WHY DOESN'T TRUMP HAVE A PLAN B AFTER GAETZ? (updated)

Matt Gaetz is out:

Matt Gaetz withdrew Thursday as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general following continued scrutiny over a federal sex trafficking investigation that cast doubt on his ability to be confirmed as the nation’s chief federal law enforcement officer.

Bizarrely, Trump doesn't seem to have a backup plan. CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports:

Trump does not have a new name in mind for attorney general and now returns to the search. He had struggled to find a candidate he liked initially, which is what led him to Gaetz. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Sullivan & Cromwell attorney Robert Giuffra had been two names he was looking at last week. Trump wasn't sold on either. He has been mainly focused on Treasury and the FBI this week.

How is this possible? There are countless lawyers all over the country who'd happily carry out the Republican agenda of politicizing the Justice Department. There are radical right-wing activists like Texas attorney general Ken Paxton who are eager to turn the DoJ into a tool of GOP vengeance. In fact, when the Gaetz pick was announced, many people speculated that he was offered up as an appointee the Senate could vote down, after which there'd be less pressure to reject other controversial Trump picks, and then Trump could appoint Paxton instead.

But Trump clearly doesn't want a tool of Republican vengeance. Trump wants a tool of Trump vengeance. He doesn't want someone who'll simply do what's in the Project 2025 playbook. He wants someone who'll focus on hurting his enemies and satisfying his whims.

Republican radicals want the government to be remade in a manner that will lead to a durable one-party plutocratic theocracy. Trump just wants his needs catered to at all times. He wants Justice to be a private law firm devoted solely to his wishes and run by a modern Roy Cohn.

This may not be the last time we see a conflict between Trump's agenda and the agenda of Republican radicals. It may be what saves us from the radicals' most frightening plans.

*****

UPDATE: Well, now Trump has chosen former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi. You remember her, right?

In March 2016, CREW discovered that the Trump Foundation had broken the law by giving an illegal $25,000 contribution to a political group supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Charitable foundations like the Trump Foundation are not allowed to engage in politics. Even more problematic was the fact that the contribution was given as Bondi’s office was deciding whether to take legal action related to Trump University.

Needless to say, Bondi never investigated Trump University. And then....

Not long after Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi decided not to investigate Trump University, Donald Trump hosted a fundraiser for for her, reported The Huffington Post.

The report showed the invitation to the fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, with its minimum donation request of $3,000 per person, and a Bondi staffer told The Huffington Post that about 50 people attended, meaning Bondi picked up at least $150,000 from the March 2014 event.

still surprised he's not going for Paxton or Davis which seems to show me that he really wants a loyalist more than he wants an ideologue who is *also* loyal

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— Sharon Kuruvilla (@sharonk.bsky.social) November 21, 2024 at 6:45 PM

Yup.