Nov.14

electoral-vote.com

Dem 47

   

GOP 53

News of the Day

Donald Trump didn't really think he was going to win in 2016. Between that, and the fact that he and his operation were pretty amateurish back then, it took a while to start putting an administration together. This year, he and his team expected a victory, and—nearly 10 years in—the amateurism is (mostly) gone. So, the picks for various slots in the administration are being made at a rapid clip. Here's a rundown of the Tuesday news:

• Secretary of Defense: For one of the most important posts in the government, Trump has chosen Pete Hegseth. If you just said, "Who?", you're not the only one. Quite a few Republicans in Congress were willing to tell reporters that they (the members of Congress) don't really know who he is. Hegseth is a former member of the National Guard, which is his main qualification for the job. In truth, however, he was picked because he is a Fox News contributor who often kisses Trump's you-know-what, and because he wrote a book called The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free, which basically argues that the Pentagon has gotten too weak and too woke.
  
  
• DHS Secretary: Some of the people Donald Trump has chosen for his next administration are qualified. But when that happens, it's something of a happy accident. The real test, as everyone knows, is fealty to the Dear Leader. The Daily Show even had a supercut last night showing bits of the fawning speeches that various Trump appointees have made this year:
  
  
  
  One of the least qualified picks is Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), who was announced as the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security yesterday (she has to be approved, of course, but it's not expected to be an issue). The #1 task of DHS these days is border enforcement, and Noem will make up for her near-total lack of qualifications by doing anything and everything Trump tells her to do. It is probable that things will go badly, in one way or another, and that in a year or two, she'll have to take the fall for him. Still, at least she has now achieved her dream of getting the hell out of South Dakota.
  
  
• CIA Director: To lead the CIA, Donald Trump has chosen John Ratcliffe, a former representative and U.S. Attorney who served as Director of National Intelligence during Trump's first term. Ratcliffe has the chops for the job, though he's got a history of lying about his résumé and he's enough of a hardliner that the Senate rejected him the first time they considered his appointment (they approved him on the second go-round). He toted a lot of water for Trump from 2019-21, though he reportedly opposed efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
  
  
• FBI Director: The FBI already has a director in Christopher Wray, who was appointed to a 10-year term by Trump in 2017. However, Wray is a professional who will not take marching orders from the President-elect. So, he expects he will likely be cashiered. The person who is rumored to be his potential replacement is Kash Patel, who will most certainly do what he's told to by Trump. Patel's a big fan of purging the intelligence establishment of those who are "disloyal," likes the idea of using the military to go after Black Lives Matter protesters, and wants to see left-wing outlets like MSNBC prosecuted by the federal government.
  
  
• White House Counsel: To be his chief lawyer, Donald Trump has selected William McGinley, who worked on the Trump 2024 campaign and who was also a member of the first Trump administration. White House counsels are usually lawyers who worked on the campaign, so that's par for the course. However, it's fair to assume that McGinley will be considerably more willing to tell Trump what he wants to hear, as compared to "traitors" Don McGahn and Pat Cipollone, who served as White House Counsel last time around, and who became key witnesses before the 1/6 Committee.
  
  
• White House Press Secretary: Reportedly, the frontrunner to be the new White House Press Secretary is Trump lawyer Alina Habba. To a very large extent, it does not matter who Trump picks. Whoever it is will come out on the first day, promise to tell the truth, and then will spend the remainder of their time on the job lying through their teeth. Yes, all WHPSs spin things, but the ones who serve Trump are just flat-out liars (starting with Sean Spicers' lies about the size of Trump's inaugural crowd). The only exception to this was Stephanie Grisham, who didn't talk to the press at all (she literally held zero press conferences).
  
  
• U.S. Ambassador to Israel: Do the Huckabees have photos of Trump in a compromising position with a goat, or something? We're not sure exactly why members of the family are always at the tip-top of the list when patronage positions are being handed out. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is busy being governor of Arkansas, of course, but her dad has nothing to do these days besides hawk sleeping pills of dubious merit. So, he was available to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
  
  If you don't remember Huckabee's 2016 presidential campaign, you are to be forgiven, because it was very forgettable. However, he ran on Israel hawkishness coupled with Islamophobia. Consider this graphic put out by his campaign:
  
  
  
  This was not an isolated thing; Huckabee also palled around with pastor Terry Jones, who was famous for holding Quran burnings.
  
  The posture that the Trump administration would adopt on Israel and Gaza was not a secret. It's taken just 1 week to affirm what everyone should have known.
  
