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Trump's Curio Cabinet


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Let's kick it of with Mr. Bannon.

 

The alt and super right loves him. The middle-right isn't overjoyed. The left is having kittens, calling him an anti-semite and sexist.

 

Sexist is a fair claim-- he's proud of it.

Anti-semite-- I'mm going to say that while the KKK loves him, I don't think he's got a hood in his closet. Not that this makes him innocent, just that i think he is more ignorant than actively anti-semite. Or maybe that's cutting him slack.

 

Either way, certainly not a pick that's easy to defend. Google can show you his hate-filled headlines. Anyone want to get behind his appointment?

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Here's the biggest problem: Trump is going to reward loyalty. This is specifically a problem because his loyalists are made up of what are essentially the men and women who we can pretty much identify as being the biggest self-interested bottom-feeding opportunists in the party. If you had a moral sense at all, you wanted nothing to do with him. So most of the qualified Republicans are out of the running even if they'd like to help the new president.

 

So, yeah, his cabinet isn't going to be made up of the best and brightest. It's going to be made up of the people who largely disqualified themselves as public servants in the first place.

 

It is funny that Trump seems to keep finding new ways to emasculate Chris Christie though.

 

 

 

Palin for Secretary of Interior has had me giggling all day.

 

For what it's worth, on the face of it, I don't really have a problem with Palin for Secretary of the Interior. It's an area that she's passionate about and knows her stuff.

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Good God. If the rumors be true, we're headed for the Cabinet of the Damned. The seven Archdemons would be benign in comparison.

 

Lyin' Ted (possibly) for Attorney General.

Newt Gingrich (possibly) for Secretary of State

Steve Bannon's apparently okay with David Duke.

And Sarah Palin (possibly) for Secretary of the Interior? This keeps getting better and better.

 

Of course, it's all very tentative, for the most part, though what has been confirmed leaves little room for optimism. Looks like we can accurately guess why Trump wanted to "Drain the Swamp" - to staff his cabinet with what he finds at the bottom of it.

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She knows stuff? ANY stuff? News to me!

 

If McCain had won in 2008 with a different VP and tapped Palin for the job, it wouldn't raise any eyebrows at all beyond the usual about not wanting drilling to be done. She's lived it. She was Alaska's governor, so she's got a fair amount of practical political experience involved with it.

 

Seriously, other than the knee-jerk reaction that Palin isn't qualified for dog catcher, there is logic to it. If there's anywhere in the cabinet where she'd belong and could do a good job, it's in Interior. And it's probably the job she'd most want.

 

Thing is, I kinda think she'll end up not wanting it, so it doesn't really matter anyway.

 

 

 

Do you think the Bannon outrage is justified?

 

Probably overblown, as far as the worst accusations, but he earned it. How does the saying go? If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

 

He helped unleash a lot of ugliness to help Trump. A lot of what I've been railing against Trump for over the past several months can be applied just as much to Bannon.

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Funny, when I heard all I thought was that it was a good sign. Romney would be a good choice for any number of cabinet positions. Any serious administration would be smart to have him. And putting Romney at State would go a long way towards signaling to the world that Trump's foreign policy is in professional hands and serious.

 

Would also be ironic if State were held by two failed presidential nominees from Massachusetts in a row.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

Turns out that Romney might be on the radar! Apparently the meeting is going down this Saturday...

 

Hey Poe!!

 

Looks like your boy is about to KISS THE RING!!!!

 

bahahahahahaha

I like how the press is making this out to be "OMG! Romney is gonna be the Sec of State!" Meeting Trump doesn't mean he's going to offer anything. It doesn't mean Romney wants a position, either. Though he probably would be a good Sec of Treasury, it would be kind of a come down for Romney, who tried running for president twice, and already has been a governor. He doesn't need the job, financially or politically. I think it's probably just Trump sitting him down for show, to get the GOP unified by looking like he's reaching out to someone who criticized him and opposed him the most, within the GOP. And since it's the president-elect from his own party asking, Romney kind of has to go, otherwise he would look like a douche.

