It will never make sense, but people believed Donald Trump when he lied—about Vice President Kamala Harris, about President Joe Biden, about the economy, about immigrants, about trans people, about his accomplishments.
Yet, when he told the truth about what he would do if elected, people didn’t believe him.
But it’s not just regular voters
who are shocked, mind you. So are the high-paid lobbyists who supposedly do this for a living.
Industry lobbyists claim to be “stunned” at the pick of anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head up the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Politico
.
“One health industry leader, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the appointment, acknowledged they were caught off guard—they had thought Trump would pick former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal or former Surgeon General Jerome Adams—and hadn’t had any strategic conversations about opposing Kennedy,” reported the publication.
Mind you, as far as I’ve found, Trump never publicly floated Jindal or Adams for the role before or after the election. What he did do was openly promise to let Kennedy “go wild
” on health care. And Kennedy’s allies happily discussed
the idea that Trump would nominate Kennedy for this very position.
Passages like this from the story are laughable: “A number of industry leaders and lobbyists have expressed concern privately to Trump transition officials and lawmakers about a [Make America Healthy Again] agenda, arguing that it runs counter to Trump’s deregulatory instincts.”
What “deregulatory instincts”? Trump stands for nothing other than what’s good for Trump. If he doesn’t care about something (like health care or food safety), he’ll happily hand off the responsibility. And in this case, he’s handing it to Kennedy. After all, Trump is otherwise occupied. Fox News isn’t going to watch itself.
Sure, Trump has racist and misogynistic instincts. But those have nothing to do with HHS.
Meanwhile, corporate America is scrambling for lobbyists
to carve out loopholes to Trump’s tariffs.
“The threat of tariffs has alarmed retailers and a wide range of other U.S. businesses,” David French, the senior vice president of government relations at the National Retail Federation, told CNBC. “Our members have been working on contingency plans since President Trump secured the nomination.”
Apparently, those contingency plans involve flooding Republican-connected lobbying firms with calls desperate for their exemptions.
If you think it’s a recipe for corruption and influence peddling, well of course it is. What they shouldn’t be is surprised.
This decision comes soon after Gaetz was selected by president-elect and convicted felon Donald Trump to serve as attorney general. Even though Gaetz is now in line to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer, the bipartisan committee shot down the opportunity for senators to view the report before potentially confirming the 42-year-old as AG.
“There was no agreement by the committee to release the report,” Republican Rep. Michael Guest—a chairman of the ethics panel—said as he and other members exited the two-hour meeting.
While the report remains sealed, the Senate Judiciary Committee can subpoena the House committee to hand it over before deciding whether or not to move Gaetz’s nomination forward for a full Senate vote.
The controversial former Florida congressman has been under investigation by the committee since 2021 for alleged sexual misconduct involving a minor, illicit drug use, and other questionable affairs.
The committee has also stated that Gaetz—who managed to obstruct the investigation simply by stepping down—had potentially attempted to “obstruct government investigations
of his conduct.”
And on Wednesday, The New York Times reported that a federal investigation traced Venmo payments from Gaetz to women
who allege they were hired for sex. None of that stopped Gaetz from reportedly making his rounds on Capitol Hill in an attempt to gain the favor of senators who will approve—or reject—his nomination.
As Daily Kos previously reported
, the committee’s findings were initially set to be released last week. However, the plan was thwarted after Trump announced Gaetz as his pick for attorney general, prompting his conveniently timed resignation.
House Speaker Mike Johnson voiced his desire for the report to be sealed on Nov. 17.
Johnson essentially told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream that there was no need to pursue Gaetz’s alleged misconduct
further since he resigned—despite now being under consideration for AG.
“There’s a very important reason for the tradition and the rule that we always have—almost always followed—and that is that we don’t issue investigations and ethics reports on people who are not members of Congress.”
He continued, “I’m afraid that that would open a Pandora’s box because the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee is limited to those who are serving in the institution.”
While Johnson fell in lockstep to protect Gaetz, the Republican swiftly turned his ire toward incoming Democratic Congress member Sarah McBride, the first trans person elected to the House.
As Daily Kos reported
, Johnson has decreed that bathrooms in the Capitol and House office buildings will officially be segregated by “biological sex” from now on.
“All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings—such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms—are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” Johnson said in a press release
.
Bluesky—a swiftly growing social media alternative to X—erupted with outrage.
“Love to ban trans women from capitol restrooms in order to ‘protect women and girls’ while suppressing a report about the incoming attorney general paying for the statutory rape of a minor while in congress and showing women’s nudes on the House floor,” one user wrote.
