Jay Weber Show transcript 7:10am
Some listeners are wondering how likely is it that Lara Trump-after helping her father-in-law win as a co-chair of the RNC- is now appointed US Senator in Florida to replace Marco Rubio-who is going to be Trump’s sect. Of state.
I’d say the chances are slim-and not because i have anything against Lara Trump...or because Florida governor Ron DeSantis has anything against her-
I say her chances are slim because-this isn’t president Trump’s selection to make: it is Ron DeSantis’s....and gee...Ron DeSantis has a whole slew of political patrons and loyalists who are expecting some payback, too, doesn’t he?
This is very likely going to go to a Florida lawmaker who has helped Ron DeSantis reform that state and turn it red.
Remember: Ron DeSantis has his own loyalists to reward when it comes to political patronage. It’s not like he really needs to launch a search for a replacement, here.
Maybe?!- it will be Lara Trump, but i doubt it.
Meanwhile, President Trump is continuing to make staff appointments for his next term. Nearly all the ‘glory’ positions have already been filled.... but.... he announced that the -very good- spokeswoman for his campaign is going to be his new press secretary: Karoline Leavitt.
She’s only 27 but is very good....
Trump also named his new energy secretary-and I love this move- he chose a guy out of the oil and gas industry.
Chris Wright, the CEO and founder of Liberty Energy, will lead the Department of Energy in his new administration.
"I am thrilled to announce that Chris Wright will be joining my Administration as both United States Secretary of Energy, and Member of the newly formed Council of National Energy," Trump said in a statement released Saturday.
Wright "has been a leading technologist and entrepreneur in Energy."
Wright’s selection isn’t just a ‘screw you’ to the eco-zealots, though: he’s got a huge amount of experience in the energy industry- and has worked in nuclear, solar, geo-thermal, and natural gas.
If Donald trump is really an ‘all of the above’ sort of energy guy, then wright is a great pick.
And, of course, that handful of more controversial picks that trump has made-dominated the news in dc this weekend: Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK junior, and matt gates are being used as ‘proof’ trump’s an idiot and a crackpot who just wants to burn dc down...
But for the most part, I’ve thought trump has made great picks. I have no problem with Hegseth or Gabbard-they are smart people who will grow into the job.
I ‘sort of’ have a problem with RFK junior at HHS, only because he’s got a 35-year record of genuinely being on the kook fringe on the left when it comes to all sorts of issues, including some on food and diet.
But-whatever. People voted for change and the FDA, big pharma, the NIH, AG..etc All need to be shaken up. We certainly learned that during covid. So- let him be the disruptor.
Matt gates is the only genuinely awful pick by trump. Virtually no one in dc is supporting this genuinely awful person and criminal for the position-but I’ve got a separate segment on that.
Gates is -the reason-the founders gave the senate an advice and consent role to cabinet picks.
Genuinely. He’s the rare scoundrel and criminal who they were guarding against.
But even so-if he’s approved as attorney general- I’ll just step back and see how he does-and what changes he’s going to bring about- because-
This-is-what America voted for.
We’ve all been calling to drain the swamp. Folks, this is what ‘draining the swamp’ looks like.
It starts with upsetting the status quo and overturning some tables, early.
Listen to Jonathan Capehart. The ultimate insider liberal. Works for the Washington Post. Hates Trump with a special venom.
Look, Donald Trump is the most predictable and easy-to-read politician I have ever had to cover, because he's — he projects. He's thin-skinned.
He told us he was going to do this. He told us, RFK, you should be the head of HHS, and we all thought he was crazy, because it's nuts. But he's following through. And what he's doing in terms of the speed, he's putting in loyalists. He's putting in people who aren't going to tell him no, also people who actually believe in what he wants to do.
You call them agents of chaos. A lot of people have come to Washington to wreck Washington. And so now they're going to get into the federal government and wreck it from the inside. And I think the toughest vote that the Senate took was the one that elected Senator John Thune as majority leader.
Why? Because it was secret ballot. Every vote they're going to take from now on is going to be for public view. They will have to put their names to saying no to Bob — to Bob Gates — to former Congressman Matt Gaetz, say no to RFK Jr.
I don't think that they have that much courage to do the right thing and say no, Mr. President. But if they do have the courage to say no to Matt Gaetz and say no to the president, I actually wonder if naming Gaetz was a chaos play, because Todd Blanche, who was…
That’s from ‘Washington week’ or some such show on PBS and fake token conservative David brooks was on the same panel... And was asked about how many of these selections might be blocked on trump.
His take was- with John Thune made majority leader-and with veteran senators willing to exercise their independent powers- Gates and a few of these others could be blocked.
Well, there are two possibilities with the speed. Either they did a lot of pre-preparation or Trump's just riffing.
And from what we know, it could be riffing, because Matt Gaetz was on a plane ride, apparently, with Trump. And if the reporting is to be believed Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was in the next room in the plane, and she had no idea what was happening. He had a conversation. He said, oh, why don't you be attorney general?
So it may be just him going with his gut. As for the tone of the appointments, I have had a roller-coaster week emotionally. So, in the beginning, he nominated Marco Rubio for secretary of state. I said, oh, pretty good. Michael Waltz, national security adviser, oh, a professional. John Thune wins the Senate majority leader, non-Trumpy.
