Does it matter that at least one of Trump’s top-tier Cabinet nominees go down in flames?
Josh Marshall at TPM says YES, and I am happy to hear it.
So does it matter that Hesgeth goes down the tubes?
It does.
All political power is unitary. A president isn’t weak domestically but powerful on foreign policy — powerful on health care policy but hanging by a thread on interest rates. It’s all of a piece. The damage a president takes anywhere affects him or her everywhere. So having these absurd nominations go down in flames actually does matter. It’s not just the same as if Trump had nominated DeSantis or Pam Bondi in the first place.
This next paragraph is is key, and it’s a really smart take that had never occurred to me.
That brings us to a broader point. If the political opposition is most worried about what a President will do on issue X, that doesn’t mean the opposition should necessarily focus its attacks on issue X. They may ignore issue X entirely. Maybe issue X is actually popular. Maybe nobody cares about issue X. So no one will pay attention. An opposition will focus its attacks on the President’s most vulnerable points because that is where his or her power can be reduced most effectively. And all political power is unitary.
I think most of us are aware of this already, but Josh has stated it so well that it’s worth sharing,
It’s mostly a fool’s game trying to figure out just what Trump was trying to achieve nominating this group of clowns for most of the top Cabinet positions. Simple loyalty was a big factor, people who won’t flinch from doing whatever Trump says. They’re also all good on TV, or, at least, what Trump thinks is good on TV. But really it was a power play. It’s Caligula appointing his horse to the Senate. The absurdity is the point. I can do anything. Make the Republican Senate line up and approve a roster of manifestly unqualified nominees. But they’re going down one after another.
Wink wink, nudge nudge.
They’re doing it in a particular GOP senator way — all through winks and shadows, pregnant sighs. As far as I know, no Republican senator said they wouldn’t vote for Matt Gaetz, just as none has said so about Hegseth. On the pod Kate and I recorded this afternoon, we noted that if this were Biden’s or Harris’ transition, watching the top nominees go down in flames would be treated like the presidency itself was DOA. But not having a fancy Times or Politico columnist say it doesn’t make it any less so. Trump’s ability to just dictate isn’t quite panning out. And that matters.
Trump is fairly obviously trying to intimidate Republicans in office. To Trump, making them look weak is key. Trump wants all the power for himself. Trump is daring Republican politicians to stand up to him, because when they don’t stand up to him on this right out of the gate, he has all the power.
The idea that all power is unitary is key, I think, to the work that’s ahead of us. Chip away, bit by bit, everywhere we can. We won’t win nearly as many fights as we want to, but if we weaken him each time, it will add up.
