So far, Trump has surprised everyone with relatively “normal” appointments to his cabinet. But on Wednesday it shook Washington: Right-wing hotshot Matt Gaetz is set to become justice minister, and Putin apologist Tulsi Gabbard is set to coordinate the secret services.
With Matt Gaetz, Trump wants to make one of the most controversial figures in Washington his attorney general.
Alex Brandon / AP
Until Wednesday, Donald Trump’s formation of a government seemed to be progressing along somewhat acceptable lines. The nomination of conservative television presenter Pete Hegseth for the important office of Defense Secretary already raised eyebrows in Washington on Tuesday. At the same time, Trump himself received words of praise from critics for his designated advisor for national security and his Secretary of State: Congressman Mike Waltz and Senator Marco Rubio from Florida are two candidates who, like Trump, officially support a negotiated solution to the Ukraine war strive for, but want to see Kiev in a position of strength. Rubio has success in 2023 pushed forward a lawwhich prohibits American presidents from withdrawing from NATO without congressional approval.
However, late Wednesday afternoon, Trump also shocked Republican politicians in Washington. He announced that he would appoint Congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general. The 42-year-old also comes from Florida and is politicizing as one of the most loyal and loudest Trump hotheads on the right-wing fringe of the Republican Party.
Critics of Ukraine aid
In October 2023, Gaetz led the revolt against his own Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives, drawing the anger of his party colleagues. Among other things, he accused McCarthy of colluding with President Joe Biden a secret agreement for new billions in aid to Ukraine. Gaetz was one of the biggest in Congress, along with Russia-friendly Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Critics of support for Kyiv.
Together with Greene pie Gaetz after America stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to defend Trump’s lie of a stolen election. Trump is the “undisputed leader” of the Republicans and his “America First” movement will not disappear, emphasized Gaetz. At the same time, he accused the Biden administration of exploiting the Justice Department against its political opponents. He called for the ministry and the federal police it oversees to be dissolved.
Suspicion of sex trafficking and obstruction of justice
Gaetz is a “talented lawyer,” said Trump, justifying his nomination on his short message service Truth Social. He will eradicate “systematic corruption” in the Ministry of Justice, promised the future president. Last year, the Justice Department ended fruitless investigations against Gaetz. There were suspicions of sex with a minor, sex trafficking and obstruction of justice. An investigation is still ongoing in the House Ethics Committee. Gaetz always maintained his innocence.
A separate investigation by the Congressional Ethics Committee brought Gaetz to an abrupt end on Thursday night when he resigned from the US House of Representatives with immediate effect. With his “somewhat surprising” waiver of his mandate, Gaetz wanted to enable his seat in Congress to be filled quickly, said House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson at a press conference. Critics, however, suspect other motives for the withdrawal: According to media reports, the publication of the final report of the investigation into Gaetz was imminent. “Politico,” for example, quoted Republican party colleagues who attributed Gaetz’s waiver of his mandate to this expected final report.
Democrats feared that Trump would nominate a particularly loyal person to the Justice Department. During the election campaign, he repeatedly hinted that he could exploit the judiciary to take revenge on his political opponents. Among other things, he spoke of appointing a special prosecutor against Biden, the “most corrupt president in the history of the United States.”
Darling of Russian propaganda
Virtually at the same time as Gaetz, Trump nominated Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence on Wednesday. In this role, the former Democratic presidential candidate would coordinate 17 American intelligence services. Gabbard didn’t just make headlines because of her transformation into a Trump Republican. In 2017, the then-Democratic lawmaker met with dictator Bashar al-Asad during a secret trip to Syria. There must be a dialogue between the USA and Syria, she said at the time.
Former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard speaks at a campaign appearance with Donald Trump in North Carolina in October.
Erik S. Lesser / EPA
During the 2019 election campaign, Gabbard was suspected by Hillary Clinton of being a Russian agent. What particularly struck Clinton was that Moscow’s internet trolls and propaganda channels were noticeably often over Gabbard’s campaign reported. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine she made the “provocative” NATO eastward expansion is responsible for the Russian invasion. In an interview with conservative television host Tucker Carlson, Gabbard claimed that the U.S wanted to overthrow Vladimir Putin’s regime. Russian state television picked up an excerpt from the interview. The moderator referred to Gabbard as “our friend Tulsi”.
When Gabbard left the Democratic Party in October 2022, she referred to it as “Elitist clique of warmongers”. Through their woke ideology, Democrats are fomenting anti-white racism and hostility toward people’s faith and spirituality, she claimed. In addition, the left exploited the security apparatus to persecute their political opponents and increasingly dragged the country into a nuclear war.
Even Republicans expressed alarm at Trump’s personnel decisions on Wednesday. “We started with a solid selection, continued with some interesting wild cards and ended up with more than controversial people,” conservative political strategist Matthew Bartlett told Politico. Republican Senator Susan Collins said she was “shocked” by Gaetz’s nomination. MP Max Miller spoke of an “irresponsible election”.
The Senate is the final firewall
Trump’s incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles is said to have set a condition before accepting her new position, CNN reported last week. “Clowns” should not be allowed into the White House at will. Now, however, Trump doesn’t seem to care much about it. The only institution that can prevent appointments like those of Hegseth, Gaetz or Gabbard is the Republican-controlled Senate.
The three nominations would now reveal “whether there are still some Republican senators with principles and red lines,” wrote Mark Salter, a former employee and confidant of the late Senator John McCain, on X. “Or are they all cowards.”
With the election of the new Senate majority leader, there is at least hope. On Wednesday, senators elected 63-year-old John Thune as their leader. The senator from South Dakota is considered a traditional establishment Republican. Four years ago, he criticized Trump’s attempt to overturn the election results. However, in order to win the election as majority leader, Thune promised that he would “hand in hand” will work with Trump.
