Personnel Is Policy

 The next few months we will be treated to the horror show of Trump's Cabinet appointees. Josh Marshall looks at what he calls the "non power positions." Tapping Rubio for State and Stefanik for the UN are to tap people who are basically lapdogs. There's the odd dynamic of Trump wanting to have recess appointees and acting secretaries that have people staggered at the idea that Trump is considering people so extreme that they can't even be confirmed with a 53 seat Senate majority. 

Does anyone really think that the Senate won't confirm Lee Zeldin at EPA or Kristi Noem at Homeland? Of course they will. That these people are incompetent goes without saying. What matters is not that they are MAGA ideologues like Stephen Miller. What matters is that they will do whatever Trump says. Keeping them out of Senate confirmation is to keep them on the shortest of leashes. 

As I've said, I really think Democrats' best chance - aside from the close margins of the electorate and the thermostatic nature of our elections - is that Trump actually does what he says he wants to do. With him, that's always a question.

Ideally, he launches his trade war with the entire world; deports millions causing real trauma both economic and personal; and oversees another chaotic incompetent administration. Staffing his administration with lickspittles and lackeys will accelerate this process.

My main concern, I suppose, is that he so destroys the US currency through massive deficits and then subverts the independence of the Federal Reserve so that the American economy - currently the strongest in the world - takes a potentially deadly hit that it never truly recovers from. At least not in my remaining lifetime. He's bankrupted every other business he's run, why not the country?

The American people voted for Trump. I can't fathom that, but they did. Trump cannot run for reelection in 2028, but he can discredit Trumpism - especially if he's unrestrained. 

(Also, please, Donald, keep appointing House members to your Cabinet. The margin will be razor thin in the House again, and they have not demonstrated an ability to manage that well. I know you don't care, but preventing the passage of shit laws is a worthy goal for the short term.)