The Dictatorship
Matt Gaetz’s crusade to own the libs could have a silver lining for America
Many of Donald Trump’s choices for Cabinet nominations can be appropriately described as some combination of absurd, baffling and shocking. But his announcement Wednesday that he wants Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general has received far more immediate pushback. The opposition to Gaetz, who resigned his congressional seat after Trump’s announcement, stems less from his obvious lack of qualifications than the fact that so many of his former colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, despise him.
Yet if Gaetz manages to get confirmed, as terrible as that would most likely be for the country, it could have been even worse.
Even his supporters describe Gaetz as a force of unfocused destruction.
As Trump set about filling his Cabinet, the position of attorney general was always going to be among the most important. In Trump’s first term, he discovered that appointing conservative crusaders was not enough to do what Trump thinks is the attorney general’s job: shielding the president. What he needed, Trump decided, was people who put their loyalty to him above the law, the Constitution and the country. For Trump, the ideal attorney general will quash inconvenient investigations, fire anyone whose commitment to the MAGA cult is questionable and prosecute his enemies.
There’s an old adage that in Congress there are “work horses” and “show horses,” those who do the difficult labor of legislating and those more interested in preening for the cameras. But today’s age of outrage media has given rise to a new class of representatives who seemingly measure their success by how many liberals hate them. That’s what Gaetz has been.
But among the Marjorie Taylor Greenes and Lauren Boeberts, Gaetz has been especially unpopular. That was true long before the House Ethics Committee began investigating allegations that Gaetz used drugs and paid for sex with underage girls (Gaetz has denied the allegations, and a Justice Department investigation was closed without charges). Before Gaetz’s resignation, the committee’s report was supposed to be released Friday. While the committee’s chair said the report would not be released, senators from both parties say they want to see the probe’s findings.
Whatever happens with the report, reactions from Capitol Hill Republicans to Gaetz’s nomination ranged from disbelief to disgust. Even his supporters describe Gaetz as a force of unfocused destruction. “President Trump is going to hit the Justice Department with a blowtorch, and Matt Gaetz is that torch,” said Steve Bannon.
Blowtorches do tremendous damage, it’s true — but Gaetz might light his own shoes on fire in the process. While he is technically a lawyer, he has no experience to help him understand the complexities of the Justice Department and how he might go about overhauling or dismantling it. A mismanaged department — especially one suffering from mass resignations, which Gaetz’s confirmation could well produce — would be one less able to carry out Trump’s mercurial whims. Gaetz could wind up paying more attention to distracting squabbles and pointless vendettas than remaking the department into a smoothly running engine of MAGA retribution. There are worse things than chaos.
He had the other contenders beat in one crucial area: endlessly yelling about liberals on TV.
Other names mentioned as possible attorneys general had far more experience and competence than Gaetz and just as much commitment to the MAGA cause. They included Mark Paoletta, a close friend of Clarence Thomas’ who worked in multiple Republican administrations; he has posted lengthy missives on social media explaining the need to purge the Justice Department of “deep state” officials who fail to do Trump’s bidding. But he was passed over, as was Jeffrey Clarkthe Justice Department official in Trump’s first term who went to such lengths to try to overturn the 2020 election that he was indicted in Georgia and a disciplinary council recommended that his law license be suspended. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, whom Trump also considered for a Supreme Court seat, is another Trump ally who was in contention.
Gaetz was such an outlandish choice that he was apparently on no one’s short list. But he had the other contenders beat in one crucial area: endlessly yelling about liberals on TV. And few things matter more to Trump.
If Gaetz manages to get confirmed — or if Trump circumvents the Senate to give him a recess appointment — he would likely bring chaos and vindictiveness with him to the Justice Department, which is exactly what Trump wants. But we may look back and say that a loud and incompetent buffoon was both a disaster and yet preferable to a quieter but equally radical figure who would undermine democratic principles in a more methodical and capable way. It is the thinnest of silver linings. But over the next four years, we are going to have to take victories where we can find them.
The Dictatorship
Trump chooses former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker as NATO ambassador
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO, the bedrock Western alliance that the president-elect has expressed skepticism about for years.
Trump, in a statement, said Whitaker was “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.”
The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is in law enforcement and not in foreign policy. Whitaker had been considered a potential pick for attorney general, a position Trump instead gave to Matt Gaetza fierce loyalist seen as divisive even within his own party.
