Analysis: How Trump plans to get his ‘mega-Maga’ team approved

Trump Force One was en route to Washington DC when the controversial plan to appoint Matt Gaetz as attorney general was hatched.

Mr. Gaetz, a controversial conservative star, was on the plane with him as it hurtled toward the capital for key transition talks.

But it was one of Trump’s closest legal advisers who lobbied hard for the nomination, while the newly elected president’s chief of staff, who would act as a moderating force, was in an adjacent room.

When the nomination was announced, there was media consternation and anger, even among some Republicans in Congress.

Gaetz’s leadership of the Justice Department, which pursued him for two years over allegations of sexual harassment of minors, was described as “reckless” or even “godly trolling” by Trump’s political opponents.

Some on Capitol Hill speculated whether it was a trap. Did Trump offer up a shaky candidate to make his other Cabinet choices seem more reasonable?

Skepticism over whether Gaetz would pass congressional hearings was widespread, with ten Republican senators prepared to vote against it.

But beyond the game, Mr. Gaetz’s appointment also follows Mr. Trump’s sometimes loose campaign promise to go after the DOJ to investigate his own alleged crimes.

And in Mr. Gaetz, he also appears to have a loyal acolyte who would push for a complete dismantling of federal institutions, or the “deep state,” so he can bend them to his will.

Full control of the Justice Department and abolishing the normal practice of keeping politics and law enforcement separate would allow Trump to prosecute his enemies criminally.

He has suggested that Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who led two federal prosecutions of Trump, could be a target.

Mr. Gaetz has also discussed shutting down the FBI, the agency behind the raids on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to retrieve classified documents.

Trump’s first Cabinet appointments early this week were foreign policy hardliners and hawks, some of whom even said Democrats were comfortable with them.

But late Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump’s Cabinet choices took a more radical turn.

They included Pete Hegseth, the axe-wielding ultra-conservative military veteran and Fox News personality as his defense secretary, and Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman turned Trump fanatic who has been accused of going soft on Vladimir Putin as director of the National Security Council. intelligence.

All three nominations are part of a selection strategy reported by the Telegraph earlier this week, which saw candidates vetted for signs of disloyalty in the wake of the January 6 uprising.

As a congressman, Mr. Gaetz introduced legislation that would limit the sentences of anyone who participated in the attacks on the U.S. Capitol.

And if confirmed, he will take charge of the Justice Department, the very department responsible for a now-closed federal sex trafficking investigation in which he was embroiled.

Mr Hegseth, a man who does not believe women should hold frontline positions in the military, will be responsible for America’s 1.3 million soldiers.

Despite some doubts about Trump’s foreign policy plans prior to his 2016 election victory, Hegseth quickly fell in line as one of the newly elected president’s most ardent TV cheerleaders.

And Ms. Gabbard, who was credited with preparing Mr. Trump for his election debate against Kamala Harris, will oversee 18 different spy agencies.

Long a popular American figure in Russian state media, she was accused of parroting Kremlin propaganda by claiming there were “more than 25 US-funded biolabs in Ukraine” shortly after Vladimir Putin ordered until the invasion of the country.

In 2017, Ms. Gabbard also visited Syria on a “fact-finding mission,” where she met President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime was backed by U.S. enemies Iran and Russia.

The then-Democrat said she was “skeptical” that Assad’s forces were behind a deadly chemical weapons attack, which even Trump attributed to the despot’s regime.

How the agreements are approved

The U.S. Constitution requires the Senate to approve a range of presidential appointments, including ambassadors and Supreme Court justices.

The process begins by subjecting the nominees to hearings by committees that have jurisdiction over the government department.

After a series of background checks, the committee then votes on whether or not to accept the candidate. This is followed by a Senate-wide vote, in which a simple majority of senators must approve the nominee.

Only a small number of choices have ever been rejected by the Senate, normally because candidates withdraw before the final vote if defeat seems inevitable.

Trump saw his initial first-term selection of Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Labor Secretary Andrew Puzder both withdraw.

The current race is incredibly close, with Mr. Gaetz, Mr. Hegseth and Ms. Gabbard needing at least 50 senators to be confirmed, meaning they can only afford to lose the support of three Republicans.

The Senate is currently controlled by 53 Republicans, compared to 47 Democrats.

“Gaetz has a better chance of having dinner with Queen Elizabeth II than of being confirmed by the Senate,” said Max Miller, a Trump ally and Republican.

He added: “I think he has a zero percent chance of passing the Senate… reckless choice.”

Michael Guest, the Republican head of the Ethics Commission, said he was “surprised” by the decision to nominate Mr. Gaetz.

His committee is investigating the candidate for sex trafficking, allegations of illegal drug use, misuse of campaign funds and taking bribes. It would be closed if Mr. Gaetz resigns to become attorney general.

Other Republicans have described Gaetz’s nomination as a distraction so that Trump can choose another controversial but more acceptable candidate at a later date.

In the past, Ms. Gabbard has also faced sharp Republican criticism for her social media posts with pro-Kremlin narratives. She has been branded “treacherous” and accused of “parroting false Russian propaganda.”

Trump’s secret strategy

But Trump may have a strategy up his sleeve to ram through his nominations without any scrutiny.

The president-elect has demanded that the next Senate majority leader authorize recess appointments, which would allow him to unilaterally install members of his top team.

The power to make recess appointments dates back to the era of horse-drawn carriage travel, when the Senate was often out of action for months due to the time it took to move around the country.

To prevent important appointments from being postponed, the founding fathers wrote an exception into the Constitution that allowed presidents to fill vacancies during a recess period.

According to the Congressional Research Service, George W. Bush made 171 recess appointments, Bill Clinton 139 and Barack Obama at least 32.

The controversial tactic, which usually prompts accusations of a power grab, was not used by either Mr Trump or Mr Biden.

In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled against several of Obama’s appointments, declaring them unconstitutional.

By putting his three controversial picks in power, Trump would move one step closer to carrying out his “deep state” revenge.

The newly elected president has long demonized the intelligence community, especially after Russia was accused of being behind a campaign to help him defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump later sided with Putin when asked whether he believed his own intelligence services or the Russian president. a joint press conference two years later in Helsinki.

A supportive attorney general could also agree to publish the names of the Justice Department and FBI officials behind the investigation into Trump’s alleged removal of classified documents from the White House, which led to him being charged with crimes.

It has unnerved many serving DoJ officials, who have spoken of their fears that Mr. Gaetz will become their boss in less than two months.

Dave Laufman, a former top official, said the Republican would turn the department into a “Trump petting zoo.”

While an anonymous official who still works at the department told ABC News that there would be “mass layoffs if he were sworn in.”

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