"Fuck You to America"
Retribution above all else: these are Trump’s bulldozers
Donald Trump is working flat out to put together a government team. Three nominations in particular resemble a political middle finger to bureaucratic America as we know it. A story about the desire for revenge and human abysses.
Trump likes to speak of himself as "retribution". As a destructive elemental force that cleans up Washington D.C. and throws old habits overboard. The Republican is planning to tear down what once made the USA strong: the so-called "checks and balances". Democratic walls that keep the organs of power in check in order to maintain a political balance.
Anyone who has dealt with Trump knows that the 78-year-old has very little use for balance. That is why he is now embarking on a major overhaul. However, the US president-elect needs highly motivated bulldozers for his autocratic plans.
Trump against bureaucratic America
He is likely to have found them in Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Hegseth. They are supposed to help him bring the Department of Justice, the US secret services and the Pentagon under his direct command.
At first glance, the three don't seem to have much in common, except that experts consider them completely unqualified to run these huge agencies. Former Trump companions like Ty Cobb speak openly of a "fuck you" moment. From Trump to bureaucratic America.
A second, closer look at Trump's chosen ones confirms the middle finger to democracy. All three candidates are to head the same authorities that once investigated them.
Matt Gaetz has the most experience in his field - albeit as a defendant. The Department of Justice investigated him for years for "sex trafficking". Which roughly means human trafficking for the purpose of sexual abuse.
A former friend had accused the politician from Florida of taking a then 17-year-old girl to the Bahamas for sex and drugs. The case was dropped because the prosecution witness with a criminal record was not considered reliable enough.
Nevertheless, the US Congressional Ethics Committee continued its investigation. The explosive investigation report should have been published on Friday. Gaetz resigned his seat in the House of Representatives on Wednesday with immediate effect, which is likely to keep the findings under wraps.
Gaetz, who campaigned against an anti-revenge porn law at state level in Florida, denies all allegations. At the end of Trump's first term in office, he is nevertheless likely to have asked for a precautionary pardon from the president, according to consistent reports.
Long scandal file and human abysses
As Attorney General, he is to head the Department of Justice in future and preside over investigative authorities such as the FBI. Gaetz is an essential piece of the puzzle in Trump's vendetta to humiliate lawyers who brought him to court in show trials. During Trump's court hearings, Gaetz demonstratively stood behind his moral foster father.
The trained lawyer is despised even among Republicans for his antics and vulgar outbursts. "We've all seen the videos he showed in the chamber of the girls he slept with. He bragged about how he crushed potency pills and washed them down with an energy drink so he could pull an all-nighter," Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin told CNN last year. The list of similar accusations is long.
Putin's favorite as intelligence chief
The next candidate on Trump's list is likely to go beyond even the Kremlin's wildest dreams: Tulsi Gabbard , as intelligence coordinator, is to oversee all 18 US intelligence agencies in future and bring them into line with his. The self-proclaimed dove of peace and darling of Russian state broadcasters will also decide what will appear in the "President's Daily Brief". The daily intelligence memo for the US President.
The role was created after the 9/11 attacks to improve the flow of information between the individual intelligence branches. Here too, unconditional loyalty is likely to have been a decisive criterion for Trump.
Although she is a veteran, she has no previous experience in the field. She does, however, harbor a grudge against the intelligence community. Gabbard herself claims that she was placed on a domestic terrorism watch list this summer, leading to frequent extra checks at airports. Whether this is the case has not been confirmed to date.
Gabbard has been known in the past to spread Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine. She belongs to the faction that blames NATO and "warmongers" in the US for the largest ground war in Europe since the Second World War. The former Democrat is classified as a "security risk" by members of both parties.
A warrior of faith for the Pentagon
For Pete Hegseth, Trump's candidate for the Pentagon, feelings of revenge are also likely to be a driving force. Two weeks after the storming of the Capitol, the National Guard announced that it had withdrawn twelve members from duty on the day of Joe Biden's inauguration due to concerns about extremist groups. By his own account, Hegseth was one of them.
Soon after, he left the military and wrote a book in which he attacked the apparatus as a bastion of "mendacity" and decay. He takes offense at women performing active military service - and "woke" structures. The Fox News weekend presenter is associated with Christian nationalists. On his chest, for example, he wears the Jerusalem Cross of the Crusaders. He sees freedom-loving people in the violent perpetrators of the Capitol storming.
In military circles, Hegseth is a completely unknown quantity with no previous administrative experience. The 44-year-old only achieved national fame when he admitted during a New Year's Eve show that he never washes his hands. His reasoning: he doesn't see the virus, so he doesn't believe in it. Trump, who enjoys lounging in front of the TV, apparently liked what he saw. In future, Hegseth is to command three million soldiers and civilian employees as well as the country's nuclear forces.
Now the ball is in the US Senate's court
No wonder all eyes are now on the US Senate. Like every minister, Gaetz, Gabbard and Hegseth would normally have to go through an appointment process. However, Trump has signaled his intention to seek an exemption in order to hoist his retaliation warriors into office without scrutiny.
However, the newly elected majority leader in the US Senate, John Thune, must approve this controversial procedure. How much longer will the established Republicans allow themselves to be ridiculed? Or will they cave in to Trump again? It is a first stress test for the time-honored "checks and balances". In any case, the signs are pointing to retaliation.
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