Beef Supreme: For Some Trump Cabinet Picks, It’s Personal

One of the lessons learned in the first Trump administration is that you can't put a regular swamp creature into a position of power and expect him or her to go up against the entrenched machine to the degree necessary. Washington pros still place too much trust in the establishment — or more to the point, the people within the apparatus. And they still play by the old rules.

So Trump has come up with an ingenious way to squish-proof top officials in his incoming administration: He's placing people in charge of agencies and departments who were personally targeted by those agencies and departments. These people have beef, and they're coming to DC to settle it. It's kind of brilliant when you think about it.

Let's look at two picks (so far) who have an ax to grind and aren't about to go weak at the knees when serious decontamination and reform are needed.

THE PICK: Matt Gaetz for Attorney General

THE BEEF: A weaponized DOJ investigation that painted Gaetz as a “sex trafficker”

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is a far-right disruptor in the U.S. House. He is a pain, but he is also effective in his way. So, as is its wont, the leftist Biden DOJ spent a couple of years smearing the firebrand congressman with vile accusations that its fellow travelers in the dinosaur media amplified throughout the public sphere. Once the man's reputation had been thoroughly sullied, the DOJ dropped the investigation without filing charges.

During the probe, the feds used one of their favorite pressure tactics on the target: dragging his family members into the fray. Their unfounded intimations regarding Gaetz's father, Don Gaetz, inspired a $25 million extortion plot against the elder man. Stephen Alford, 62, eventually pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with his fake pardon scheme, but not before the situation led some people to smear even Matt Gaetz's father.

All in all, Gaetz was put through the wringer by these people.

He appeared on Laura Ingraham's show in 2023 to discuss the dropped charges, where he came across as a thoroughly decent person. He also adeptly pointed out the career-ending naughty behavior of his antagonizers.

The Fake News media endlessly propagandized my life and told lies about me because I’m effective at impacting legislation.

They always come for the fighters. We all have to watch our back because that’s where the target is. pic.twitter.com/GTEyX7Xw2m
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) February 16, 2023

(And no, I'm not particularly concerned that the Republican-led House was just about to release a report on its own investigation into Gaetz. He went after establishment Republicans harder than he did House leftists, and he made plenty of enemies on both sides of the aisle.)

Our weaponized prosecutorial apparatus — on the national, state, and local levels — is one of the biggest problems with the leftist establishment, and correcting it must take priority. Biden's weaponized DOJ spent two years terrorizing and slandering Gaetz, and you can bet that anyone who has put up with that abuse will go into the top spot at the DOJ loaded for bear.

THE PICK: Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence

THE BEEF: Targeted for surveillance under the "Quiet Skies Program."

Gabbard committed two sins: She exposed Kamala Harris as a lightweight when the two were running in the 2020 Democrat presidential primary; and she rejected the Democrat party in 2022 as "under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith & spirituality, demonize the police & protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war." Well, then.

The next thing she knew, the former Democratic U.S. rep from Hawaii, combat veteran, and lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve found herself under federal scrutiny as a possible terrorist. Whistleblowers disclosed that Gabbard had been placed on the TSA's Quiet Skies Program and that among other things, federal air marshals surveilled her when she traveled.

"This is only the information that we know,” Gabbard told Fox News in August. "My real question is, what don't I know?… This is the real pain and stress that's been caused both to me and my family by this whole situation, day and night wondering if and what government institution and agency is monitoring my phone calls, surveilling me in my movement in my travels, knowing that they may be looking for some kind of excuse or derogatory action to come after me."

Gabbard has been unjustly targeted by the politicized intel community; she has been on the receiving end of its persecution and pressure. She knows firsthand what the community is doing wrong, and she is personally highly motivated to fix it. Good.

THE NEW RULES

It's sad that our once-hallowed institutions are so corrupt and politicized that Trump needs to take a blow torch to them. To be clear, I hate the new rules. I really do. I miss the old days, when everyone — Democrat and Republican, and especially, conservatives — observed the social compact, and precedent was king. However, not to sound like a kid on the playground, but they started it. And to further cite playground wisdom, the only way to stop a bully is to bloody his nose.

The clever set has long compared the Trump administration (45) to the Camacho administration in the mighty film "Idiocracy." So be it. Perhaps our friends across the aisle are in need of some good old-fashioned Monday Night Rehabiliation.