An interview with Rep. Nancy Mace has also made the rounds on the social media platform, in which the South Carolina Republican said her effort to ban transgender women from using the female bathrooms was “absolutely” a hit against McBride.
“If someone with a penis is in the locker room, that’s not okay,” Mace said. “I’m a victim of abuse myself. I’m a rape survivor.”
One Bluesky user wrote, “As an assault survivor, Mace should be worried about Matt Gaetz becoming AG, not Sarah McBride for existing.”
A resolute McBride addressed the new policy, insisting that this blatant attack on transgender people will not keep her from performing her duties.
“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down the costs facing families. Like all members, I will follow the rules outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them,” she wrote on X
.
Lara Trump is seemingly following in her father-in-law’s footsteps as she positions herself to profit from her potential new political platform.
The co-chair of the Republican National Committee announced her new activewear line via Instagram Tuesday, touting the brand as patriotic and “of American craftsmanship.”
“The LT Brand by Lara Trump Collection isn’t just activewear—it’s a celebration of strength, resilience, and patriotism,” reads one caption
alongside a black and white photo of Lara Trump.
Trump has splayed images of herself across the social media account promoting the upcoming launch of her brand. One photo shows her draping an American flag behind her as she sports a “USA” T-shirt to accompany her new yoga pants line.
As Oliver Willis
reported for Daily Kos, Republicans attempting to cozy up with Donald Trump ahead of his second term have pushed for Lara Trump to replace Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida, as Trump has picked him to be secretary of state.
While some may call the clothing brand a conflict of interest should Lara Trump take over Rubio’s job, Instagram users and even Donald Trump’s campaign spokesperson seem to be thrilled over the announcement.
“Oh my gosh I’m so excited for this,” wrote Karoline Leavitt
. Other commenters praised Trump for her “made in America” brand approach, urging for her to become Florida’s next senator.
The sentiment, however, is not shared outside of her social media bubble. Disgruntled Americans took to Bluesky—a rising alternative to Elon Musk’s X
—to slam the conflict of interest.
“What happened to being senator from Florida?” one user asked. Another wrote, “Grifters gonna grift.”
Lara Trump has said she’s open to the job title of Florida senator. “I have not been asked yet, but I certainly would strongly consider it if it’s presented to me,” she told Fox commentator Maria Bartiromo on Friday.
“And if I were tapped for this, serving my home state, now of Florida, it’s a great honor and a great responsibility, obviously, but I would love to be able to go forward and do more.”
Donald Trump holds a Bible as he visits outside St. John’s Church, June 1, 2020, in Washington.
Lara isn’t the only Trump setting herself up for financial gain in the midst of potentially entering the political playing field. Her father-in-law and president-elect has a noted history of launching for-profit businesses and products to accompany his platform.
The convicted felon began hawking $59.99 Bibles
in March 2024 ahead of mounting legal fees, which he branded the “God bless the USA bible” at the time.
The former reality TV host has a plethora of businesses—some failed and some ongoing—that drew controversy in his first and upcoming presidency due to the potential to choose personal profit interests over the American people. He also launched a cryptocurrency trading
platform in September—World Liberty Financial
—but it is unclear what sort of profits he is expected to earn.
“We’re leading a financial revolution by dismantling the stranglehold of traditional financial institutions and putting the power back where it belongs: in your hands,” the WLF website
touts.
Tuesday, the Financial Times reported Donald Trump is also in “advanced talks
” to buy Bakkt, a cryptocurrency trading platform for his self-titled media company, which also owns Truth Social.
“Somebody needs to put Mike Johnson back in the tree he lives in and release that report. Because the spinelessness is staggering,” Kimmel said, and then played video of an ABC interview
with an attorney for two of the women who testified that Gaetz paid them for sex.
“The fact that Matt Gaetz was stupid enough to pay for sex with Venmo,” Kimmel joked. “That alone should be disqualifying.”
Kimmel then read the tweeted threat
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene aimed at Republicans while defending Gaetz.
“For my Republican colleagues in the House and Senate. If we are going to release ethics reports and rip apart our own that Trump has appointed, then put it ALL out there for the American people to see,” Greene wrote.
“She’s specifically saying, if you reveal what an unfit, corrupt, sleazy dirtbag Matt Gaetz is, so help me God. I’ll let the voters know that you are, too,” Kimmel said. “Yeah, okay, I agree with the bleach blonde bad built butch body
. Put everything out there. Why not? I mean, no one with a red hat on seems to care anyway.”
