President-elect Donald Trump has been picking his cabinet and it's pretty comical or frightening, depending on your mindset. Intelligence? Competence? Experience? No, no, and no. The main criteria is loyalty to Trump and how much you are willing to debase yourself by barfing out an endless stream of laughable lies and child-like delusions in servitude to the President's fragile ego. I know self-respect is in short supply these days, but here are four "men" who really are beyond the pale - they used to be disgusted by Trump but have now happily sold out for their 30 pieces of silver:
JD Vance on Trump in 2016
"I can't stomach Trump, he's a total fraud....He's America's Hitler."
Vance is going to be Trump's Vice President
Marco Rubio on Trump in 2016:
"We cannot allow a con artist to get access to the nuclear codes of the United States of America... There will be prominent people in American politics who will spend years explaining to people how they fell into this."
Rubio is going to be Trump's Secretary of State
Elon Musk on Trump in 2016
"He doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States...I don't think this is the finest moment in our democracy." He also called Trump "nuts" and "the world champion of bullshit."
Musk spent $200 million helping Trump win in 2024, and will be in charge of cutting government spending.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr on Trump in 2016
"(His supporters) are belligerent idiots and....outright Nazis...(Trump says) just trust in me, vote for me and everything will be great again. And of course, that whole thing is like a carnival barker." He also called Trump a "bully" and a "buffoon."
Kennedy is going to be Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services
No one should be fooled here; none of these "men" have changed their opinion of Trump and he knows it. He picked them because they insulted him; it makes forcing them to lick his boots all the more enjoyable. Trump is a bully, and he's going to love degrading and belittling them in the coming years, as they continue to suck up and grovel before him. Eventually, Trump will scapegoat them for all of his own mistakes and then he will fire them to complete their humiliation. It's exactly what he did his first term, but these handiwipes are all so arrogant they think that somehow they will be the exception.
There are plenty of conservative Never Trumpers who have stuck to their principles and opposed Trump even though it cost them their career and their income. Pretty much every Republican senator or congressman who fought back against Trump was forced out or didn't run again - Liz Cheney, Jeff Flake and Pat Toomey, to name three. I'm not going to call them heroic or brave; they put their country before their own interests, which is what we should expect from our politicians. But their actions are a direct counterpoint to the cynical "all politicians are the same" crap that I hear constantly. If you need a reason to be optimistic, the Never Trump conservatives offer a good place to start.
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