It’s still early, but there are encouraging signs that the system is holding in the opening act of the second Trump era. Matt Gaetz, the much maligned former Florida representative, withdrew from attorney general consideration after just eight days, when it became clear that he lacked the support from fellow Republicans. President-elect Donald Trump reportedly delivered the news personally, telling Gaetz he lacked the votes, even in a GOP-controlled Senate. A mature step in the right direction for Trump.
Let’s hope that it is a sign of things to come, not only for several other dubious Cabinet-level appointments, but also the governing priorities of the next four years. Let’s hope that not every Republican shares the philosophy of one Texas congressman, who said of Trump’s goals: “whatever that is, we need to embrace it. All of it. Every single word. If Donald Trump says jump 3 feet high and scratch your head, we all jump 3 feet high and scratch our heads.”
Credit: Geoff Duncan
Credit: Geoff Duncan
With Gaetz apparently busy making personalized videos for hire on Cameo, attention shifts to Pete Hegseth (Department of Defense), Tulsi Gabbard (National Intelligence) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Health and Human Services).
Hegseth is a decorated veteran who wore the uniform and deserves our collective appreciation for his service. That does not inherently qualify him to oversee a nearly $900 billion budget (roughly 15% of the nation’s total budget) or its estimated 2.8 million total military force. Further clouding Hegseth’s future are ugly allegations of sexual misconduct that have raised questions about his moral compass.
Until signing up for the Trump campaign, Gabbard and Kennedy spent their political careers as Democrats. Kennedy is an environmental lawyer who once expressed his support for abortions at full term, tapped to lead an agency whose budget makes up roughly 24% of the entire federal government. Gabbard, meanwhile, has an unnerving litany of pro-Russian statements and a secret meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, for which she will have to answer before running our intelligence community.
After assembling the Cabinet comes the hard business of governing. The president-elect made many campaign promises, especially on the economy and immigration. If Republicans don’t curb his shallowest impulses, we all will have hell to pay cleaning up his mess.
Take mass deportations. Like many populist promises, it can sound like an appealing idea to those fed up with the notion that we must accept the status quo of a broken system. But the mechanics come crashing down when pushed for specifics. Injecting the military into the equation, as Trump has suggested, is akin to bringing a chain saw into the operating room instead of a scalpel.
Trump must develop a plan that involves border security and immigration reform in the same breath. The plan first and foremost must focus on identifying and removing illegal immigrants engaged in criminal activity. Republicans can (and must) push Trump beyond rally rhetoric and toward practical solutions.
Then there’s Trump’s unsubstantiated promise to “end inflation.” The GOP should put the brakes on the excesses of crippling tariffs with foreign countries, where the warning signs are already flashing.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond, which sets the tempo for interest rates based on long-term economic prospects, has risen to a curiously high 4.35% since Trump’s win. Professional investors are interested in making money, not rubber-stamping populist speeches, thus the steady increase. These investors know what we will unfortunately find out if left unchecked: Mass tariffs will only further aggravate inflation and feel like a tax increase to most Americans.
Even the business community can’t hold its tongue. Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said, “Tariffs are going to be inflationary. There’s no disputing that.”
Trump’s best chance at taming inflation over the long haul is for Elon Musk to be a raging success at immediately cutting government waste at the Department of Government Efficiency. In fact, it might be the single most conservative agenda item in his political quiver to date. In addition to rockets, if Musk can lob a few tenable ideas into the atmosphere that alter the trajectory of government spending, those same concerned professional investors will start paying attention.
I am no fan of Donald Trump, but I am a fan of America. If America and Trump are going to be successful over the next four years, it will require Republicans holding him accountable when he has a bad idea, like Matt Gaetz.
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