To king a cat
Contrary to the breathless prophecies of mentally ill Democrats, America will hold federal elections in 2020 and 2028. Donald Trump will not change that.
But he is proving there is more than one way to be a king.
Instead of defining a king as someone ruling without demoratic consent, think of a king as someone who demands absolute loyalty from all those around him. That's Donald Trump this time around. There will be no" establishment” types—you might also refer to them as competent professionals— in this Trump Administration. He made that mistake the first time with stooges like Anthony Barr who he thought were loyal but ended up turning on him. To turn heel is an unforgivable sin in the church of Donald J. Trump. Barr and so many others will not get the chance to defy him again.
In their place will be loyal Lords and Ladies who cross a moat filled with rotting reminders of what happens to the disloyal on their way out of a Trump White House. Do you think Matt Gaetz will look down from the drawbridge and choose that fate for himself?
Of course he won't. In the unlikely case a majority of Senators want to face attacks from their next opponent about voting yes on sex with minors, Gaetz will do any thing necessary to enforce the king's edicts. As will Pete Hegseth, who would be comically unqualified in any instance other than when the only necessary skill is mindless obedience. There will be no gracious resignations or post-appointment memoirs this time because no one who would do that is getting a job.
We may look back on Trump's split terms and see the four-year intermission as the point he went from president to king. Being relegated to Mar-a-Lago (and his bathroom of documents) gave Trump the time and distance from the Oval Office to understand his second term would need to be For True Believers Only. Had he won in 2020 he may have continued his chaotic downhill roll without pausing to think how to be the president better. Instead he got to re-group in the locker room while Biden butchered the halftime show.
Maybe in consecutive terms he would have churned through every serious person who would take him up on an appointment and we would end up here anyway. That would have at least reduced the amount of time for full unhingement. As it stands now we are in for a full four years of it.
The threat of our king's scorn can be seen elsewhere in subtle ways. Timing the Gaetz/Hegseth announcement for the day the Senate picked its new Majority Leader was no accident. Team Trump knows John Thune won't begin his tenure by speaking against the president's most controversial picks. To further flex its muscle, team Trump is on the verge of setting up its own PAC to counter the Senate's traditional political operation. That group's crime? It's rumored to be hiring a former Mike Pence advisor.
Another unforgivable sin. A bloodless warning that anyone, no matter how close to the king, can ex-communicated
Even the Trump comms team is in on the gag, comically standing behind the qualifications of a man with brain worms to run the health care system while also delivering the clear message to the fiefdom formerly known as the US Senate:
“All of President Trump’s nominees have the necessary experience and qualifications to carry out his pro-America agenda,” Steven Cheung, Trump’s next White House communications director, said in a statement. “We look forward to every single nominee being confirmed so they can start immediately in the new Administration.”
At the root of Trump’s need for absolute loyalty is his belief government he once led was out to get him.
“He wants to blow up these institutions,” one person close to Trump said of the nominations to run Justice and Defense. “He wants someone to blow these places up.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1ucYZt
It is unclear how this will lower the price of groceries.