I told you so

I shouldn't say it, but I did tell you

This is Thanksgiving week and I don’t plan to do a lot of writing since we will be having a house full of guests, but I did want to take a few minutes to say, “I told you so.”

Over the past few days, I’ve seen several conservative pundits who supported Trump lamenting the president-elect’s appointments. For instance, Erick Erickson recently wrote on his Substack, “Well, I have bad news. Donald Trump has picked a George Soros employee to be Treasury Secretary. Is this draining the swamp?”

My question to Erickson is “What did you expect?”

Photo by Dan Burton on Unsplash

Erickson supported Trump despite pointing out himself in the past that Trump was no conservative. Trump really has no consistent ideology except for being anti-immigrant, pro-tariff, and favoring whatever is best for Donald Trump. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when he nominates Scott Bessent, a high-ranking officer in George Soros’s Soros Fund Management, as Treasury Secretary, liberal one-term Republican congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor Secretary, or Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Since the election, one thing that has been very apparent is that we are not dealing with the first-term Trump who listens to expert advice and is content to fulfill the ceremonial duties of president and play golf while traditional Republicans run things.

Trump-47 is shaping up to be a hands-on executive who is heavily influenced by right-wing punditry and social media. If you think that Trump is a competent leader, you may be cheering for that, but what it actually means is that America is getting a hodgepodge of faux expert talking heads and influencers. This is not going to be a conservative utopia. It’s going to be government by the comments section.

There is nothing unlawful or unconstitutional about this. As Chris Karr wrote earlier this week in his excellent and interesting piece on the spoils system of appointments, presidents get to choose pretty much who they want as officials in their Administrations. The onus is really on the voters to make sure possible Russian assets like Tulsi Gabbard by electing officials who will exercise good judgment in staffing the federal government. From time to time, the Senate rejects nominees or, like Matt Gaetz, a nominee withdraws when the lack of support becomes apparent, but for the most part Congress is a rubber stamp for the president’s appointments.

And on top of that, Project 2025 is rearing its head once again. Trump disavowed Project 2025 during the campaign but has appointed several contributing writers from the project to his new Administration. These appointments include Russ Vought, one of the chief architects of Project 2025, to head the Office of Management and Budget.

Political campaigns are not known for their honesty, but Trump’s 2024 campaign (and Trump himself in general) was far removed from integrity and transparency. That’s not a great way to start a four-year relationship with the American people.

The icing m the cake is that Trump, the purported peace candidate, is actually considering military action against Mexico. World Politics Review reports that sources in the Trump campaign are seriously considering bombing or sending troops to attack drug cartel targets south of the border. This would be an act of war against a friendly nation.

If it isn’t apparent yet that voters did not choose wisely in 2024, just wait. Trump hasn’t even begun to implement policy and his neophyte picks to head government agencies haven’t even begun to throw wrenches into the gears of government. I don’t think that giving internet and cable news hotheads the reins of government will prove to be a good idea, but America has chosen to embark on that experiment so we’ll see.

“If I wanted George Soros and Randi Weingarten to be cheering on the presidential administration, I’d have voted for Kamala Harris,” Erickson continues.

Maybe not, but that’s what you’ve got. And with Kamala Harris, you’d probably at least have competent and proven administrators to head these departments.

We get the government we deserve, and to use an H.L. Mencken phrase I’ve used before and will probably use again, we are about to get it good and hard. For the 51.1 percent of the country that did not vote for Donald Trump, that is unfortunate but those are the joys of democracy.

For those who did vote for Trump thinking that The Former Guy’s return would bring peace, prosperity, and competence, it’s sad to say but he made you his Thanksgiving turkey.

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