Matt Gaetz: The 42-year-old representative from Florida has been named by Trump as his preferred candidate for attorney general.Image: trapezoid
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It’s becoming increasingly clear: Donald Trump wants a conservative counterrevolution.
Kevin Roberts is the head of the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation and the brains behind Project 2025, what is now known as the blueprint for a radical reorganization of American society. This summer he declared: “We are planning a revolution. It will be bloodless if the left allows it.”
Most of the proposals in Project 2025 are deeply unpopular. That's why Donald Trump immediately distanced himself from it during the campaign. Although most of the drafters were members of his government, he said he was unaware of the plan and had never read it. (He may have told the truth for once, and the story is more than 900 pages long.)
New CIA Director John Ratcliffe.Image: trapezoid
Regardless, Roberts's conservative revolutionary argument appears to be sound. The first appointments of the future Trump administration are proof of this. They are making their worst fears come true, making it a reality for those who claim that the guardrails of American democracy, the much-cited “checks and balances” that will ensure the slide into an authoritarian state, are the pipe dreams of progressives and their media. . .
Trump announced the appointment of John Ratcliffe as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He is one of the main thinkers behind Project 2025. However, his appointment is still receiving media attention because the incoming president has made three more shocking personnel decisions in the past 48 hours:
Matt Gates
The 42-year-old representative from Florida has been named by Trump as his preferred candidate for attorney general. Gates is a “bomb thrower.” He is not interested in constructive politics. He wanted chaos in order to lay the foundation for the conservative Counter-Reformation. This is why Gates not only attacks Democrats, but he also attacks members of his own party when he considers them to be RINOs (Republicans in Name Only). He was a driving force behind the ouster of former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Gates isn’t just a big fan of Trump. He also surrounded himself with extremists from the MAGA movement. He is a frequent guest on the Steve Bannon Podcast and occasionally appears with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. However, unlike these two men, he was considered smart and was deceived.
The Incredible Trio: Lauren Boebert, Matt Gates, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. (from left)L picture: trapezoid
However, Gates is unpopular even within his own party, not least because he likes to brag about having nude photos of young girls on his phone. The Ethics Commission also filed a lawsuit against him to clarify whether he had sex with minors. The corresponding criminal case was terminated last year.
The ethics committee hopes to submit its report next Friday. That won't happen because Gates resigned as a representative despite being just re-elected. This at least suggests that the report was unfavorable to him. So Republicans will do whatever they can to make sure he never sees the light of day.
Gates is simply not qualified to be attorney general. Although he had a full law degree and a license to practice law, he only worked at a law firm for a short time. He had no experience as a prosecutor or as a manager of a large organization.
Gates' appointment has sent shockwaves even within the party's oldest party. Conservative opinion makers at The Wall Street Journal also kept their distance. One editorial commented that he was a “bad choice.” “Mr. Gates' decisions simply cannot be trusted,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “He is a candidate who wants to abuse the law for political revenge, and that never ends well.” “
Peter Heggs
Until recently, Pete Hegseth interviewed people at McDonald's and other diners on the morning show “Fox & Friends.” According to Trump's wishes, he will soon take control of the U.S. Department of Defense, considered the most complex organization in the world. What exactly enables him to do this?
Rambo wannabe Pete Hegseth.Image:X
Hegseth, 44, is an infantry captain in the National Guard and has also been active in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. That's why he likes to do Rambo poses and has written books in which, among other things, he calls for the firing of all “woke” generals and for women to no longer be deployed in war zones.
Trump, who spends hours a day watching Fox News, was impressed by Hegseth's appearance — he has a bodybuilder's body and is covered in tattoos from head to toe — as well as his communication skills. The fact that he has no management experience doesn't bother him, nor does the generals' likely response to the election.
Tulsi Gabbard
In the primaries for the 2020 election, Tulsi Gabbard ran as a rival to Joe Biden and others. At the time she was a Democratic representative from Hawaii. She has since changed sides, and like most converts, she has changed sides. She is now a close friend of Tucker Carlson, hosts Fox News, and has spoken out so often that she is Putin's understander that the Russian propaganda channel RT dubbed her “our girl.”
Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard.Image: trapezoid
This woman should be the head of all the U.S. Secret Service, even though she, like Gates and Hegseth, has no professional skills for this very important position.
The re-elected president's personnel decisions no longer leave any room for speculation. David French of The New York Times noted that they showed “he means what he says.” “He wanted revenge and personal loyalty.”
Is there a glimmer of hope? several. Senate Republicans just elected John Thune as their majority leader. In a secret ballot, top picks Rick Scott, Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson didn't stand a chance. That means Gates and Hegseth's nominations likely won't be approved by the Senate, especially since the usual suspects among Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, have expressed their concerns.
However, it’s doubtful whether Republican senators will actually defy Trump’s wishes. In the past, they have fallen again and again. In addition, Trump wants to invoke a very old law that stipulates that Senate approval is invalid if the Senate suspends work for more than ten days. In this case, the committee's approval is not required to fill the position, eliminating the need for annoying hearings.
Another speculation is that Gates' appointment is a strategy to seize the opportunity. That gave the congressman reason to resign and bury the ethics committee's embarrassing report. Trump, for his part, can trust that if he's rejected, the Senate will have no problem passing his second choice — which might be only slightly more shocking.
In the case of Pete Hegseth, it may be more difficult. The election shocked not only the U.S. Democratic Party but also its allies in Europe. A former senior NATO representative told the Financial Times: “When I woke up in Vienna in the morning and heard the news, I thought to myself: Whoever God wants to destroy, they will drive them crazy first.”