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I find a Justice Department that believes they can pick and choose the laws they wish to follow much more disturbing than a single issue like marijuana legalization.

 

You always need to remember that these things go both ways. The Obama Administration decided that laws in regards to marijuana and immigration could go without enforcement. Once that can of worms is opened, which laws that are important to you will be ignored next?

 

Even while facing the consequences of this disreputable legal theory with a man like Sessions taking over the Justice Department, the marijuana crowd still doesn't get the precedent they've unleashed to get their cheap high.

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Your response was glib, but the question is serious: Are you or are you not comfortable with a president and administration deciding which laws to enforce?

 

Is marijuana so important to you that you would give the president the power to cancel enforcement of parts of the tax code he doesn't like? Instruct the EPA to no longer enforce regulations in compliance with the Clean Air Act? What if Trump's experience with the Fair Housing Act made him decide it was unfair so he'll toss it in the trash can?

 

This is the power you not only hand the president, but demand of him, all for the sake of a drug. But, hey, we all have our priorities.

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Looks like Nikki Haley just joined as U.N. Ambassador.

 

Interesting for a couple of reasons. First, she's the first critic of Trump's to be given a place on the team. Second, it's happening in the foreign policy side of things. If the rumor bugs are accurate, Romney is at the top of the list for State, but there's push-back the ones that backed him to put in Giuliani. Trump instincts seem to be to reward the loyalists for domestic policy and bring in former rivals/establishment figures for foreign policy to placate the world a bit. If so, it makes sense.

 

I'm kinda interested in this from Haley's standpoint though. I think that Haley's a talent within the party and someone to keep an eye on for the future. I was actually disappointed that she didn't run this time around as I thought she would have been kryptonite to Clinton's entire electoral playbook. She's already got 6 years as a governor under her belt. Now she's about to get a foreign policy background to go with it. She'll be able to work for Trump, so she won't be hated by the Trump crowd, but she's also on record as not liking the parts about Trump that are indefensible.

 

Whether he intends it or not, Trump might well be grooming his replacement. Of course, Pence will probably have something to say about that, but here's hoping she jumps the line while she's still young and fresh.

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I heard about this on the news this morning and my first reaction was to say "huh?" as Haley isn't an obvious pick for something like this.

 

But then I thought about it for 5 seconds and it makes perfect sense. Everyone wins with her. It's an obvious grooming operation for the RNC, who would love to run Haley, and it gets her experience in the area she needs it most. But it's also a win for Trump too, since he's able to placate the establishment and give them something they want, but without giving them a position that actually has real serious power, like secretary of state or defense. Haley also wins, since she gets what she needs with little risk- a position like this doesn't receive the same scrutiny and is sorta insulated from the rest of the administration, and it's a lot easier to distance yourself from it and appear non-partisan, depending on how the next 4 years go. The fact that she accepted tells us all we need to know in regards to whether she wants to run for president. It's just a matter of "when" now.

 

Speaking of Pence, I think a Pence/Haley primary would be fascinating, for many reasons, but primarily because I'd love to see who the various factions end up supporting. The danger for the establishment in a primary like this, is you might end up with a Bush/Rubio/Kasich situation. That's not a big deal if the Trump wing doesn't have their own credible candidate (in which case, they can be placated just by giving them a few positions on the platform, maybe on trade or something), but it suddenly becomes a big deal if another serious Trumpist candidate emerges.

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The danger for the establishment in a primary like this, is you might end up with a Bush/Rubio/Kasich situation. That's not a big deal if the Trump wing doesn't have their own credible candidate (in which case, they can be placated just by giving them a few positions on the platform, maybe on trade or something), but it suddenly becomes a big deal if another serious Trumpist candidate emerges.

