The Trump Sh*t Show Arrives in D.C.
By: William Kristol
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Pete Hegseth, Elon Musk, and Trump himself. Buckle up.
William Kristol and Andrew EggerNov 13, 2024187Share this postCopy linkFacebookEmailNoteOther15225Share
An important event happening at an awkward time for us to write about it: Senate Republicans will have their secret-ballot vote this morning to elect Mitch McConnell's successor as majority leader. More on this tomorrow, we suspect! Happy Wednesday.
For Pete's Sake
by William Kristol
In 2018, Donald Trump's brain, Steve Bannon, told the writer Michael Lewis, "The Democrats don't matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit."
They've done it for a decade, and it's largely worked. Now, one week after Trump's election to a second term, they're doing it again, only this time they're flooding the zone with appointments that—let's just say—stink up the joint.
It's disorienting, as it's intended to be. You feel like you're playing one of those whack-a-mole boardwalk games at Funland in Rehoboth. Ultimately you've accomplished little, except occasionally winning some cheap stuffed animal as a consolation prize.
But sometimes in politics you have to start with small prizes and build up to bigger victories. And even though the bulk of Trump's embarrassing and unqualified appointments will get confirmed, his intention to nominate Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense gives defenders of good government and the rule of law a chance for a win.
It would not be for a small prize either. Secretary of defense is an important job.
Could Hegseth's nomination be defeated? Many Republican senators have dealt with Hegseth, and they know he's beyond unqualified for the position. Has there actually been a single statement from a Republican senator actually praising the choice? I'm not aware of one.
Now of course that's different from actually opposing a nomination by the party's Dear Leader, and we'll see how many Republicans have the nerve to do that.
But still, Democrats and good government organizations and veterans groups should make such opposition from some Republican senators easier. I'm confident there's zero chance that incoming Armed Services Committee chair, Sen. Roger Wicker, would think Hegseth an appropriate, or even a defensible, selection. Nor would Armed Service Committee members Sens. Tom Cotton or Dan Sullivan. Will they say publicly what they know privately? We'll see. But it will be easier for them to do so if there's thorough research into Hegseth's background and the public marshaling of evidence for Hegseth's radical unfitness for the position.
Because he really is unfit.
I knew Pete Hegseth fifteen years ago when he was a young, pro-Iraq war veteran, moving in Weekly Standard/Project for a New American Century circles. He seemed to be an effective proponent of neoconservative foreign policy, and some of us wanted to think well of him and give him a hand on a promising career. I even weighed in (ineffectually) on his behalf when he ran for the Republican nomination for senator in Minnesota—against, as I recall, a Ron Paul-supporting America First type.
But as sometimes happens, my judgment and that of others was mistaken. Hegseth turned out to be personally untrustworthy, intellectually shallow, and politically opportunistic. He moved on and was encouraged to move on out of our world, and ended up in the orbit of Fox News and Trumpist sycophancy, where he fit in well.
The general reaction of others who knew him back when is summarized in a text I got last night. This is from someone who's seen it all, who has a cynical view of politics, and who expects the corridors of power to be populated by opportunists and phonies. He's not the type to get upset about second- or third-raters being appointed to high office. But still, he couldn't quite believe this nomination. Under the subject line "Good Christ," my friend wrote simply: "I wouldn't let this creep dog-sit for me. Now he's going to be the Secretary of Defense?"
But don't believe me, or my dog-loving friend. Let's just have a full exploration and public scrutiny of Hegseth's background, and let people make up their own minds based on the evidence as to whether he should be in charge of the United States military.
Another friend emailed last night wondering if we should make a fuss about Hegseth. Wouldn't it be better to have an incompetent showman rather than a more able Trumpist as secretary of defense? Wouldn't the first perhaps be able to do less damage than the second?
It's not a ridiculous position.