The NATO post is a particularly sensitive one given Trump’s regard for the alliance’s value and his complaints that numerous members are not meeting their commitments to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense.
Later Wednesday, Trump announced that he’d chosen former Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, who served as ambassador to the Netherlands during his first term, as his upcoming administration’s ambassador to Canada.
“Pete will help me once again put AMERICA FIRST,” the president-elect said in a statement.
What to know about Trump’s second term:
- Staffing the administration: Here are the people Trump has picked for key positions so far. Plus, a look at recess appointments and how could Trump use them to fill his Cabinet.
Follow all of our coverage as Donald Trump assembles his second administration.
Whitaker, meanwhile, is a former U.S. attorney in Iowa and served as acting attorney general between November 2018 and February 2019 as special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference was drawing to a close.
He had been chief of staff to Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, before being picked to replace his boss after Sessions was fired amid lingering outrage over his decision to recuse from the Russia investigation. Whitaker held the position for several months, on an acting basis and without Senate confirmation, until William Barr was confirmed as attorney general in February 2019.
Whitaker has been a relentless critic of the federal criminal cases against Trump, which appear set to evaporate after Trump’s election win. Whitaker has used regular appearances on Fox News to join other Republicans in decrying what they contend is the politicization of the Justice Department over the past four years.
“Matt Whitaker obviously has strong political views, but he followed the rules when I served with him during his three-month tenure as acting Attorney General,” Rod Rosenstein, who was deputy attorney general during Whitaker’s tenure, wrote in an email Wednesday. “Many critics fail to give him credit for that. Matt didn’t drop cases against political allies, and he didn’t pursue unwarranted investigations of political opponents.”
Whitaker has little evident foreign policy or national security experience, making him an unknown to many in U.S. security circles.
Retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, a former supreme allied commander of NATO, said the ambassador’s position was “incredibly important” within the U.S. and NATO security framework, as the direct representative of U.S. presidents in decision-making within the alliance.
“The bottom line is they are looked to have the credibility of the president when they speak,” Breedlove said.
Previous ambassadors to NATO have generally had years of diplomatic, political or military experience. Trump’s first-term NATO ambassador, former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, did not, although she had been involved in foreign policy issues while in Congress. Breedlove said a security background was not essential to the post, but being seen as having a direct line to the president was.
“They need to be seen as actually representing what the president intends. To have the trust and confidence of the president, that’s what’s most important in that position,” he said.
During his 2016 campaign, Trump alarmed Western allies by warning that the United States, under his leadership, might abandon its NATO treaty commitments and only come to the defense of countries that meet the transatlantic alliance’s defense spending targets.
Trump, as president, eventually endorsed NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause, which states that an armed attack against one or more of its members shall be considered an attack against all members. But he often depicted NATO allies as leeches on the U.S. military and openly questioned the value of the military alliance that has defined American foreign policy for decades.
In the years since, he has continued to threaten not to defend NATO members that fail to meet spending goals.
Earlier this yearTrump said that, when he was president, he warned NATO allies that he “would encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that are “delinquent.”
“‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’” Trump recounted saying at a February rally. “‘No I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.’”
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general at the time, said in response that “any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S., and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.”
NATO reported earlier this year that, in 2023, 11 member countries met the benchmark of spending 2% of their GDP on defense and that that number had increased to 18 in early 2024 — up from just three in 2014. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has spurred additional military spending by some NATO members.
Trump has often tried to take credit for that increase, and bragged that, as a result of his threats, “hundreds of billions of dollars came into NATO,” even though countries do not pay NATO directly.
Whitaker, Trump noted in his announcement, is a former Iowa football player.
Whitaker has faced questions about his past business dealings, including his ties to an invention-promotion company that was accused of misleading consumers.
The Wall Street Journal in 2018 published an email revealing an FBI investigation into the company, World Patent Marketing Inc. The July 10, 2017, email was from an FBI victims’ specialist to someone who, the newspaper said, was an alleged victim of the company. A Justice Department spokeswoman told the newspaper at the time that Whitaker was “not aware of any fraudulent activity.”
Those selected for the NATO job in recent years have included retired Gen. Douglas Lute, the current U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, former acting deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and diplomacy academics who previously served on the National Security Council such as Ivo Daalder and Kurt Volker.
___
Colvin reported from New York. AP Diplomat Writer Matthew Lee and Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer contributed to this report.
