As Trump continues to roll out nominees and his potential Cabinet comes into focus, it's hard not to laugh.
It's not that putting forward picks like Tulsi Gabbard, Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is inherently funny or that creating a government department overseen by Elon Musk is hysterical, it's that Trump seems to think that the punch lines (even if they are barely comprehensible) are worth the risks. It's hardly surprising that he doesn't appear to be taking the job seriously, but the extent to which he's willing to jeopardize certain government functions (and the country) for a laugh is kind of funny, in a dark way.
For instance…
Tulsi Gabbard is considered somewhat of a confounding pick to be the Director of National Intelligence. She was a Democrat until recently and, as Josh Marshall explains, she's pretty new to the MAGA world. Not necessarily a "loyalty" pick, like many of the others, in other words. But if you've been following conservative media, you'll know Gabbard offers something almost as good as loyalty: she's a victim … of the "Deep State."
As the story — now right-wing canon — goes, Gabbard became persona non grata in the Democratic Party after criticizing Kamala Harris in the runup to the 2020 primary for her performance as California's attorney general. Supposedly in retaliation, Gabbard was called an apologist of the Assad regime in Syria by Harris and her campaign (allegations that were out there long before Harris raised them in the primary). The story, however, supposes that Democrats and the "Deep State" then ratched up their persecution, ultimately casting Gabbard as a Russian agent.
Gabbard's supposed fight against the "Deep State" resurfaced this summer when she was placed on a TSA threat list (the Quiet Skies program) which subjected her to enhanced screening. In August, Gabbard told Fox host Laura Ingraham that the move was "a clear act of political retaliation" for an earlier appearance on Ingraham's show in which she said Kamala Harris did not have "the strength to stand up to the military industrial complex."
So, now she'll be in charge of "The Deep State." It's retributive. It's funny. Get it?
Nominating the legally beleaguered (but duly loyal) Matt Gaetz to run the Justice Department doesn't have the same long-tail punchline of the Gabbard pick, but the intended effect is similar. A man who was just investigated ("victimized!") by the Justice Department under Biden could now run the department. It's gross! It's dangerous! Ha Ha Ha.
Creating a government department with the acronym DOGE and run by Elon Musk is almost too stupid to include here. However, it is genuinely funny that Vikey Ramaswaney will also be needed to run the Department of Government Efficiency, which is a joke that pretty much speaks for itself.
As Josh Kovensky wrote after the Gaetz nomination, "It all looks — and is intended to look — like an absurdist attack on the institutions that the nominees are being asked to lead."
For more on Trump's cabinet nominees, Hunter Walker looks back at how Trump's Pick for Defense Secretary spent his college years crusading against "Glorification of Diversity" and "the homosexual lifestyle.
And on the Podcast, Kate and Josh discuss how Democrats can ready themselves to take back power and analyze Trump's early cabinet picks.
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