But Hegseth would be an ultra-loyalist, and would go along with everything Trump and his apparatchiks in the White House want. He would enable all of Trump's plans to politicize and degrade our military, about which we've already seen a glimpse.It's impossible to imagine him raising any objection regarding the host of things Trump plans to do, from using the military to round up immigrants to intervening to promote politically aligned general officers.
History suggests thatshallow opportunists who have become mindless loyalists can be as dangerous as more impressive ideologues in helping effectuate the authoritarian project.
So it's worth having this fight. It could prevent a really bad secretary of defense from taking office. But it also could establish the principle, early on in this second and far more dangerous Trump term that lies ahead, that the opposition will fight. And that it can win.
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Norms for Me, But Not for Thee
by Andrew Egger
President Joe Biden will host Donald Trump at the White House today. It's a traditional, largely symbolic gesture honoring the smooth and peaceful transfer of power—the old president going out of his way to legitimize the next one's victory and help him get up to speed.
Trump denied Biden that courtesy four years ago amid his attempts to overturn and discredit the election results, and he's spent the years since denouncing Biden as an illegitimate usurper and occasionally suggesting he should be in prison. Some people, including JVL, have argued that Biden's reestablishment of those norms now could be a mistake: that the ordinary pomp should be denied to a convicted felon who tried to violently overthrow the government. But Biden was nevertheless determined that the norm would not deteriorate further under his watch.
"The American people deserve this," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters yesterday. "They deserve a peaceful transfer of power."
But Biden is only one part of this meeting. Trump is the other. And though he lacks capacity for self reflection and embarrassment, he probably should have those in droves when he sits down next to the president today. The gathering is proof that everyone else who has sat in that office is capable of rising to the moment—except him. He is the petulant child president who whined and kicked and screamed until the adults in the room gave him his toy back.
Trump loves norms only when they're playing to his benefit. And he's not the only one. Melania Trump is not expected to accompany him for the traditional meeting with the outgoing first lady, Jill Biden.
"She ain't going," a source familiar with Melania's decision told the New York Post. "Jill Biden's husband authorized the FBI snooping through her underwear drawer. The Bidens are disgusting."
(Just a quick reminder: This is ridiculous. The White House has said that President Biden had no prior knowledge of the FBI's totally justified search of Mar-a-Lago, which recovered hundreds of classified documents Trump had removed from the White House upon leaving office and subsequently refused to return.)
CNN, citing other sources, suggested the snub would be due to a scheduling conflict—Melania, after all, is on a book tour for her recent memoir. Priorities! They also noted that some members of Team Trump are still wheedling the former and future first lady to show up. Maybe she will!
Either way, it's a remarkable display of solipsism on Melania's part—the same solipsism that led her to do things in Trump's first term like declare herself "the most bullied person in the world" or wear a jacket emblazoned "I really don't care, do u?" while visiting a holding facility for detained migrant children.
Whether Melania Trump shows or not, the entire day will have a surrealist element to it. Trump is slated to meet with House Republicans, too. And he's bringing along his shadow president, Elon Musk—one of the government's biggest contractors granted a direct audience with the people who write those checks.
The Biden visit itself will come after news that Special Counsel Jack Smith is ending his investigation into Trump's role in the January 6th riots—an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power swept under the rug as an actual peaceful transfer of power takes place.
And so, we will have the ceremony of today: a demonstration that when the system is working as intended, our leaders put aside the differences of our ugly politics to unite around a shared commitment to the sovereignty of the people's choices for who leads them. But it all should leave a bad taste in your mouth, too.
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Quick Hits
AVENGERS ASSEMBLE: The hits keep coming! In addition to the Hegseth announcement, Trump yesterday unveiled the formation of his much-ballyhooed "Department of Government Efficiency" (or DOGE, for those of you who can't get enough epic memes from ten years ago). Surprisingly, two heads for this advisory commission were announced: not only Elon Musk, as everybody expected, but also Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump's former presidential primary opponent and second-favorite billionaire stooge.