The Dictatorship
Trump wants Linda McMahon to lead the command of his war on universities
When Donald Trump announced his choice of former World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education, his statement shouted that with her at the helm, “We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES.” The sentence was a reference to Trump’s previous pledge to shut down the department entirely — a promise Republicans have been making since it was created in 1979.
But axing the entire department was always unlikely — not just because it would require congressional action, but because what Trump actually wants is more federal control over education, not less.
The real focus in the new Trump administration will be higher education.
Like everything else in Trump’s vision for government, he wants the department McMahon would lead to be more corrupt, more ideologically right wing and less capable of doing the job it is supposed to do. In the past, McMahon has promoted private school vouchers that drain money from public schools, and she will surely do so again. But the real focus in the new Trump administration will be higher education. The war on universities is about to begin.
This war has both practical and political purposes for the GOP. For decades, demonizing higher education has been a favorite tactic for Republicans. They believe universities stand in fundamental opposition to the right’s project, and in many ways they’re correct: Most professors are liberal, and critical inquiry often undermines conservative ideas and values.
During the campaign, Trump released a video laying out his plan to “reclaim our once-great educational institutions from the radical left.” He promised to use the “secret weapon” of accreditation, punishing schools that don’t follow his instructions by stripping them of the certification without which they might not survive. “I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics,” he said, and replace them with Trump-approved accreditors who will bring a more MAGA-friendly approach to higher education.
Trump also said he would have the Justice Department target “schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination,” by which he clearly meant efforts to promote diversity; his allies are planning to invert the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division so it focuses on alleged anti-white racism. If universities do not meet Trump’s standard, they “will not only have their endowment taxed, but through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment.”
Seizing the endowments of universities would almost certainly be illegal, but Trump is spoiling for a fight, and his “secret weapon” is a powerful threat. Accreditation is vital to every university; without it, their students can’t get federal loans and they can’t receive federal research funding (more than half of university research funds come from the federal government).
This assault is already going on at the state level, where Republicans have passed laws outlawing diversity programs, weakening tenure protections and gagging professors from discussing certain ideas. No politician has waged war on his state’s higher education system with more venom than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. A 2023 report from the American Association of University Professors called DeSantis’ efforts “a politically and ideologically driven assault unparalleled in US history, which, if sustained, threatens the very survival of meaningful higher education in the state.”
In Vice President-elect JD Vance, Trump has an enthusiastic partner for this fight.
Trump is essentially promising to mount the same kind of attack from Washington. And there’s more. Project 2025 proposed to “deny loan access to students at schools that provide in-state tuition to illegal aliens.” (Trump, of course, disavowed Project 2025, but since the election, those around him have embraced it.) That would mean any student attending a state school in one of the 25 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition would have their loans cut off.
In Vice President-elect JD Vance, Trump has an enthusiastic partner for this fight. Earlier this year, as a senator, Vance sponsored legislation to take federal funding from universities that allowed undocumented students, including DACA recipients legally allowed to work, to have campus jobs. Vance has expressed admiration for the way Viktor Orbán, the authoritarian prime minister of Hungary, seized control of Hungarian universities as part of his effort to silence his critics. Vance argued that because universities are not properly educating students, “there needs to be a political solution to that problem.”
While Trump and Vance are no doubt sincere in their disgust with diversity and other liberal ideas, their war on universities is driven by politics. We are now in an age of education polarization; in 2020Joe Biden beat Trump among voters with college degrees by 24 points, and when the data comes in from 2024, the results will probably be similar. The same trend is visible in many Western democracies, as voters with more education increasingly support left-wing parties.
It isn’t just that Republicans are less interested in getting the support of voters with college degrees; they’re also eager to use universities as a foil and a scapegoat. We saw that last year when they put on what were essentially show trials of Ivy League presidents over protests against Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. The purpose wasn’t to defend Jewish students (you’ll forgive me if I have trouble granting the sincerity of Rep. Elise Stefanik, lead inquisitor and one of the most cynically opportunistic characters in Washington); it was to make elite universities an object of anger and contempt.
When Republicans attack higher education as a cauldron of radical ideas that will turn your children against you, they not only undermine colleges and universities that are essential to America’s economy and innovation, they also feed distrust in institutions as a whole that has served Trump so well.
Trump has made many threats against both K-12 and higher education; we don’t know how many he’ll follow up on, or how much enthusiasm Linda McMahon will bring to this fight. But even if he accomplishes only some of his goals, the damage to our country, and one of its greatest engines of social and economic progress, will be severe.
The Dictatorship
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