American Crusade

UPDATE: Five minutes after I finished writing this Wednesday afternoon, Matt Gaetz was appointed as Attorney General of the United States. I’m happy I only have to update this briefly as I am speechless and don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I think I will laugh. There is not much logic to Trump’s array of cabinet picks. Almost all are cranks, kooks, and extremists. They are also unqualified. Mixed in are few more “normal” somewhat moderate MAGA’s but he seems to deliberately picking the worst possible choices. Gonna think some more on this and try to discern a logic coming from his scrambled brain.

A couple of things stand out in the torrent of news surrounding the incoming Trump administration. I’m going to highlight them in rather brief summaries.

As the 28 million votes from California start to trickle in, Trump is about to fall below the 50% mark in the popular vote. He will still have the plurality, but he will no longer have the moral mandate to claim he was elected by the majority of American voters. This does not affect his electoral college win. And of course, he will lie and claim that he did win the majority.

But this should offer some comfort to those of us who oppose him. We should shake off the notion that the entire country went mad.

It also means he is politically weaker than some thought. As determined as he is to bulldoze everything around him, he is not Superman. He has real vulnerabilities that could hobble him and eventually lead to his defeat. He will have to make good in the next two years or risk a reversal in the midterms—at least in the House.

I branded the incoming regime as "Trump/Musk" yesterday. I might—repeat, I might—be wrong. Let’s start with this rosy report from NBC News:

"Tech billionaire Elon Musk was handed a major win Tuesday evening when President-elect Donald Trump announced that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would co-lead a new 'Department...'"

This might be a "major win," but it could also be the beginning of the end for Musk as a Trump whisperer.

Trump issued a press release naming Musk as "Co-Director of the Department of Government Efficiency," and the other co-director is perhaps one of the top three screwballs in the MAGA menagerie: none other than Vivek Ramaswamy, the guy who was hyper-hysterical and a laughingstock on the primary debate stage.

There is no such "department." It’s imaginary. It would have to be created and funded by Congress. It has no offices, or even a couple of chairs. If it magically became a department, then these two crackpots would face Senate confirmation— which I doubt they would survive.

I don’t think Musk wants to be co-anything, except president. Here’s another catch: this dynamic duo has been given the task of eliminating—ready?—waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. More strikingly, Trump has said their work must be completed by July 4, 2026. They must then make "recommendations" to the OMB (Office of Managment and Budget). Sounds like empty busywork to me, with a termination date just 18 months into the administration.

Another possible interpretation is that Trump gave these two this imaginary job so he can keep them around as advisors without having to bother with clunky confirmations. Musk, after all, would have to explain how his $15 billion worth of government contracts wouldn't present a crippling conflict of interest in tracking down waste, fraud, and abuse.

I lean toward the delayed purge theory, but I’m not sure. What I do know is this: Donald Trump demands the constant spotlight, and he is not prone to allowing anybody—even the world’s richest man—to get more media attention than him.

After NBC led with this being a big win, a few paragraphs down we get to this question of who wants to be in the spotlight:

"Musk has been so aggressive in pushing his views about Trump’s second term that he’s stepping on the toes of Trump’s transition team and may be overstaying his welcome at Mar-a-Lago, according to two people familiar with the transition who have spent time at the Palm Beach, Florida, resort over the past week."

Several reports suggest that Musk is overstaying his welcome and has become like furniture at Mar-a-Lago. I make no predictions about this, but it hints at a possible rift that could grow over the months to come and a possible delayed layoff notice.

You know Pete Hegseth, right? Oh, if, like me, you don’t watch Fox News in the mornings, you might not. Pete is an anchor there. He served 20 years in the National Guard, and I’m sorry to say that he is proto-fascist, a declared racist, a self-avowed White Christian Nationalist, a rabid supporter of deploying Army troops to crush dissent, and completely unfit to lead the world’s most lethal armed forces. He has no command experience whatsoever, but Trump says he likes him because “he looks the part.”

He has declared American liberals the greatest enemy of America, wants to purge “woke” generals, and the only mystery about him is whether he’ll have a junior officer around to wipe the foam from his mouth every time he makes a ranting speech.

This is the actual cover of his 2020 book American Crusade meaning you really don't have to read it to suss him out.

I had planned to devote today’s newsletter only to this unhinged extremist, but I was fortunately beaten to the punch by Jeff Sharlet, who did more research and wrote a full exposé of this werewolf, published this morning.

It’s a devastating rundown of who this guy is, and Sharlet has done a better job than I could have, as he was better prepared.

I URGE YOU TO OPEN THIS LINK TO HIS STORY AND READ THE ENTIRE CHILLING PIECE. IT’S AN ABSOLUTE MUST. OPEN AND BE AMAZED AT WHO WILL BE IN CHARGE OF OVERSEEING THE PENTAGON.

Read the full article here

And Make Sure You Do So!

