\n<\/p>\n
Right now we are in the wilderness, an uneasy time between the end of Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s term and the start of the second Donald Trump<\/strong> presidency. None of us knows exactly<\/em> how an emboldened Trump will govern, or if Republican senators will take their role to advise and consent seriously. But we can glean quite a bit from the rollout of Trump\u2019s Cabinet<\/a>. There are some fairly<\/a> conventional<\/a> picks<\/a>, one of whom even worked for<\/a> George Soros.<\/strong> Others have expressed controversial<\/a> and<\/a> extreme<\/a> views. Still, whether sane or crazy, all of Trump\u2019s Cabinet picks will presumably have to perform like skilled propagandists, praising him like a newscaster in North Korea.<\/p>\n Of course, if we know anything from the first Trump administration, it\u2019s that a lot can happen in a very short period<\/a> of time. Just look at former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz:<\/strong> A week ago, he was gearing up to be attorney general; now, after his nomination unraveled amid allegations of sexual misconduct (which he denies), he\u2019s on Cameo<\/a>. His bio reads simply<\/a>: \u201cI served in Congress. Trump nominated me to be US Attorney General (that didn\u2019t work out). Once I fired the House Speaker.\u201d With videos starting at $500, you can get Gaetz to record a custom message, completing, it seems, the first attorney general candidate\u2013to\u2013Cameo pipeline. Like so many things in Trumpworld, none of this is normal<\/a>. <\/p>\n With Gaetz gone, there is oxygen to focus on some of Trump\u2019s other Cabinet nominees, and there\u2019s much to worry about. You could turn to Pete Hegseth,<\/strong> who, while having been a weekend Fox & Friends<\/em> host, does not necessarily have the qualifications<\/a> to lead a 3 million-person-strong organization (the Department of Defense) and has also been accused<\/a> of sexual assault (which he denies). In addition, Trump tapped known vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/strong> to run the Department of Health and Human Services and Bashar al-Assad<\/strong> booster<\/a> Tulsi Gabbard<\/strong> to be director of national intelligence<\/a>. Not to mention, there\u2019s whatever Elon Musk<\/strong> and Vivek Ramaswamy<\/strong> are planning to get up to<\/a> in the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n But for me, the scariest Cabinet pick, and one likely sail through a GOP-majority Senate, is Russell Vought,<\/strong> who\u2019d be returning to run the Office of Management and Budget. You\u2019ll remember Vought as a coauthor of the Heritage Foundation\u2019s blueprint for a second Trump term, Project 2025, a wildly unpopular policy book that had about 13% support<\/a> among registered voters, according to one poll. The playbook is so unpopular that Trump disavowed its contents this summer: \u201cI know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they\u2019re saying,\u201d he wrote<\/a>, adding that some of its assertions were \u201cabsolutely ridiculous and abysmal.\u201d As I noted<\/a> in July, Trump \u201ccan try distancing himself from Project 2025, but his extremist agenda for America is written all over it.\u201d<\/p>\n What makes Vought\u2019s nomination so troubling is that he isn\u2019t some TV personality or crank who had a brain worm<\/a>. Vought is wildly competent. In his Project 2025 chapter, Vought wrote in favor of the \u201caggressive use of the vast powers of the executive branch\u201d and depicted the OMB as playing a key role in this effort, as The Guardian<\/em> notes<\/a>. According to Vought, the office needs to be \u201cintimately involved in all aspects of the White House policy process.\u201d That\u2019s not all. \u201cThe long, difficult road ahead of returning to our beloved Constitution starts with being honest with ourselves. It starts by recognizing that we are living in a post-Constitutional time,\u201d Vought wrote<\/a> in 2022. \u201cPost-Constitutional\u201d sounds bad.<\/p>\n Given Trump\u2019s erratic nature, he could change direction on a whim. He also needs to be loved by his people, and Vought\u2019s proposals may be very unpopular and hard to sell. But for now, at least, Trump appears to be on the same wavelength as Vought, who has suggested<\/a> that the incoming president will be \u201ca wrecking ball for the administrative state\u201d on day one. And as Trump wrote<\/a> upon nominating Vought: \u201cRuss knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n