  
• Your Next Florida Senator?: Assuming Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) vacates his seat to become Secretary of State, the MAGA crew in the Senate knows who they want as his replacement: First Daughter-in-Law Lara Trump. It's not clear how Dad-in-Law feels about this idea. However, we will point out that appointing an unqualified person to a "safe" Senate seat just because they happen to be well-connected has worked out very poorly for the Republicans in the recent past (see Loeffler, Kelly). That is not a done deal yet because the governor needs to keep himself relevant for the 2028 election (he is term-limited in 2026) so he will be sorely tempted to appoint himself to the seat. We shall see whether DeSantis' ambition trumps his pretend-loyalty to the Trumps.
  
  
• MuskWatch 2024, Part I: What is the opposite of schadenfreude? Freudenschade? Whatever the correct term is, this item is certainly an example of something that will make many people displeased about someone else's success (as opposed to being pleased about someone else's failures). Elon Musk's bets on the election have paid handsome dividends. He blew a few hundred million on GOTV and phony lotteries and other such electioneering, and in the last week he is... $70 billion richer. That is primarily because Tesla stock is way up. We wonder if that will hold, between the planned tariffs, not to mention the Trump administration's hostility to green technology. One plus of Musk's appointment is that when Trump tries to ban electric cars, Musk will surely try to talk him out of it. Having a big fan of electric cars deep inside the administration is like having a mole inside the Russian GRU.
  
  
• MuskWatch 2024, Part II: Yesterday, Donald Trump announced that he was appointing Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to be the co-heads of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). What? You haven't heard of that department? Where have you been? It's been a core part of the executive branch for at least... 24 hours.
  
  Even Donald Trump, aided by a compliant Congress, can't create a new executive department out of thin air. And DOGE isn't actually a department, it's an advisory commission. And it's so focused on improving efficiency that it has TWO masters (always a great way to get things done), neither of whom has the faintest idea how the government actually works. Since both of them have gigantic egos, they are well matched and will surely work well together. How efficient!
  
  
• MuskWatch 2024, Part III: We're not terribly surprised that Trump created a basically phony job with a basically phony title for Elon Musk. There are reasons that Trump wants to keep Musk happy and on board. After all, Musk has a fat wallet, and is willing to open it. He also controls eX-Twitter, which is a key source of misinformation for Trump's base. Oh, and to borrow a phrase from Lyndon Johnson, Musk is the kind of guy who's better to have inside the tent pissing out, as opposed to outside the tent pissing in.
  
  That said, Musk and Trump both have giant egos, and neither of them likes to be subservient to anyone. They also have grating personalities. Further, in Musk, Trump sees the business success he can never have, while in Trump, Musk sees the political success he can never have (after all, he's not a natural-born citizen, but he could be governor of Texas some day, a good job for someone with a big ego). That sounds like a collision course to us.
  
  We almost made that observation in yesterday's post. And then, as we prepared today's post, we received this from reader S.K. in Los Angeles, CA: "'Guest Who Wouldn't Leave' Elon Musk Is Reportedly Already Too Annoying For Trump Team."
  
  Exactly how long the Trump-Musk relationship can keep going without badly fraying is an excellent question. Will spinning Musk off to a meaningless job in a non-existent federal department be enough to keep him happy? We tend to doubt that the South African will be fooled. If he leaves the administration in a foul mood in, say, 5 Scaramuccis, he could start saying not-so-nice things about Trump on eX-Twitter.
  
  
• Weak Sauce: The Freedom Caucus has decided on a plan to express their frustration with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). Prior to the internal party meeting at which a Speaker candidate will be chosen, they are going to put forward a challenger, probably Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX). After Johnson wins that vote easily, the FCers will fall in line when the whole House votes for the new speaker.
  
  The net result of this is that Johnson will avoid the sort of embarrassment that befell the party at both the beginning and the end of Kevin McCarthy's speakership. What will the FC get out of it? They will be able to say that Johnson was not renominated unanimously. Whoo, hoo—way to hit the Speaker where it really hurts.
  
  
• Merchan Delays: Donald Trump wants his New York convictions to be set aside. The prosecutors who popped him want more time to evaluate options, so they can suggest a course of action to Judge Juan Merchan. Merchan agreed and yesterday set a deadline of November 19 for the prosecution to submit their brief.
  
  
• DNC Chair: When a party takes a beating like the Democrats took last week, the chair of the party does not get to keep their job. Well, unless that person is Ronna Romney McDaniel, apparently. She got two mulligans before finally being cashiered.
  
  In any case, if the party includes the sitting president, then the president picks the chair. If the party does not include the sitting president, and the Democrats won't as of January 20 of next year, then it's a free-for-all. Among the candidates whose names are being floated are Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA), U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, former Mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu, Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin, Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) and Wisconsin Democrats Chair Ben Wikler.
  
  
• How's It Going, Ferret Face?: Although the Democrats had a very bad night in Pennsylvania last Tuesday, they have retained control of the state Assembly, as blue dog state Rep. Frank Burns (D) has kept his seat in a very Trumpy district. It's one of a handful of silver linings on what was a black night for the blue team.

And that's the way it is. (Z)