 

I'm guessing that Pence is planning to be the Trump candidate. We're talking 4-8 years from now of course, so who knows what will happen between now and then.

 

Simply controlling the government will likely change the Republican electorate in and of itself.

 

 

 

But it's also a win for Trump too, since he's able to placate the establishment and give them something they want, but without giving them a position that actually has real serious power, like secretary of state or defense.

 

You still don't buy Romney as a serious Secretary of State candidate? Whatever is going on inside Trump Headquarters, both Gingrich and Huckabee felt the need to publicly tackle Trump. Even if he doesn't get the job, it's gone a bit beyond bringing in Romney to kiss the ring last week.

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Pence? Really? You think so? (not challenging, honestly curious of your thoughts on that). I suppose he's best positioned to take the reigns for that faction.. but I dunno. Feels like an awkward fit. Just doesn't seem to be a lot of overlap between Trumpism and Pence's positions. He could change them, of course, but would he feel comfortable doing that? Are the big trumpist issues the ones that Pence is really passionate about? I dunno.

 

As far as Romney... hahaha

 

Don't misunderstand me- I never thought he wasn't a serious candidate. My prior comments were just because I found the humor in it; the guy most opposed to Trump, now coming to his Golf Club, almost as if he was summoned (whether that was the reality or not).

 

No, I agree with you, I think it's obvious at this point that if he's not the leading contender, he's certainly in the top two or three. If he gets it though, it won't be because Trump feels the need to placate the establishment. I think Trump probably feels like, to the extent he needed to do that, he already accomplished it with Priebus and Haley. No, I think this is much different. If Trump gives it to Romney, I think it'll be because he truly thinks Romney is best suited for the job. For a man that puts such a high value on loyalty and to snub Giuliani, I think it goes well beyond a mere olive branch. Whatever was said that day behind closed doors at the Golf Club, I think we can agree that at the least (assuming this whole thing isn't a deliberate red herring), Trump was very impressed.

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And on that last point- I'm actually not that surprised, come to think of it. While Trump and Romney have very different personalities, to put it mildly... at the end of the day, they're both businessmen that have spent more of their life out of politics than in it. They have a lot more in common than one might initially think. It wouldn't surprise me if Trump actually found himself getting along better with Romney than someone like Giuliani- after all, notwithstanding Giuliani's loyalty and cheerleading, Giuliani is a lifelong attorney. He's not a businessman at heart, and many businessmen I know see attorneys as annoyingly unhelpful, at best, and a complete impediment at worst.

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Pence? Really? You think so? (not challenging, honestly curious of your thoughts on that). I suppose he's best positioned to take the reigns for that faction.. but I dunno. Feels like an awkward fit. Just doesn't seem to be a lot of overlap between Trumpism and Pence's positions. He could change them, of course, but would he feel comfortable doing that? Are the big trumpist issues the ones that Pence is really passionate about? I dunno.

 

Bush taking the mantle of Reagan was a much bigger stretch. If Trump were to back Pence, he'd probably hold on to a lot of the Trump die hards, assuming Trump is popular enough to have a say in the nominating contest.

 

As far as it goes, I expect Pence will internalize many of Trump's basic policies like skepticism on free trade and other nationalist/populist economic and international issues. But mainly, I think Trump represents feeling more than policy anyway. No one really knows how he's really going to govern anyway.

 

 

 

It wouldn't surprise me if Trump actually found himself getting along better with Romney than someone like Giuliani- after all, notwithstanding Giuliani's loyalty and cheerleading, Giuliani is a lifelong attorney. He's not a businessman at heart, and many businessmen I know see attorneys as annoyingly unhelpful, at best, and a complete impediment at worst.

 

Not to mention that Giuliani basically went with the neocons last decade. Not exactly a good mesh for Trump to implement his foreign policy. Might as well go with Bolton if that's the direction he wants to go. Same basic attitude, but with a whole lot more experience with the nuts and bolts.

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