Alan Zendell, November 21, 2024

Sixteen days after the election of Donald Trump, I was still doing what half of America is doing, avoiding looking at any kind of media coverage except an occasional peek to be sure it wasn’t time to be running for our bomb shelters. Today, I boldly went where many people I know fear to tread: the CNN website. Why CNN? Because they seem to be the least extreme of the major broadcast news services.

What I saw was a virtual horror show. Ukraine has been launching British long-range missiles into Russia, while Ukraine is accusing Russia of firing an ICBM at Dnipro, a city of more than a million inhabitants. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and high-ranking Hamas official, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri. Using the Trump playbook, Netanyahu called the warrant absurd and antisemitic. At least he didn’t scream, “Witch hunt!”

Closer to home, the deadly game of chicken known as the Trump transition agenda continued. We don’t need pundits to explain it. Trump is proving that while he lies about almost everything when in it’s in his interest to do so, he was telling the absolute truth when he described what his administration would be like.

Four things emerged from today’s headlines. Trump intends to fill his cabinet with people who have demonstrated undying loyalty to him, rather than the Constitution. Trump has no interest in the qualifications or competence of the people he’s nominating. He seems to have a special soft spot for people accused of sex crimes, and he’s thrown down the gauntlet demanding that the Congress waive its role in setting up the new administration.

Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, the co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment who became rich turning wrestling into a media empire, has been sued for enabling the sexual exploitation of 13-15 year-old children. The suit is as yet unresolved, but seriously? Matt Gaetz, whose only qualification for being Attorney General was an unbroken record of being a vicious attack dog for Trump, realized there was so much damaging evidence against him for his own alleged sex crimes, including sex with minors, even Trump couldn’t save him. He withdrew his name from consideration.

More information keeps emerging about the worm-eaten mind of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to being a virulent anti-vaxer, Kennedy promoted the theory, in 2020, that COVID was staged by the federal government. After a decade of blasting Trump for his fascist tendencies – he said the only difference between Trump and Hitler was that Hitler cared about policy – he now regrets that he was taken in by the liberal media, and wishes he’d never said those things.

Wait – there’s more. Trump’s choice for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, whose only qualification for being in charge of the most lethal military in the world is sucking up to Trump on The Fox News Channel, has also been accused of sexual assault, in his case, against a woman. He denies the charge, although his attorney acknowledged that he settled the case with his accuser by paying her off and getting her to sign a confidentiality agreement. I always preach caution using statistics to infer trends, but I’d say there’s a creepy pattern here. Trump seems strongly attracted to sex offenders.

Everything I saw today says Trump intends, AS HE REPEATEDLY TOLD US, to be the worst possible version of himself for the next four years. What I did not see was a reminder that our Founders anticipated this when they created three co-equal branches of government for the sole purpose of preventing a president from becoming a dictator. Trump believes his Supreme Court picks neutralized the Judiciary. As always, loyalty to him was all-important, but I wouldn’t be certain that his ultra-conservative justices will be willing to tear up the Constitution.

More importantly, the Congress, specifically the Senate, has the constitutional responsibility to Advise and Consent. The new Republican Senate majority has a choice. They can do their duty and uphold their oath to the Constitution, or fold under pressure like the rest of their spineless colleagues. That silent struggle may be what determines the future of our country. Senators John Cornyn (R, TX) and newly elected Majority Leader John Thune (R, ND) represent the first real challenge to Trump. He demanded that Senate Republicans elect Rick Scott (R, FL) Majority Leader, and their selection of Thune was widely interpreted as a signal that integrity still lived in the Senate.

This couldn’t be more critical. Trump is pressuring the Senate to allow him to fill his Cabinet with recess appointments which would bypass them. If Thune backs down, there will not be a single guardrail left in government to stop Trump’s stampede to autocracy.