ULittle more than a week after his clear victory in the November 5 presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump’s first decisions confirm the fears that his upcoming return to the White House could cause. Brought back to power by the disavowal which sanctioned the record of the outgoing Democratic administration, the Republican interprets his success as a blank check.
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Donald Trump thus urged the senators of his party, which had once again become a majority in the High Assembly, to give up their power to confirm the people chosen to occupy the highest positions in his administration. This initiative is not only questionable because it blurs the principle of separation of powers. Usually demanding, confirmation sessions constitute an excellent democratic exercise and serve usefully as a reminder rope to avoid the promotion of questionable personalities.
We understand the reasons for this request, upon reading certain names communicated on November 13 by Donald Trump, for which the selection criterion that emerges is blind allegiance rather than competence. This is how Pete Hegseth, a host of the conservative Fox News channel who has long made pandering to the Republican his only editorial line, was proposed for the post of secretary of defense. This prestigious position is traditionally occupied by great servants of the United States to whom this former soldier cannot compare himself.
Contempt claimed
The choice of former Democratic representative Tulsi Gabbard, who also worked for Fox News, to head national intelligence, i.e. eighteen intelligence agencies, raises the same concern. The latter’s lack of qualifications for such a sensitive area raises questions, like her past erratic statements, with overtones of conspiracy theories, or her benevolence towards Russia and its allies.
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The proposal from Florida Representative Matt Gaetz for the post of attorney general of the United States, in other words minister of justice, is equally astounding. It concerns a man who is the subject of an investigation by the bipartisan ethics committee of the House of Representatives for personal errors, and who has distinguished himself above all by his ability to make the House of Representatives ungovernable since the Party Republican obtained the majority there in 2022.
The same motive, a claimed contempt for American institutional pillars, already explained the choice of the richest man in the country, Elon Musk, whose companies largely benefit from federal contracts, to lead an “axe commission” external to the cabinet to avoid the potential pitfall of the Senate, aiming to cut spending and the rules of the federal administration.
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You have to be stupid or ignorant (or both) to rejoice at the designation of a man identified with a social network that has become a powerful vector of disinformation, this poison of democracies. You have to be just as stupid and ignorant not to see in these choices Donald Trump’s temptation to settle scores with the cogs of the federal government with which he had trouble during his first term. Revenge, however, does not make a presidential roadmap. It is imperative that Senate Republicans remind him of this.
