President-elect Donald Trump and his advisers are wasting no time acting on a resounding voter mandate to select an all-star leadership team to reverse horrific national and global damage caused by policies and ineptitude of the current outgoing administration.
Among them: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is being considered to lead the Department of Homeland Security, signaling a major change from Biden-Harris administration open border policies.
Entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will create and head a temporary new Department of Government Efficiency to cut inflationary spending and economically destructive federal regulations.
Nominees for Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and U.N. Ambassador, Elise Stefanik, will take lead foreign policy positions.
Afghanistan and Iraq combat veteran Pete Hegseth has been tapped as Secretary of Defense along with former Green Beret Fla. Rep. Mike Waltz as national security adviser at a time of great global unrest under weak and confused foreign policies, including the spectacular Afghanistan withdrawal debacle.
Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Security and John Ratcliffe as CIA Director will address neglected foreign espionage and influence peddling threats.
Unsurprisingly, many of these top Cabinet and agency nominations are drawing opposition as disruptors for breaking traditional bureaucratic — credentials and style molds the same sorts that got us into this current mess.
Now enter the biggest howls of all being directed against Trump’s Attorney General pick, Fla. Rep. Matt Gaetz, to reform a politically weaponized Department of Justice.
An appropriately self-described firebrand, smoke from yet unproved allegations of Congressional misconduct has cast a thick haze over Gaetz’s addition to that stellar orbit.
Following the AG nomination, Gaetz, who denies all such allegations, resigned from his U.S. House position two days before the House Ethics Committee was expected to issue their investigation findings regarding any evidence of wrongdoing.
Included is a likely follow-up to sex trafficking allegations reported by ABC News in April in which a woman claimed Rep. Gaetz had sex with her when she was a 17-year-old minor.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal which disapproves of a Gaetz AG nomination, The DOJ previously investigated such claims but has filed no charges against the former congressman for this or any other criminal offenses.
Gaetz’s AG nomination also has strong opposition from some members of his own party, in large part due to active and ultimately successful efforts over 14 rounds of ballots to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker when Republicans regained control of the House in 2023.
In addition to angry House colleagues, according to ABC News, more than half of Senate Republicans have privately said on condition of anonymity that they won’t confirm a Gaetz appointment as AG.
In any case, there is no apparent indication that President-elect Trump and his transition advisers are going to abandon Gaetz or others who they trust as committed and competent leaders.
Upon first announcing his choice in a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System. Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.”
Meanwhile, Gaetz and Trump attorney Todd Blanche who is the likely choice to fill out the No. 2 DOJ position are set upon planning to do exactly those tough tasks.
Posting on Truth Social that “We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY,” President-elect Trump has requested that Congress enable him to make recess appointments essential to finalize his top leadership team by January 5th, the date when a new GOP Senate majority officially convenes.
That tactic holds that whereas the Constitution restrains the president’s appointments by giving the Senate the power to confirm, or not, his nominees, it also grants the president power “to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate,” a temporary appointment provision to prevent him from being left short-handed during long pre-20th Century periods when Congress was not in session.
This is a dangerous precedent recognizing that Democrats would also predictably use it should they regain a Senate midterm majority.
Interviewed by Fox host Maria Bartiromo yesterday on her Sunday Morning Futures show, recently elected Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has previously said that recess appointments are “on the table,” but that he’s also “willing to grind through it and do it the old-fashioned way,” publicly endorsed Trump’s nomination of Matt Gaetz as AG.
In the end, what matters the most is who you really trust: an overwhelming majority of voters who picked Trump's judgment and commitment to nation over endless lawfare charges intent upon destroying his previous presidency and disqualifying him for a return, or those — including the DOJ and FBI — who orchestrated these desperately failed assaults who are now on defense.
Following years of Russia-collusion hoaxes, double standards, and politicized investigations and prosecutions, Matt Gaetz has been among the deep state’s most courageously determined critics and unshakably reliable Trump defenders.
If the House Ethics Committee or any other body has real evidence that Matt Gaetz has committed any violation that would make him ineligible to serve as attorney general, then either release it right now or fully admit to the contrary and end this trial-by-innuendo horror show we’ve already witnessed far too many times to be deceived again.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.