Another genuine, certified fruitcake has been named as head of the Department of Homeland Security—none other than Kristi Noem. You know her as the executioner of dogs and also as one of the most reliable Trump stooges. The Governor of South Dakota, elected by the 73 people who live there, will now oversee one of the largest federal bureaucracies. DHS serves as the umbrella for a passel of federal agencies, ranging from Border Patrol, TSA, U.S. Customs, INS, FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and a dozen other agencies, including the Nuclear Incident Response Team, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspections Service (Bulldogs and Chihuahuas are already on high alert). DHS also oversees its own continent of armed officers who were deployed in Portland in 2020 and in other protests.

She’s a minor-league—no, make that a Little League—political player whose vocabulary is limited to three words: "Yes, President Trump." It’s a laughable choice but a very troublesome one, as she will wield tremendous power over many aspects of our lives. It’s no less than gobsmacking, as if Alfred E. Neuman were named Defense Secretary—though Pete Hegseth got there first. From USA Today in 2021:

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Thursday said she gave former president Donald Trump a $1,100 bust depicting the president on Mount Rushmore last year because she knew it was something he wanted to receive.

 

The gift was presented to Trump when he visited South Dakota on July 3 for an Independence Day fireworks celebration. The Mount Rushmore miniature stood 4 feet and depicted Trump alongside former presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Who knew Huckabee was Jewish, as U.S. ambassadors to Israel generally are? Instead, he has molded his two great passions—grifting and religious zealotry—into one life mission. The former Alabama governor and former Fox pundit is a Christian extremist, and as a Jewish-born atheist, I’m not prepared to finely parse and explain the more radical splinter groups of Bible Belters. I’m sure some commenter out there can fill in the details.

I know he subscribes to some bizarre theory that when the Messiah comes (I guess it’s not Trump), he will do so in Israel. And then there will be a great war in which all Israelis die or become Christians—something like that. He is a soft-spoken but inveterate right-wing extremist, and like Kristi Noem, he favors a national abortion ban. Sorry, but I really don’t see Huckabee putting any pressure on Netanyahu to rein in his war. If anything, Huck can be counted on to bless the IDF as they bomb hospitals. He might be a revelation for those confused Americans who wouldn’t vote for Harris because the Democrats were backing Israel in its war in Gaza. Well, you haven’t seen anything yet! Just let Huck settle in and watch what happens, if you can stomach the gore. In 2008, he argued that there is no such thing as a Palestinian. He has supported the illegal Israeli settlements on the West Bank. In 2017, he said:

"There is no such thing as a West Bank—it's Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities. They’re neighborhoods. They’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation."

Huckabee is notoriously corrupt, as are most televangelists, and is constantly fundraising among the True Believers. Suffice it to say that when he was elected Alabama Governor, he shamelessly published a marriage-like gift registry for himself and took all the loot. Politically, there are no surprises. Another loopy Trump lackey who wants more religion in the schools, of course.

Senator John Thune, also elected by the 73 voters in South Dakota, was also elected Senate leader on Wednesday by his MAGA colleagues. Choosing among the three contenders was like choosing terminal cancer, AIDS, or long COVID. COVID won. Thune was the most rational and least worst of the three. Trump’s favored candidate, Florida Senator Rick Scott—perpetrator of the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history—got a measly 13 votes from his colleagues.

In no way does this mean the Senate is anti-Trump. On the contrary, Thune is a somewhat soft Trump ally and flirts with being an old-guard, regular Republican. In December 2020, he called on Trump to stop challenging the election, and he did vote to certify Biden as president, for which he was roundly denounced by Trump on Twitter. I can’t see Thune offering anything more than minor irritants to Trump, much like McConnell did, while remaining a Trump loyalist.

There is one important issue already before Thune that could be a real problem for Trump. The Great Leader is demanding that the Senate abstain from confirming his cabinet-level appointees and allow them all as “recess” appointments that require no scrutiny or hearings. Senators—even MAGA senators—are notoriously protective of their “dignity,” and it might be a tough call. Thune, I think, will oppose Trump’s demand, and that might open the door to public, televised hearings on this gaggle of misfits he’s appointing.

Let’s hope so. It will be no fun for Trump and MAGA to see these nincompoops grilled by at least some Democrats sitting in on the confirmation hearings. If that happens, and with MAGA holding only a 3 or 4-seat Senate majority, some of these reprobates might even get voted down bit I wouldn’t count on it.

To loosely quote Lincoln Project co-founder and former GOP consultant Steve Schmidt, the Democrats are flat on their backs, like a pack of defeated lions. But even exhausted lions must eat and find the easiest prey. If the confirmations go ahead, the Democrats should focus on the weakest victims—and that would be the two incompetent and vulnerable zebras now named to head DHS and Defense. This won’t take down the Trump administration, but it will wound it and serve as a battle cry to escalate the opposition.

Make sure you at least write to your congress members—and why not John Thune as well—demanding that there be open hearings.

These cabinet choices mean the Trump administration is already in motion. Are you?

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Marc Cooper has written for Harper's, The New Yorker, The Nation, and many others. At the University of Southern California he was the founding director of Annenberg Digital News. Read him on Substack at ​The Coop Scoop​.