President-elect Donald Trump has hit the ground running, alerting the public to the sort of individuals he intends to appoint to his second presidential cabinet. He continues to advertise his colorful selections, rewarding his most ardent supporters, setting the tone for what his administration will attempt to accomplish, and demonstrating little if any concern for what anyone else thinks.

As I write this, Trump’s most controversial picks include former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to lead the Department of Justice,  former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to oversee the U.S. intelligence community, and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. All three lack relevant leadership experience and have been accused, respectively, of having sex with a 17-year-old, spreading deranged conspiracy theories about Syria and Ukraine, and having a literal worm eating away at their brain (actually, Kennedy said that about himself).

Then there’s Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, who doesn’t wash his hands and maybe has white nationalist symbols tattooed all over his body. Trump picked him to lead the Department of Defense.

Trump’s picks are facing an unpredictable future, even with Republicans controlling the Senate. Gaetz, a GOP far-right MAGA figure who was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for sexual misconduct and obstruction allegations, has drawn bipartisan criticism. Hegseth, an Army combat veteran and former Fox News anchor, generated concerns after sexual assault allegations against him surfaced. Critics of Gabbard argue she doesn’t have a background in intelligence, and she has garnered criticism for her dubious perspectives on U.S. adversaries.

“These people are manifestly unqualified, and you know, they’re not prepared to run the very complicated organizations they’ve been asked to run,” Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut said during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” last week.

Some people refer to these selections as Trump engaging in trolling. Perhaps. Nonetheless, with each of these appointees Trump aims to target and disrupt the power of bureaucrats and institutions he holds in contempt and perceives as a direct threat to his power or authority. He has selected these appointees not as his advisers, but rather as his political stooges.

As both Trump and his numerous supporters have repeatedly and gleefully stated over the past few weeks, his decisive victory indicates the public has provided him with a mandate. Although such a sentiment is an overstatement, many on the political right are increasingly weaponizing it. Perhaps this is why Trump is behaving so confidently and arrogantly. He has simultaneously nominated a number of under qualified and unqualified individuals to lead the nation’s most prestigious institutions and appears to be daring the Senate majority to reject his requests.

Additionally, Trump has been urging the Senate to allow him the power to implement recess appointments — or in unison decide to adjourn to grant him the ability to install the individuals he prefers without a vote —arguing that his choices must be ratified to assume their positions as soon as possible. If such a scenario were to take place, this would result in a breathtaking show of fealty to Trump as well as a dereliction of the Senate’s constitutional duty to offer “advice and consent” on some of the most crucial presidential nominees. Like many wannabe dictators, Trump rules by fear.

Millions of the president-elect’s voters agree with him that entire layers of government bureaucrats should be fired, think regulations contribute to their own economic problems, worry about millions of border crossings by undocumented migrants, and oppose diversity programs. Trump is their agent of change. And his lightning bolt picks for top government jobs are his lieutenants in that effort.

Although there are a few conservatives who have continually denounced the tactics of the more extreme segments of their party, these individuals have been remote and futile voices in the wilderness. Whether the Senate confirms one, two, or all of these individuals remains to be seen.

Republicans and other conservatives may want to do some real soul-searching about what is happening in their party. For the moment, far-right lunatics are running the political asylum.

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Copyright 2024 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.