“These appointments Trump is making, it really is like a season of ‘Dancing with the Stars,'” Kimmel joked about Trump’s naming of TV Dr. Mehmet Oz
and professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon
to important Cabinet positions.
“He hired the guy from ‘Road Rules’ to be secretary of transportation because of course he did,” Kimmel said of Trump tapping Fox News pundit
and former Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy. “The word ‘road ‘is right in there, and that’s one of his least embarrassing picks. Maybe pick one of the ‘Teen Moms’ to be secretary of labor?”
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday announced that the Capitol and House office buildings would officially segregate bathroom facilities by “biological sex.”
“All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings—such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms—are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” Johnson said
.
The statement bars transgender House members, their staff, and others from using bathrooms of the gender they identify with.
The segregation of facilities like bathrooms was a signature feature
of life in the Jim Crow era, when many bathrooms in the southern United States were off limits to Black people.
Johnson’s announcement arrived on the same day
as Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors trans people who have been killed and raises awareness of bigotry against transgender Americans.
In his statement, Johnson did not elaborate on how the new facility policy would be enforced. Johnson did not say whether the House sergeant-at-arms would be empowered to police Capitol bathrooms, whether officers would need to inspect genitals to ensure bathroom usage is confined to biological sex, or if officers would be empowered to make an arrest before, during, or after someone uses the bathroom in violation of his edict.
The policy came about after Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced
a resolution to segregate the Capitol’s bathrooms. Mace confirmed that the resolution was “absolutely
” intended to target a single incoming House member, Sarah McBride from Delaware, who will become the first openly transgender person to serve in Congress once she is sworn in.
Mace’s action was praised by bigots.
Conservative pundit Michael Knowles of The Daily Wire, who previously called
for “eradicating” transgender people, called it
a “good day” and said that “we kind of brought this to the forefront” on his program.
Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida, criticized
Mace and told Axios, “I just don’t understand why bathrooms are top of mind for her, why she’s thinking about where future members are going to piss and shit.”
McBride has reportedly called
on Democrats for restraint in response to the Republican attacks, which she described as a distraction from the important issues facing lawmakers.
“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families,” McBride said in a statement
released after Johnson’s announcement.
“This effort to distract from the real issues facing this country hasn’t distracted me over the last several days, as I’ve remained hard at work preparing to represent the greatest state in the union come January,” she added.
The effort to reinstate a form of segregation as official American government policy is the first major action by Republicans since their victory in the 2024 election. Based on the party’s clear support for attacking an oppressed minority group, more is sure to come.
That’s not a controversial stance, but the notion of the “liberal media” has been a hindrance for progressive power-building. It’s not their job to be our friend, but unlike conservative donors, who never tire of building new friendly media outlets, liberal donors refused to do so because, you know, “liberal media.”
This year, the progressive movement saw the folly of that belief. And it brings home just how important it is to support real progressive media like Daily Kos.
So yes, I’ll be asking you to subscribe
. And if you already subscribe and have the means, you can now give gift subscriptions!
I don’t have to tell you guys that The New York Times was godawful this year. Indeed, publisher A.G. Sulzberger said
the paper’s job is to troll its liberal readers, saying that they should be “willing to take a simple, easy, or comfortable story and complicate it with truths that people don’t want to hear.” He took it as a badge of honor that his paper’s work “will never win over the partisans.”
Cool, cool. That’s what this means for the Times: offering blanket coverage
of Hillary Clinton’s bullshit email story, while sanewashing Trump
. Indeed, the Times’ atrocities this cycle are too exhausting to list. But just a reminder, Sulzberger literally punished
President Joe Biden for refusing to grant the paper an exclusive interview. They are not liberal; they are a menace
.
The Washington Post, of course, is owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, who barred his paper’s editorial board from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to curry favor with Trump. Bezos also owns an aerospace manufacturer, and Trump will use that and other federal contracts to punish anyone who doesn’t bend the knee. The Post is not liberal, and Bezos certainly has bent the knee
.
You have refused to recognize fascism at the door. You insist on covering authoritarianism as just another side in still-symmetrical American politics […]
You let yourselves be exploited by these malign forces to spread their bigotry and bile, cushioned with your white-gloved euphemisms and sane-washing. You do not explain blood libel to your readers. Is that because you do not recognize it yourself? […]
You quote their noxious words, taking them at face value — as beliefs, as “alternative facts” — unable to see how they are instead saying these things to signal their belonging to the cult and cause […]
You hide behind your impotent fact-checking, never seeing — though frequently warned — that in the ways you debunk their lies, you spread them, and by pedantically nitpicking the other side in your misguided search for balance you create false equivalence. This is how they exploit you.
