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.
A federal judge in Washington has denied a bid Wednesday brought by a watchdog group to immediately block the Justice Department’s “anti-weaponization” fund, for now choosing to trust the department’s assertions that it is not moving forward with the fund.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled immediately, denying Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have blocked the Department of Justice from taking steps to create the fund.
Throughout the 30-minute hearing, the DOJ reiterated that the administration was not moving forward with the nearly $1.8 billion fund, which seeks to compensate individuals who allege they have been politically targeted or victimized by the DOJ.
Andrew Block, the only lawyer present for the government, repeatedly cited Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s June 2 congressional testimonyin which he said the administration was “not moving forward” with plans to create the fund.
Leon indicated he agreed with the DOJ’s position that the case appeared to be moot, saying he was not persuaded there was an issue for the court to decide regarding the creation of the fund. He issued a stern warning to the DOJ, saying, “Don’t play possum with this court!” — meaning he does not want to be deceived.
The plaintiffs argued Blanche’s testimony did not amount to an official cancellation. Nikhel Sus, CREW’s attorney, said Blanche “refused to memorialize that rescission,” or in other words, put it in writing. Sus said that was “highly unusual.” Leon responded, “This whole case is highly unusual to say the least.”
Leon asked the government twice why they would not just rescind the order that established the fund. Block responded, “I don’t know,” and pointed again to Blanche’s public statements about the fund’s future.
Both Leon and Sus raised the issue of Trump’s continued public defense of the fund. “It can still be an important issue and also not moving forward,” Block said. “That isn’t a direction to move forward with the fund.”
Although Leon rejected CREW’s bid for an immediate block, he indicated he is still considering its request for a longer-term block against the fund.
A block order from a separate federal judge in Virginia remains in effect until at least Friday.
Fallon Gallagher is a legal affairs reporter for MS NOW.
The date when Social Security’s trust fund is expected to run out of money just got bumped up. The fund is now projected to empty in 2032according to a new report released by Social Security’s trustees.
The new depletion date isn’t an earth-shaking change — it’s only a quarter earlier than the estimate in last year’s report. But it illustrates how President Donald Trump’s policies are degrading a program he promised to never jeopardize — and accelerating an approaching crisis in how our government will assist the elderly and disabled.
The report names three factors that contributed to the earlier insolvency date. One is a declining fertility rate, but the other two drivers can be traced back to Trump: a drop in immigration into the country, and the “substantial effect” of the tax policies in the One Big Beautiful Bill he signed last summer.
Trump’s acceleration of the program’s insolvency comes atop his assaults on the program’s administrative capacities.
Reduced immigration during Trump’s second term — especially when coupled with a declining fertility rate — strains Social Security because the program is funded through payroll taxes. Those come out of people’s paychecks, and fewer workers supporting an aging population means the program receives less revenue. Indeed, Social Security already has been tapping its trust fund for the better part of the past two decades because the program’s costs have exceeded its cash income. And as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out last yearlast year’s tax cuts were a boon to the rich but a bust for the solvency of the Social Security trust fund.
To be clear, if the fund is depleted, Social Security won’t go belly up. Benefits will continue to be paid out, but there will be a large drop in the amount. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the “average monthly cut would total $500, which is more than what the average retired household spends on groceries each month.”
That would be a huge blow to the budgets of many older Americans. Social Security is a major source of income for most retirees, and roughly 40% of beneficiaries over the age of 65 rely on it for most of their income. And it would mark the destabilization of the sole source of retirement security for most Americans that is supposed to be insulated from ups and downs — unlike 401K plans. As the CBPP has pointed outSocial Security is “most workers’ only source of guaranteed retirement income that is not subject to investment risk or financial market fluctuations.”
Trump’s acceleration of the program’s insolvency comes atop his assaults on the program’s administrative capacities. His cuts to the Social Security Administration have left offices understaffedincreased wait timesand reduced quality of customer service.
Ultimately, Trump is exacerbating a colossal social safety net problem that predates him, and the trust fund will hit dire straits after he has left office. Democrats need to have clear plans for shoring up the program and making it robust for the future — which will require not being sheepish about taxes as a tool for renewing the social contract. And when Republicans try to claim that they, too, are champions of Social Security, all Democrats need to do is point to the truth.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest from Northern Ireland: “The family of a man who lost an eye in a knife attack appealed for calm on Wednesday after the incident triggered a wave of anti-immigrant violence in Belfast overnight, with masked men burning families out of their homes and torching vehicles. The appeal came as a Sudanese man appeared in court charged with attempted murder and as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and politicians in Northern Ireland condemned the violence by ‘masked thugs’ that had targeted ethnic minorities.”
* In related news: “The British government hit out at X owner Elon Musk Wednesday, accusing him of whipping up tensions online ahead of disorder in Belfast.”
* The tenuous state of a dubious ceasefire: “Trump said the U.S. is going to hit Iran ‘hard’ today when pressed by reporters in the Oval Office about his statement earlier that Tehran will ‘pay the price’ for taking ‘too long’ to reach a peace agreement. ‘Well, we’re going to be attacking them and attacking them very hard, resuming bombing,’ he said.”
* The latest casualty figures from Lebanon: “Israel’s military offensive in Lebanon has killed at least 3,666 people, including 131 healthcare workers, and injured more than 11,300 since the U.S. and Israel began their war with Iran in late February, the Lebanese health ministry reported yesterday.”
* The changing nature of modern warfare: “Ukraine is wreaking havoc on unarmored trucks and trains in the battlefield’s rear, using drones with upgraded engines and batteries, integrated Starlink communication systems and new artificial-intelligence capabilities. The ramped-up attacks are causing fuel shortages, complicating troop rotations and reducing Russian military activity on the front.”
* This seems like a reasonable request: “Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee demanded Wednesday that Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for acting director of national intelligence, submit to a full security check before assuming the post, including an examination of his financial holdings and foreign contacts.”
* Some market trends can’t be stopped despite the White House’s best efforts: “Even as President Donald Trump boosts coal over clean energy, solar power is hitting new milestones in the U.S. and remains the leading source of new power. Data released Wednesday by global energy think tank Ember, along with a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie, show the continued growth of solar and decline of coal in the United States despite federal policy. In May, for the first time, solar supplied more of the nation’s electricity than coal, or 12.8%, Ember said.”
* A bizarre schedule for a nonemergency vanity project: “Federal officials are laying more groundwork to begin construction on President Donald Trump’s planned 250-foot-tall triumphal arch, sharing additional documents that detail the project’s scope and an aggressive timetable for potentially completing work before Trump’s term ends. According to National Park Service documents posted this month, the administration envisions 20 hours per day of construction on the arch, year-round, in hopes of completing the project within two to three years.”
See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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