Trump Casts The Worst And Dimmest For Season 2

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

The High Price Of Kakistocracy

As we inch toward the holidays and the news slows, I wanted to step back and offer a bit more context on the slew of absurdist Trump nominations. The sheer number of unqualified miscreants that Trump has chosen to cast for his second season is overwhelming to the mind and to the mechanisms in place to screen out the worst and dimmest.

“The volume of controversial nominees will force senators to prioritize their battles, allowing some to advance simply due to limited time and attention,” law professor Alan Z. Rozenshtein writes at Lawfare.

I highly recommend Rozenshtein’s piece. It places Trump’s approach to nominations in a broader historical and political context. Here’s a sampling:

Trump’s nominations represent an unprecedented triple assault on constitutional appointment norms: First, many are unqualified or hostile to their agencies’ missions. Second, rather than making a few controversial picks, Trump has flooded the zone, nominating an entire slate of problematic candidates that burdens the Senate’s capacity for proper vetting. And third, Trump has signaled willingness to circumvent the confirmation process through legally dubious tactics such as forced Senate adjournment. Together, these moves threaten to transform the appointments process from a constitutional safeguard into a vehicle for installing loyalists regardless of competence.

As Rozenshtein points out, the constitutional structure was intended to give considerable latitude to the president on appointments with the idea that he would be directly politically accountable to the electorate if he stocked his administration with grifters and clowns. Perhaps Trump’s 2020 defeat validates that structural approach, but his re-election has put the whole edifice under considerable strain.

Trump II Clown Show

• Trump selects Herschel Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas.
• WSJ: How Tucker Carlson Killed Mike Pompeo’s Hopes of Joining the Trump Administration

Disney Did It

ABC News’ settlement of Donald Trump’s defamation claim was largely driven by parent company Disney, according to the NYT:

The concerns about the case among Disney executives, and the eventual decision to settle, involved multiple considerations, according to three people inside the company with knowledge of the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private matter. The settlement was recommended by Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s general counsel, and approved by Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive. It was not elevated to a company board vote.

Trump’s Favorite Piñata

Politico: Trump is already delivering on his promise to go after the press

Lawsuit Or Press Release?

The text of Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Des Moines Register, pollster Ann Selzer, and Gannett because he didn’t like the shock poll showing him trailing Kamala Harris in Iowa is worth a read for the pure absurdity of it all.

Food For Thought

Morning Memo has identified retribution, corruption, and destruction as the three primary organizing principles for a Trump II presidency, but I wanted to offer a counterpoint from Marcy Wheeler on whether “retribution” is the proper way to frame it: “If you use the term “retribution” to describe Trump’s attacks on the press, you are accepting his frame that free speech that accurately describes his faults is somehow wrong, an injury to be avenged.”

Bigly Reaction

Trump melts down over his latest setback in the hush money case.

AOC Loses Bid To Be Ranking Member On Oversight

House Democrats fell back on seniority in electing 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) to be the ranking member on the Oversight Committee, thwarting the upstart bid from 35-year-old Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

Shutdown Watch

Because a government shutdown has seemed like a remote possibility, Morning Memo has eschewed covering it breathlessly, but with the Friday deadline looming, the language of a continuing resolution to fund the government through mid-March was finally released Tuesday evening. It’s going to be a tight needle to thread but it still looks more likely than not to be be passed by or shortly after the deadline with minimal disruption. There will be a lot of howling from the farthest-right GOP members though.

What A World

WSJ: Federal Judge Broke Ethics Rules by Criticizing Justice Alito During Flag Flap

Good Read

Thomas Zimmer, on the link between modern conservatism and the Trumpist right:

If we take Modern Conservatism seriously, we should not be all that surprised by the radicalizing dynamic that has ultimately led to the Trumpist Right’s triumph. That outcome was never determined and depended instead on a lot of contingent factors, the structures of the political system, and individual decisions by influential rightwing leaders. It does not, however, constitute a departure from or a betrayal of the “true” Modern Conservative tradition. The political project that coalesced in the 1950s was always exceedingly clear about its goals and priorities. From the start, it was centered around its commitment to a specific societal order – and by its hostility towards the “left”-coded forces working to change, undermine, or subvert it. It always defined the stakes of the conflict as existential because it set out to defend a “natural order” that was not up for political deliberation or subject to democratic control.

Pure Absurdism

Remember North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R)?

His failed campaign as the Republican nominee for governor was disrupted by, among other things, a CNN report that more than a decade ago he called himself a “black NAZI!” and a “perv” in frequent posts on a porn website using the alias “minisoldr.” He denied the allegations. But now WRAL is reporting that Robinson logged in to state virtual meeting last week about Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Stein’s inauguration using the “minisoldr” handle.

“Mark’s personal username has been MiniSoldr for more than 20 years,” a Robinson spokesperson said in an email. “Anyone who has been following Mark for any period of time knows this. People attempt to impersonate him all the time by utilizing variations of the name.”

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