We aren't complaining about this one; we were sort of worried Ramaswamy was going to get a job that actually matters. (For one thing, he'll no longer be badgering Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to appoint him to JD Vance's Senate seat.)
Trump also announced his selection of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as his Secretary of Homeland Security, which seems odd: Do the good people of Springfield, Ohio, really need yet another threat to the wellbeing of their pets?
IT'S CALLED JOB CREATION: Nobody's licking their chops over Trump's mass deportations plan like the private prisons industry, per ABC News:
On corporate earnings calls since Election Day, executives at the country's top private prison firms have embraced Trump's immigration agenda as a potential windfall if the federal government requires contractors to construct new detention facilities and provide additional support services for the unprecedented effort.
Geo Group founder George Zoley, whose company is the country's largest private prison operator, told investors last week that Trump's deportation plans represent a "potential sea change" for the industry.
"The Geo Group was built for this unique moment in our history and the opportunities that it will bring," Zoley said.
YOU CAN'T FIRE ME, I QUIT: The New York Times reports this morning that special counsel Jack Smith "plans to finish his work and resign" before Trump, who has pledged to fire him within "two seconds," returns to office:
As he prepares for his last act as special counsel, Mr. Smith's ultimate audience will not be a jury, but the public.
Department regulations call for him to file a report summarizing his investigation and decisions—a document that may stand as the final accounting from a prosecutor who filed extensive charges against a former president but never got his cases to trial. . . .
The big question now, assuming Mr. Smith finishes the report on his current schedule, is whether Mr. Garland will release the findings before he leaves office, or defer the release to the Trump team, which might not make its contents public.
Don't assume we've heard the last of Jack Smith, though. Republicans seem determined to keep him in the limelight to punish him for having the temerity to look into Trump's alleged crimes:
On Friday, Republican lawmakers told Justice Department officials who had worked on the Trump cases to preserve all of their communications for investigators. That is a sure sign that a new balance of power in Washington will make Mr. Smith among those being hunted by congressional investigators and others.
Cheap Shots
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If Carter could appoint Andy Young, Trump can appoint anyone he wants.
You are right, he either appoints incompetent or unfit people , or somewhat competent people who either quit or get fired as soon as they work with Trump and see what he is really like.
They are only going to run the departments. Trump will be appointing about 4,000 people to handle the details.
One thing you won't have is a UN ambassador calling the US a "racist country."
They're going to have to reinstall that revolving door in the Whitehouse that they had from his first 4 years.
after watching what, 41 former staffers claim they wouldn't be voting for Trump...
Was that because he only picked the best and the brightest ?
Was the reason he drained the swamp,to find the best of the worst ?
DC better set up cause it's gonna be in tents,
as the circus roles models back into town, as make up artists abound, and the whirled of make believe will spread its made up bull shit, that with Trump, just won't ever quit, Calgon, take him, not US, away...
In their defense, they were "bright" enough to see Trump for what he is.
The "worst" ones were the only ones desperate enough for the job to sign their souls over to Trump and pledge their allegiance to him.
Free pass from them for the little shop of horrors cabinet that Biden appointed. He had a SecDef who disappeared for days without a trace. A chairman of the joint chiefs who back door communicated with our enemy China, an attorney general who called parents who questioned critical race theory terrorists, a sec energy that told gas and oil companies that industry was dying and they needed to move on, I could keep going but it falls on deaf ears.
Those ears are too busy wailing and gnashing their teeth on all things Trump.
Sad, fucking sad.
And the left, once again, loses it’s shit.
So predictable. I no longer give a shit, if you’ve lost your shit. Descend into your cesspool of hate and regret. Good riddance say I.
Good riddance ……
Really makes one wonder what is more important to some on the left. The country does well and Trump succeeds or the country becomes shit and Trump fails.
There is something else that I really wonder about - how people could vote for a traitor that tried to overthrow our government.
