom? Or will we see mumbling and hand-waving, and then resignation and acquiescence there too? I’m not optimistic. Casablanca is not the real world. Our Victor Laszlos are few and far between. Today’s cynics usually stay cynical instead of, like Rick, having a heart of gold. Our Captain Renaults aren’t as clever in finding ways to thwart the will of their masters. And Trump is their master. As Rep. Troy Nehls (R–Tex.) said yesterday, “His mission, and his goals and objectives, whatever that is, we need to embrace it. All of it. Every single word. . . . If Donald Trump says, ‘Jump three feet high and scratch your head,’ we all jump three feet high and scratch our heads. That’s it.” That’s it. That’s Trump’s Republican party. That’s our Republican party. Thune Can’t Appease the Beastby Andrew Egger Latter-day fans of institutionalism have to take the small wins when they can get them. They got one Wednesday, when Senate Republicans voted in South Dakota Sen. John Thune to succeed Mitch McConnell as GOP leader. Thune’s secret-ballot win followed an insurgent MAGA attempt pushed by the likes of Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson to prop up Florida Sen. Rick Scott on the grounds he would be a more obsequious conduit for Trump’s agenda. Ahead of the vote, Scott had enthusiastically endorsed Trump’s recess-appointments plan to short-circuit the Senate’s ability to vet his nominees; Thune, by contrast, merely allowed that recess appointments were “on the table.” After his victory, Thune stayed recess-appointments-ambiguous. “I’m willing to grind through and do it the old-fashioned way,” he told reporters on a press call, warning that recess appointments would remain on the table if Democrats threw up procedural roadblocks to gum up the schedule on Trump’s nominees.¹ Thune also said he would preserve the Senate’s filibuster rule, despite the possibility it could block Republicans from forcing through some party-line legislation while they enjoy unified control of Congress. Like I said: small wins. But Trump isn’t the kind of guy who lets his inferiors buy in partway. Which may partially explain why he chose the afternoon of Thune’s victory to dump his most toxic nomination announcements² on the new leader’s doorstep. Will the Senate confirm the likes of Matt Gaetz “the old fashioned way”? While Gaetz isn’t as loathed in that chamber as he is by his colleagues in the House, even some senators struggled to compose their poker faces when news of his nomination broke.
But then, of course, the painful capitulations began. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who went on camera last year to disparage Gaetz’s horrible behavior—revealing that Gaetz showed nude pictures of girls he’d supposedly slept with to colleagues on the House floor, while bragging about “how he would crush ED medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night”—was singing a different tune Wednesday. The senator told CNN that “I completely trust President Trump’s decision-making on this one.” Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News that Gaetz was “very bright” and “qualified,” saying that Trump “deserves a chance to pick his cabinet. I am predisposed to allow him to do that.” Whether the Senate confirms Gaetz or not, the pick—and those of Tulsi Gabbard, and Pete Hegseth, and many others that are sure to follow—present an immediate, major headache for Thune. He may imagine a future in which he succeeds in positioning himself as an old-school institutionalist, making peace with Trump by fighting hard for his priorities while still guarding the structures and prerogatives of the Senate. Trump, by contrast, will delight in feeding Thune poison pill after poison pill, daring him to try defiance, threatening to crush him if he does. You know who understands this? Steve Bannon. “President Trump, once again, what a rockstar,” he said on his War Room podcast yesterday. “Thune promised him some recess days, promising, ‘We’ll stay here every day, we will get every one of his nominations through.’ And he gives the biggest, I guess, FU: ‘Okay, here you go, bro. Here you go. Start with Matt Gaetz, my new attorney general.’” Quick HitsWHEN YOU PUT IT THAT WAY: Our buddy Ken White, who writes as Popehat, reads Trump’s appointment of Matt Gaetz as attorney general in a somewhat more hopeful light:
YOU JUST HAVE TO LAUGH: Why did Kamala Harris opt to avoid the massive platform of a Joe Rogan interview en route to a historic shellacking among young male voters? The Financial Times quotes senior campaign aide Jennifer Palmieri: “There was a backlash with some of our progressive staff that didn’t want her to be on it, and how there would be a backlash.”
ONE TO KEEP AN EYE ON: One Trump pick that some parts of MAGA haven’t been thrilled about is the selection of Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Breitbart’s Neil Munro noted that Noem “has little experience with the DHS’ rival sub-agencies, contradictory laws, and loopholed regulations,” adding that “her success in the job will depend on the myriad deputies that she picks for the various sectors of the vast agency.” Writer Andy Ngo called the choice “puzzling,” noting that Noem “appears to have shown poor leadership when placed under pressure.” During Trump’s first term, the border hawks in his coalition were some of the most willing to call him to task if they felt like he wasn’t delivering. It’s possible Noem will end up in the hot seat quickly. Cheap Shots
1 Senate Democrats took pains early in Trump’s first term to slow-walk his nominees, including by boycotting hearings for some of his first cabinet appointments. Throughout his term, they regularly used parliamentary delaying tactics to maximize the amount of time the Senate was forced to take in consideration of each low-level nominee. Republicans have used similar tactics in the past, including during Joe Biden’s term. You’re a free subscriber to Bulwark+. For unfettered access to all our newsletters and ad-free and member-only podcasts, become a paying subscriber. Did you know? You can update your newsletter preferences as often as you like. To update the list of newsletter or alerts you received from The Bulwark, click here.
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Trump’s Shock, Mock, and Roll 'Em Strategy
November 14, 2024
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