2 months ago
24
Opinion|Trump’s Cabinet Will Be an Embarrassment of Wretches
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/opinion/trump-cabinet-hegseth-patel.html
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Flash back to Donald Trump’s first campaign for president. It should have been doomed when he mocked John McCain’s years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. Or when he fantasized about one of his supporters shooting Hillary Clinton. Or when, on that “Access Hollywood” tape, he was heard reveling in the genital prerogatives of fame.
But no. And that wasn’t just because there were so many Americans so dissatisfied with conventional politicians and politics that Trump’s provocations seemed a necessary solvent for the status quo. It was also because his offenses were so numerous, and came along with such frequency, that no single scandal could get lasting attention. Each faded into the crowd.
Trump desensitized his audience as his improprieties became their own unremarkable norm. And while he may not have plotted it that way, he definitely learned his lesson.
His selections for senior jobs in his new administration attest to that education.
It’s galling that he chose a son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner, who spent two years in prison for witness retaliation, tax evasion and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, to live in 60,000-square-foot splendor in Paris and swan around the Champs-Élysées as the next American ambassador to France.
But is that any worse than Kash Patel storming around America’s capital in the role of F.B.I. director? As Garrett M. Graff, a historian and journalist, explained in a recent guest essay for Times Opinion, Patel’s disposition is as dangerous as his résumé is irrelevant to the post. He was chosen on the basis of his flamboyant obsequiousness to Trump, in defiance of a long tradition of F.B.I. directors who were steadfastly independent from the presidents they served. And he has vowed repeatedly to seek vengeance against Trump’s opponents and critics.
But there’s little sign of serious resistance to Patel’s confirmation from Republicans in the Senate. They have slimier fish to fry — for example, Pete Hegseth, Trump’s designee for defense secretary.