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Didn't want to respond to the actual comment?
Let me help you with what you are wondering though. That one is easy. They did not buy into the Trump hysteria or Harris being a good candidate
By filling in the little circle with a black pen. How did you vote for the second chosen one?
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Benedict Arnold thought he was being a patriot as well.
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Knowledgeable people call it the truth.
Change that to Trump haters and I will vote it up
This is the whole thing. Too many on the Right care if Trump succeeds, not if America succeeds. Quick example: We had a perfectly good bipartisan agreement on the border ready to go and Trump killed it. Why? So he could succeed by complaining about a border crisis he helped perpetuate.
Because it was not so good. Hopefully Trump will do better.
Since you deflected from my actual comment and attempted to answer your own let me do the same. Many on the left care more about Trump doing poorly even at the cost of the country.
You guys keep saying that without providing evidence. From all accounts the left capitualted on the right's border wish list to get Ukraine funding. The left got their Ukraine funding but the right got nothing on the border.
It was good enough that it was going to pass with bipartisan support. You really think Trump sabotaged it on policy grounds?
What amazes me is the fact that citizen Trump, according to the left, has that much influence. Obviously, they knew he was going to win?
Bullshit, there was never a vote so your TDS opinion that it would pass the house is just that, the house already passed their bill, the Senate piece of shit that allowed 5000 illegals a day was DOA long before trump weighed in. Fuck Biden EO is less than half that number, you have to be delusional to think that bill was going anywhere.
If Trump succeeds, America succeeds.
What is so hard to understand about that?
Can you logically explain how a private citizen got a bill in Congress killed. What vote does he have?
Did the bill expand anything that Biden could not already do with executive orders?
The Constitution dies.
If the left really cared about border security what ever happened to H.R.2?
OMG it could be the end of "Democracy"
If Trump succeeds, the American people succeed. The democrats have failed the American people.
The border bill was actually pretty bad, not good at all. Trump didn't perpetuate a border crisis, Biden and Harris did.
That bill would not have slowed the flow of the illegals or do anything to solve the problem.
It added additional physical barriers, border agents, detention facilities and court personel.
Hyperbole is the best you can do?
Biden simply issuing an EO that was much tougher than the Democrats+Lankford Senate bill completely destroyed the argument that the Democrats+Lankford bill was an improvement on the status quo. The new bill would have made Biden's EO impossible and set a much higher floor on the amount of illegals that would be tolerated.
It also added 5 thousand illegals in every single day, including weekends and holidays. The bill was DOA in the Senate long before Trump said anything.
The goal for the open border is no secret, the intent was to move migrants in to swing states and change the electorate. The American people rejected this notion, we want parties running on policy favored by the people. There will be mass deportations. It's going to happen. Existing laws are strong enough.
The Democrat proposed border bill still allowed for millions to enter. The media gaslight the bill and America rejected it.
According Conference Chairwoman Stefanik, Speaker Johnson, Majority Leader Scalise, and Majority Whip Emmer :
“House Republicans oppose the Senate immigration bill because it fails in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration.
“Among its many flaws, the bill expands work authorizations for illegal aliens while failing to include critical asylum reforms. Even worse, its language allowing illegals to be ‘released from physical custody’ would effectively endorse the Biden ‘catch and release’ policy.
“The so-called ‘shutdown’ authority in the bill is anything but, riddled with loopholes that grant far too much discretionary authority to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas – who has proven he will exploit every measure possible, in defiance of the law, to keep the border open.
“The bill also fails to adequately stop the President’s abuse of parole authority and provides for taxpayer funds to fly and house illegal immigrants in hotels through the FEMA Shelter and Services Program.
“Because President Biden has refused to utilize his broad executive authority to end the border catastrophe that he has created, the House led nine months ago with the passage of the Secure the Border Act (H.R. 2). That bill contains the necessary components to actually stem the flow of illegals and end the present crisis. The Senate must take it up immediately.
