Trump’s second term begins with divisive decisions and unforced errors - opinion

Donald Trump won the election fair and square – just as he did in 2016 and just as he lost it four years ago. With his usual hyperbole, he claimed an “unprecedented and powerful mandate.” It was neither. His margin of victory was barely 1%, and he narrowly missed getting a majority of the popular vote.

More importantly, he brought in majorities, albeit narrow, in the House and Senate for at least the next two years.

He won the right to rule, but it is not an absolute right, something he seems to have trouble comprehending but nonetheless encountered within days.

In his rush to put together his new government, he committed several unforced errors. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, his nominee for attorney general, who was to be a point man for Trump’s revenge against his enemies, was himself the victim of revenge by his own enemies, mostly former House GOP colleagues. Plagued by a sex scandal – not uncommon among Trump’s nominees – he didn’t last a full Scaramucci.

Trump’s second early blunder was calling for the Senate to bypass its constitutional responsibility to advise and consent on presidential nominees and allow his picks to sneak through as recess appointments.

The president-elect also sought to circumvent the routine security vetting of candidates by the FBI. There could be several reasons. It is no secret Trump carries great resentment against the FBI as a result of the stolen documents case and other investigations as well as fear of what an honest background check would reveal about his nominees. The flaw in that approach immediately became apparent when news broke of a sexual assault allegation against Pete Hegseth, the prospective secretary of defense.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she will vote against confirming any nominee who has not had a full FBI vetting. At least three other Republican senators are also demanding traditional background checks: Susan Collins of Maine, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Mike Rounds of South Dakota.

Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, the newest member of Senate GOP leadership, told CNN on Sunday that the Senate will hold open hearings on Trump’s nominees and have “lots of questions,” apparently rejecting the president-elect’s desire for unscrutinized recess appointments.

Several nominees may be in trouble. Some are tangled in sex scandals, some have security issues, and some face questions of fitness. Standouts include Hegseth at the Pentagon, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head Health and Human Services, and Dr. Mehmet Oz to run Medicare and Social Security.

All presidents have the right to appoint the people they consider best suited to helping them govern. They will likely be long forgotten, but the president who picked them will be the one judged by history for their work. Their accomplishments and failures will be his accomplishments and failures. They will help shape Trump’s legacy.

That is what is so puzzling about Trump’s second-class second-term team. The Republican Party and conservative movement have so many with the skills and experience to run the government, yet he prefers Fox hand-me-downs over those with experience and expertise for most of his picks, as in his first term.

There’s one big change, however. This batch is a collection of yes-people who aren’t going to disagree with the glorious leader, no more generals and lawyers who think they know more than their president.

Trump prefers telegenic people – “straight out of central casting” – who can sell his agenda and defend his administration in the media. Trump is, after all, a former reality TV star known to spend hours watching an array of big screen televisions, where aides have said he gets many of his ideas, talking points, pseudo facts (pet eaters) and recruits.

Expect to see a lot more of Trump’s favorite outside advisers: current and former Fox talkers Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.

Fox isn’t his only source of talent. Two cabinet secretaries – motivational speaker Scott Turner for Housing and Urban Development and Brooke Rollins at Agriculture – come out of the America First Policy Institute. AFPI is a think tank set up to promote Trump’s agenda and is known as his White House in waiting. They may have little if any experience in those fields but are considered loyalists.

What about Project 2025?

REMEMBER PROJECT 2025? Vice President Kamala Harris called it “a detailed and dangerous” authoritarian blueprint to expand presidential power Trump “intends on implementing if he were elected again.”

He denied everything. “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and … had nothing to do with it,” Trump posted on Truth Social in July.

Not true. The principal architect of the 900+ page “governing agenda” was Russel Vought, backed up by dozens of former Trump aides and advisors. He was director of the powerful Office of Management and Budget in Trump’s first term and he’s getting his old job back. Look for some of the project’s recommendations to begin showing up early on in executive orders.

The OMB director does not need Senate approval, but most other top jobs do. With a 53-47 majority, Trump can only afford to lose three Republican votes if Democrats vote in unison against any of his nominees. Senators, unlike their House colleagues, tend more to be institutionalists who resent being railroaded. Trump got the first lesson with his effort to ram through the Gaetz nomination.

He recovered quickly, naming former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. An election denier – she led chants of “lock her up” about Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign – she was one of Trump’s impeachment defense lawyers and was picked to do what he falsely accused the Biden administration of doing: weaponizing the Justice Department.

The Washington Post headline summed up her assignment: “Trump sets up DOJ for revenge.” Bondi knows her assignment. “The prosecutors will be prosecuted,” she declared on Fox News last year. “The investigators will be investigated.”

Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus noted that as Florida A-G, “She decided not to join a fraud lawsuit against Trump University after receiving a $25,000 contribution from the Trump Foundation.”

Her number two will be Todd Blanche, Trump’s criminal defense lawyer. Two of his other attorneys also being rewarded with top Justice Department posts are Emil Bove and D. John Sauer. Unlike many other Trump selections in other areas, they are considered highly qualified and experienced.

Their responsibility at the Department of Justice will be the one that has preoccupied Trump for years: retribution.

In a deeply divided nation, where he has an opportunity to seek healing, he seems determined to fulfill his campaign promises and charge in the opposite direction – no matter the cost to a divided and angry nation.

The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and a former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.