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If Trump’s election was the apocalypse, this week has been a never-ending April Fools, writes John Casey.
If Election Day felt like the apocalypse, this week has felt like a never-ending April Fools’ Day. To all those who said after Donald Trump’s win that “he might not be so bad,” I give you Matt Gaetz, Trump’s pick to be the United States Attorney General.
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Gaetz was the icing on the cake after Trump’s ludicrous trifecta of Cabinet picks that included the woefully inexperienced Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary and the former Democrat turned Republican turned whack-a-doodle ex-U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. Gabbard has no intelligence experience. Nothing. Nada. She’s been ever-present on Fox News.
Similarly, Hegseth comes from Fox News, where he was a repugnant anchor who filled the conservative airways with homophobic, racist, and misogynist rants. He has never run a small, medium, or midsized organization. The Department of Defense has 2.8 million employees, which is about 2,799,990 million more people than Hegseth ever supervised. In the pantheon of legendary Defense secretaries, Leon Panetta, James Mattis, Robert Gates, and yes, even Dick Cheney, here comes the vile, verbose, and vilified Hegseth.
And Gaetz, the only thing he’s prosecuted is his case for the most hated man in Congress.
Will someone please end this nightmare of Cabinet announcements by exclaiming “April Fool!” and put an end to nominations of all these fools? If there was suspicion that Trump might be losing his mind during the campaign, it has been solidly confirmed this week. Trump has gone bananas.
It’s either that, or Trump is playing a cruel and sick joke on the American people and the international community, but it’s no joke. Trump is the person a careless and ill-informed electorate voted to be the president of the United States. And now, even before he takes office on January 20, 2025 — Apocalypse II — Trump is showing the type of sinister, irresponsible, unserious, banal, and dim-witted person he is.
Consider this, when John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960, he promised to bring together the "best and the brightest" to lead his administration. Kennedy was determined to move America forward — not backward, not sideways, forward.
Gabbard and Hegseth are not America’s “best and brightest.” They are Trump’s buffonish and befuddled, and they will take America back decades through their ineptitude and backward views.
Kennedy sought out individuals with remarkable intellect, skill, and experience, focusing on those who had excelled not only in government but also in business, academia, and military service. His vision was to create a team that could address pressing issues like the Cold War, civil rights, and space exploration with fresh, bold ideas. Not unlike what faces us today.
His focus on talent and innovation reflected Kennedy's idealism and his belief that America could be a force for good in the world. Hegseth, Gabbard, and most glaringly, Gaetz are nowhere near forces of good.
One of the most prominent figures Kennedy brought into his administration was Robert McNamara, who served as secretary of Defense. McNamara had built a distinguished career as the president of Ford Motor Co., where he was known for his analytical approach and strong organizational skills.
Another standout was Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who became a close adviser to Kennedy and contributed his deep insights on historical and political matters. Then there was McGeorge Bundy, a former dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, who became national security adviser, adding intellectual rigor to Kennedy's foreign policy team.
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Kennedy took a lot of heat for choosing his brother Robert F. Kennedy as attorney general. In its day, the decision was controversial, to say the least. At the time RFK was only 35, but he did have experience working in the Justice Department and worked as a Senate committee counsel for eight years, most notably as chief counsel for the Senate Rackets Committee, which uncovered Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa’s corruption.
Together, these men embodied John F. Kennedy's commitment to excellence and innovation, and their expertise played a central role in shaping the administration's ambitious domestic and international agenda. However, their successes and struggles would also illustrate the complexities of governing in a turbulent era, as they faced the Cuban Missile Crisis and the escalating conflict in Vietnam.
I bring these crises up because these men faced very, very serious problems that can test the intellect, skills, and resolve of “the best and brightest.” So imagine who the “buffonish and befuddled” might react to something like the Cuban Missile Crisis. God help us. Seriously.
The world faces gigantic problems every day. It’s a constant tinderbox, and that doesn’t include all of the surprises awaiting that could fuel the fires of that tinderbox. War in the Middle East, in Ukraine, Iran and North Korea’s impending nuclear threats. China’s constant attempts to disrupt U.S. industries and technologies. Russian aggression and Vladimir Putin’s thirst for power. The future of our NATO alliance. These are things we know about.
What awaits us tomorrow or in December or on January 20, 2025, when there could very well be a real apocalypse? We’re all shocked and dismayed about Trump’s nominations for critical U.S. legal, intelligence, and defense leaders. What do you think our allies think? Would they ever trust America again with intelligence? And what should keep us all up at night — what will our enemies make of our “buffonish and befuddled” so-called leadership?
When you put a third-string defense up against the best offense in the league, disaster is imminent. Our enemies are paying attention far more than we are. America electing a bungling and middling maladroit is an early Christmas present to our enemies. If you’re stupid enough to think Trump represents a “strong America,” you’re probably dumb enough to think that our place in the world is safe with him and Hegseth, Gabbard, and Gaetz at the helm.
This is no joke.
There’s one thing that can stop this trio, and that’s the 53 Republicans in the U.S. Senate. Will they recognize the danger Trump’s nominations pose to American security? Or will they fall in line behind America’s dim-witted demagogue of a dictator who is leading America toward destruction?
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