“America’s sovereignty is at stake.
“Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time. It is DEAD on arrival in the House. We encourage the U.S. Senate to reject it.”
Nowhere was Trump mentioned.
https://stefanik.house.gov/2024/2/house-republican-leadership-statement-on-senate-immigration-bill#:~:text=%E2%80%9CHouse%20Republicans%20oppose%20the%20Senate,to%20include%20critical%20asylum%20reforms.
No, it said if so many people cross the border in a certain amount of time it triggers a border closing. That doesn't happen now? No, it doesn't. You guys got nothing and their is no guarentee Trump can delivor on any promises without manufacturing an emergency and bipassing Congress.
Trump's plan to round up all the illegals and miliarizing the border would require the suspention of the Constituion. We all know it, I'm just saying the part out loud you won't.
Remember Eisenhower?
Please explain how that would require suspending the constitution,
And everyone keeps on forgetting the $17B Ukraine package that was "required" for the bill by the Dems.
Another reason why it didn't pass.
No. Eisenhower died when I was 3.
Due process. Every single person he wants to deport has a right to be heard in court. You can’t just summarily round people up and kick them out of the country.
The courts that handle this kind of thing are already overwhelmed. Adding millions more cases to their dockets - assuming we could somehow generate the manpower and resources to even identify these people - will not facilitate anything. Trump will be out of office before these cases come up.
The only way around these problems would be to just pretend the Constitution doesn’t exist and sic the military on random populations.
In FY 2023, USCIS received 10.9 million filings and completed more than 10 million pending cases – both record-breaking numbers in the agency’s history. In doing so, USCIS reduced overall backlogs by 15%. Among USCIS’ record number of case completions in FY 2023, the agency administered the Oath of Allegiance to more than 878,500 new U.S. citizens, including 12,000 members of the military, effectively eliminating the backlog of naturalization applications . The median processing time for naturalization applicants decreased from 10.5 months to 6.1 months by the end of the fiscal year, achieving the agency’s longstanding goal and significantly reducing waiting times for most individuals seeking U.S. citizenship.
Wow - just friggin Wow
Listen, I am never going to say that today’s Democratic Party genuinely cares about border security. Trump is right about that much. But we need more of the two parties working together on this problem and making progress as a Congress, even if it’s baby steps. No single piece of legislation is going to solve it all at once and make everybody happy.
Getting that bit done this year, though, could have been the beginning of real cooperation on this topic. When the opposition is willing to bend a little and give you something of what you want, I say you take the W. Unfortunately, some people care more about winning elections than solving problems.
You might need to read up on
The Largest Mass Deportation in American History
How about if the bill said zero illegals can come across the border?
First and easiest to explaing is that the US military can't operate on US soil. The NG can only assist in non-law enforcement duties which they are already doing. That hasn't done much in the last 15 years. If Trump wants to park active military units on the border for 'training" he would have to sieze public and private land to do that to be effective. Second these people have rights, a massive roundup and deportation would trample those rights including due process. Currently, on average, 70 legal US citizens are wrongly deported every year. How many would be falsely deported under a massive effort?
But the Dems got that money anyway. The Reps got nothing on the border.
From your link...
Isn't Trump promising to round up multi-millions? How's that going to work? I expect it will be a few thousand (after lenthy and costly lawsuits) and they'll declare mission accomplished and Jesus will go back to cutting the Mar-A-Logo lawn.
How about we deal in the real world and leave fantasy to fiction writers?
This is where your TDS get in your way, nowhere does it say he will not give them due process. but he doesn't have to allow them to run around free without knowing who they are, and we can target anybody who has been arrested and convicted, they are now ineligible so deported immediately.
So why do you think it is OK for 5K illegals to come in daily?
