Trump’s 'blitz approach' with controversial nominees is 'overkill meant to overwhelm': analysis

06 December 2024

"War Room" host Steve Bannon famously said that a major tactic of the MAGA movement is to "flood the zone with s---." Bannon stressed that the more MAGA Republicans make their opponents feels overwhelmed and disoriented, the more progress they will make.

In a biting column published on December 6, the New York Times' Frank Bruni argues that President-elect Donald Trump's willingness to make so many controversial nominations for his administration is a "tactic," a "blitz approach" and "overkill meant to overwhelm."

The opinion columnist stresses that the terrible nominees are drawing so much attention that Trump will have an easier time getting the nominees who are merely bad confirmed in the U.S. Senate. The goal, according to Bruni, is "desensitizing" Trump's opponents.

"It's galling that he chose a son-in-law's father, Charles Kushner, who spent two years in prison for witness retaliation, tax evasion and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, to live in 60,000-square-foot splendor in Paris and swan around the Champs-Élysées as the next American ambassador to France," Bruni laments. "But is that any worse than Kash Patel storming around America's capital in the role of FBI director?.... But there’s little sign of serious resistance to Patel's confirmation from Republicans in the Senate. They have slimier fish to fry — for example, Pete Hegseth, Trump's designee for defense secretary."

Trump has reportedly considered withdrawing his Hegseth nomination and offering the position to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis instead. And at least two Democratic senators, Pennsylvania's John Fetterman and Arizona's John Kelly, told CNN they would consider voting for DeSantis for secretary of defense.

DeSantis has drawn more than his share of criticism from Democrats, but Fetterman and Kelly's comments indicate that even Democrats would view the Florida governor as an improvement over Hegseth.

Bruni argues that "Hegseth's troubles better the odds that the conspiracy theorist and carcass fetishist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. winds up the secretary of health and human services and that the al-Assad apologist and Putin fangirl Tulsi Gabbard gets to run national intelligence."

"There's only so much resistance that Republican senators can muster — only so many times that lap dogs this thoroughly muzzled can bark," Bruni writes. "Trump's picks for lofty posts speak to his veneration of scoundrels — to his belief that rules are for sissies and the strong take what they want however it must be taken."

Frank Bruni's full New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).

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