Appoints Matt Gaetz attorney general, a deputy who has been investigated by justice // Ratifies Marco Rubio in the State Department
▲ Donald Trump, next president of the United States, announced new appointments yesterday: Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence; Marco Rubio (center, in the image) was confirmed in the State Department, and Matt Gaetz, who will be attorney general.Photo Afp
Jim Cason and David Brooks
Correspondents
La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, November 14, 2024, p. 20
Washington and New York. Donald Trump previewed the provocative and aggressive style with which he will govern as he made his first visit to the capital as president-elect, suggesting in a meeting with the congressional Republican caucus that he may be so successful as president that lawmakers will allow him to seek a third term in the White House – something prohibited, until now, by the Constitution – and continuing with controversial appointments that continue to surprise even his own party.
Trump, after his triumphant visit to the Capitol, met for two hours with President Joe Biden at the White House, where both committed to a peaceful transfer of Executive Power, without mentioning that he was the first to violate that democratic practice in history. of the country only four years ago was the visitor. Politics is difficult and in many cases it is not a beautiful world, but today it is beautifulTrump declared at the beginning of the meeting. And he dared to add: I really appreciate a transition that is as easy as possible..
In his meetings with Republican legislators a few hours before meeting Biden, he exclaimed: Isn’t it nice to win?receiving a standing ovation in response. “I suspect I won’t run another campaign, unless you guys say, ‘It’s so good we have to think of something.’” It is not the first time he has hinted at a potential, and for now illegal, third turn in the White House, suggesting that the law could be changed to make it possible. A few hours later, Republican legislators reelected Rep. Mike Johnson as majority leader in the House of Representatives, and Rep. John Thune as leader of the Senate.
Meanwhile, Trump continued forming his government. Yesterday he confirmed that the Cuban US Senator from Florida Marco Rubio – a severe critic of Cuba, Venezuela and Andrés Manuel López Obrador – will be his Secretary of State (as he announced The Day https://www.jornada.com.mx/2024/11/12/mundo/020n2mun). Marco is a highly respected leader and a very powerful voice for freedomTrump declared.
The virtual president-elect also announced the far-right Florida representative Matt Gaetz in the position of attorney general, who will be in charge of get rid of systemic corruption in the Department of Justice. Trump has repeatedly criticized this department for daring to investigate him and his allies (including Gaetz) and proceeding to file criminal charges against him and some of his accomplices, in what the defendant claims was a political use of justice as part of a Democratic plot to stop his candidacy, without presenting any evidence.
faithful accomplice
Gaetz, Trump’s faithful accomplice, was investigated by the Department of Justice over accusations that he participated in sex trafficking after it was discovered that he slept with her as a minor under 17 years old, although the charges were later dropped. The Ethics Committee of the lower house still has an active investigation into the deputy for the same.
As in so many countries, the appointments of a new government are also payments for political support. Trump announced that he will nominate former Democratic representative Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, the entity that coordinates the work of several of the United States intelligence agencies. “Lieutenant Colonel Tulsi Gabbard joined the Republican Party because of President Trump’s leadership and how he managed to transform it and return it to being the ‘party of the people’ and ‘of peace,’” the president-elect declared in his statement, referring to himself in the third person, arguing that his is the party of no warremembering that he did not launch any new war actions during his first period in the White House.
The media is obsessed with the maneuvers of Trump and his transition team in the process of selecting the cabinet and other executive positions – some newly invented – in recent days, and above all with the omnipresence of the richest man in the world, who is within the inner circle of the president-elect. In fact, yesterday that Trump traveled to Washington, he was accompanied by Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, SpaceX and platform world, and even appearing in family photos at Mar-a-Lago (along with his youngest son, also named X).
On Tuesday, Musk was named one of two leaders of something called the Department of Government Efficiency, which Trump just invented, and he has used his X platform to promote the idea that he will seek to cut $2 trillion from the projected $7.3 trillion federal budget. dollars in 2027, a feat that most economists consider impossible in that period. But Musk and Trump share the same negotiating strategy of proclaiming ambitious goals, making enormous demands accompanied by threats, and then declaring victory with something ultimately much less than what they promised.
In addition to Musk, the appointment of Pete Hegseth, a military veteran who has dedicated himself to being a commentator on Fox News, as Secretary of Defense, has surprised many in Washington. Who the hell is that guy?asked a defense industry official interviewed by Political. The nominee, who lacks administrative and military policy experience, has suggested in the past that the entire General Staff should be fired and the terms gay and transgender in the armed forces should be purged, as well as women prevented from participating in combat. .
But even more notable, and something that could make relations with certain allied governments in the world difficult, is the mixture of religion in the formulation of their political positions. Just like the Christian crusaders who pushed back the Muslim hordes in the 12th century, the American crusaders will have to muster the same courage against the Muslims of today.Hegseth wrote in his book American crusade published in 2020. Add that After the Chinese communists and their global ambitions, Islamism is the most dangerous threat to freedom in the world. You cannot negotiate, coexist or understand that; It has to be exposed, marginalized and crushed.
Hegseth is just one of the far-right Christians named by Trump. Both Hegseth and former Governor Mike Huckabee, who will be ambassador to Israel, have expressed the view that the State of Israel was ordained by God. In 2008, Huckabee declared: “Basically, there is no such thing as – I need to be careful when I say this, because people will be upset – there is no such thing as a Palestinian.”