See this is the difference between you and I. It's not about what I think is okay or not okay - It's about the reality of the issue. People have been moving across borders before such things existed and will continue long into the future. It's how we deal with it that matters. Just declairing it wrong doesn't fix anything, nor does it stop it.
And, hey while I have you here, they are not ALL illegal. Once they claim assylum they are legal then and processed. I want Congress to fix the catch and relase system we have had for decades. It would be simpler, cheaper and more humane to hold them and process them in weeks instead of just issueing them a court date months away and letting them go.
Save that bullshit for someone else.
Why would they say it? I mean, at some point, Trump will blurt it out because he’s just that stupid. But his people know better.
So, you want to round up millions of people and lock them up until they can prove who they are? We don’t have prisons for all those people, but I guess we could put them to work building camps. Sound like a plan?
Even they would get a hearing.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not opposed to deporting some people - especially the criminals. But this idea that we’re going to quickly deport millions of people is not feasible without trampling on basic rights.
George you should review the last time this was tried in the 1950s under Eisenhower, the outcome was anything but good.
Look at the Trumps promise in his first term and look at the results that will give everyone a better idea of what might happen this time around with Trump.
Y, did you lose your shit, given, cause it's just amazing how Saddles be Blazing cause there be a new sheriff in town, just nobody tell him, hes black and up to no good in his soul, with the sole purpose to change US for not the best, as he examples the worst. But, be all he can be i guess, and all he will ever be is a stain on humanity, or even, a stain from a manatee, as he fux up to grab the bucks hands down cause he likes the doe, just can't elevate his staff, unlike his infections, cause you know he has all the answers, just like those other two stolen elections, besides, he hates prancers and happy to hate the gaze intwo his eyes, and he'll give his slant on China, all whole grabbnin some young girls vagina cause she let him into that office again, and you know the sayin, 'my choice, her body' is being said quite a loddy doddy da, so who do you suppose will play Mongo, someone from the Congo line parade, cause his song and dance should be behind bars, and so should i, i'm thirsty !
Pine needle, zebra, brook trout, Brooke shields, calculus, H2SO4, survey sez, Barko lounger, accelerometer……
Believe it or not, your post made more sense.
Dan Scavino, a blatant conspiracy monger and the person who wrote many of Trump's worst tweets, was appointed to be Trumps new deputy chief of staff.
What does Dan Scavino do all day?
Apr 17, 2018 · After all, Scavino is a guy who, through his personal Twitter feed, amplifies conspiracy theories and harasses others. Scavino is not the kind of person I want paid with the …
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Need a safe space John?
I didnt flag you, go cry somewhere else.
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Love how some people think you can only be a patriot if you suck down the republican party bullshit
these are the latest vote totals from Associated Press (votes are still being counted)
How is this an overwhelming mandate ? Its not even an underwhelming mandate.
Ignorant people are told in right wing news feeds that Trump won a mandate, and they just go with it like good sheep.
He won the EC and popular vote. The Republicans will control the WH, Senate, and House. The stupid democrats are powerless to do anything about it. That's pretty much of a mandate.
You discount the number of states. Take out the California and New York votes and report on that...........
LOL. Why not take out Kentucky, Tennesee , West Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, South and North Carolina, and Mississippi ? It makes as much sense as what you are suggesting.
States dont cast votes, people do.
Tulsi Gabbard has been nominated to be Director of America's Intelligence Agencies.
Was she the only one in the room that could spell CIA?
MATT GAETZ IS BEING NOMINATED BY TRUMP TO BE ATTORNEY GENERAL
Can you show where you see this?
At least that would stop his BS fratboy antics in the House.
This may be trumps dumbest move if he actually does it, but on the plus side it may get this piece of crap arsonist out of the house, then trump can fire him and send him home.
I guess mtg WAS NOT HIS TYPE.
So trump is appointing someone who can't remember to pay their bar dues to be attorney general....hopefully it is to fire him immediately after he resigns from the house.
It looks like the trump regime is shaping up nicely.