So I'm feeling like you have gone to the dentist, you expect it to hurt, and it's not hurting. So you're like, oh, this is pretty good.
But then comes Matt Gaetz, which is root canal. And then comes RFK Jr., another root canal. So it got crazier as the week went on. And we can talk about Gaetz, but just to pick Tulsi Gabbard, who is going to be director of intelligence, she's never had an intelligence job.
She's had no experience with intelligence. Like, who does that? She's never really run anything like a lot of the people — like Pete Hegseth running the Pentagon, without much management experience.
It's just like my only conclusion, he sent these people into these agencies to be agents of chaos. And that's the core message I take away from a lot of these picks.
I don’t disagree with brooks on that: I know it’s easy for pundits and trump supporters to say: now Trump’s got to get everything he wants, because he won.
There’s a lot of that going on right now...and
I absolutely understand the sentiment: it’s the ole’ Barrack Obama line ‘elections have consequences’
But that isn’t the way this has-ever-worked in Washington DC, and it’s not likely to now, just because of Trump.
I’m just preparing you for it now: this idea that Thune and Johnson and the 300 other republicans in the congress now just got to roll over and do whatever trump says...isn’t realistic.
Nor is any senator who crosses him is going to be targeted for destruction.
That threat might work on some of them, but it’s not going to work on all of them. Do you think that Susan Collins, or Lisa Murkowski, or Mitch McConnell, or a dozen other old institutionalists who have been there forever- give a single ‘damn’ whether trump voters are going to be upset at them if they block some of these appointments?
No.
And don’t shoot off your snotty emails or texts insisting I’m being ‘anti-trump’ for pointing this out. I’m not cheerleading for these senators to block trump’s appointments. They should follow the founder’s tradition and give them every appointee he wants unless that person is uniquely unfit for being a spy or a crook, etc.
I’m simply preparing you for this: trump-still-has detractors in dc who could slow his roll, here.
Consider that- now that GOP senators have made John Thune the majority leader, Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn have been ‘liberated’, as Cornyn put it this weekend.
Mitch doesn’t leave the senate just because he’s no longer the leader. He’s freer than ever to ‘vote his conscience’ and ‘use his vote to stand up for the institution of the senate’.
Get it?
There’s already a theory building that mitch, who’s in his last term anyway, can act as an excuse and a ballast for Thune and the caucus...to block some of these nominees and/or buck trump when they need to.
Thune as the new majority leader can insist, he’s moving forward with trump’s desire...and oops...that darn mitch McConnell keeps tripping us up...
Get it?
So, there’s a good chance that this is still going to be an infuriating exercise-once the hopes for a second trump term start meeting reality.
Because-this country-did-vote for change and disruption. And a few veteran senators-in his own party- should honor that.
Listen to Molly Hemmingway who- to my surprise-actually defends the matt gates appointment. She’s one of the few dc thinkers whom i admire who defends the pick.
But she does because- look- in some instances-this is what ‘draining the swamp’ looks like.
Matt Gaetz was nominated for this position because we have a problem with the Department of Justice. For the last eight years, they have run roughshod over rule of law in this country. They have prosecuted political opponents. They ran the Russia collusion hoax. And too many people in Washington, D.C. did not stand up against what was happening there, and many Americans are upset about it.
Matt Gaetz is one of the most effective people at fighting that Russia collusion hoax and other information operations, whether it was the Brett Kavanaugh information operation, the Donald Trump Russia collusion hoax information operation, or the one that is referenced here, which is something that the FBI and Department of Justice, which hate Matt Gaetz, looked into and cleared him of any wrongdoing. The idea that we're that this is about the issue is corruption. It's the Department of Justice's corruption.
And people are sick and tired of people in Washington, D.C., doing nothing as these people tried to destroy the country and getting upset at someone who actually might root out the corruption there. We don't have a Department of Justice. We have a Department of Injustice, and that's why you get Matt Gaetz as a nominee.
It has been a mantra from the left in this modern era- as they explain away their bullying moves when they’ve gained office: elections have consequences.
The thing is: they use it as a mandate to implement all sorts of policies and changes that –
A-they never campaigned on and – b- when they didn’t really win a mandate.
Donald trump won in a modern landslide: over 76-million votes.312 of the electoral college. About two million more than Kammy, overall, i believe?
Every part of the country- and every demographic you’d care to split voters into- all moved to the right.
Flat out: the American people haven’t spoken this forcefully-in one voice- since probably the Reagan win in 1980.
This-is-what people voted for. And so, those in power in dc and around the country-and those insiders and media members who are their accomplices-shouldn’t be surprised when Donald trump and his transition team start to deliver on the ’stuff’ the voters voted for.
They also shouldn’t be surprised when trump is choosing ‘loyalty to him and the mandate voters have given him- over ‘dc experience’ in any given job.’
Trump got screwed in his first term-over and over again-by putting institutionalists into these jobs. He’s not going to make that mistake this time: provided, of course, that the GOP senate gives him his desired picks.
photo credit: Getty Images
story credit: RealClearPolitics Fox News
audio version of the segment here > These cabinet picks are what America voted for