You thus lie to yourselves and the public you serve by refusing to call lies lies, racism racism, misogyny misogyny, authoritarianism authoritarianism, fascism fascism.
On Monday, Trump critics Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who together host MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” admitted on air that they visited Trump in Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring
. But no one felt the need to kiss Biden’s ass. Nothing proves our fear of creeping authoritarianism more than the panic in the power class and its rush to show Trump he has nothing to fear from them. And Fox News is cheering on
this mass surrender to Trump.
You know who won’t kiss Trump’s ass or bend any knees?
I won’t. Daily Kos won’t. And I know you won’t.
Daily Kos is here today because of reader support, and indeed, you guys are now around 75% of our revenues. Earlier this year, we went through a tough staff reduction and company-wide restructuring to ensure that we are lean, mean, and sustainable in this brutal media landscape. Your support has never been more directly focused on producing what brings you to Daily Kos in the first place—relevant, hard-hitting stories and information, as well as community.
And that’s why our newsroom is the one place where we haven’t made cuts. Over the past year, we have assembled a top-notch team, and we aren’t done. When all the hires are complete, I will formally introduce you to all the new faces. I can’t wait to do so.
We are investing in a new site platform, and look forward to including many of the Daily Kos community’s leaders in the process.
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Ultimately, we trust you to keep this place alive. So many of you already subscribe and/or donate. Thank you for allowing us to do our mission.
The rest of you? Please consider stepping up and helping out
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Subscribe to Daily Kos
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Donate subscriptions
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And if you are currently in the middle of an existing subscription, you can tack on an extra year at $40. (I announced that a few months ago, but a bug prevented it from happening. It’s been fixed.) I highly recommend you take advantage of that deal and save yourself some money.
Donald Trump nominated former acting attorney general and Trump loyalist Matthew Whitaker to be the United States ambassador to NATO on Wednesday. The ambassador serves as a crucial liaison with our foreign allies, who have criticized
Trump’s pro-Russia statements and sentiments during the Russia-Ukraine War.
“Matt is a strong warrior and loyal Patriot, who will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended,” Trump said in a statement
.
Whitaker is a relic from Trump’s first term, where he began as chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions before a brief and stormy stint replacing Sessions as acting attorney general. He was in turn replaced by William Barr, then managed to hang on as an adviser in the Justice Department.
But it wouldn’t be a Trump pick without a history of dubiousness.
Whitaker’s 2013 bid for a Senate seat in his home state of Iowa was a failure. But during that campaign he argued that states could “nullify” federal laws—if they had the “courage
” to do so. As University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck told CNN in 2018, “Nullification as a serious, mainstream legal argument didn’t survive the Civil War (or the constitutional amendments that followed).”
He subsequently served as a “prominent member”
on the advisory board for the Miami-based World Patent Marketing, an “invention promotion” company that was accused of defrauding customers. Whitaker was reportedly
“slow to respond to government investigators probing it.” A Florida court ultimately ordered
World Patent Marketing to pay out a $25 million settlement and agree to close up shop.
After he was publicly critical
of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s campaign activities and Russian interference in the 2016 election, Whitaker’s ascension to acting attorney general set off red flags.
This led to Trump telling reporters he didn’t know the guy
he had just named acting attorney general, contradicting statements he made to Fox News a month earlier, where he described Whitaker as “a great guy,” as well as saying, “I mean, I know Matt Whitaker.” Previous reports
also indicated that Whitaker was something of a mole for Trump in the Justice Department.
Whitaker then made a combative appearance
in front of the House Judiciary Committee, where he refused to answer questions about his conversations with then-President Trump or the potential for obstructing the special counsel’s investigation. It was later reported that Whitaker left the committee hearing and flew off to Mar-a-Lago
for a private chitchat with Trump.
The Daily Beast published a report
detailing how Whitaker spent his days in Washington after the Trump administration ended and he retired from the Department of Justice. While not registered as a lobbyist, Whitaker seems to have been paid by a “dark money” group to lobby for presidential pardons.
Whitaker has subsequently been a mouthpiece for the Trump campaign, appearing on right-wing media to hurl accusations against President Joe Biden. In 2023, he told Newsmax
that he believed “the Biden family has been corrupt for many many years.”
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” is seeing a ratings drop and facing criticism from multiple sources after the hosts of the show, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, traveled to Mar-a-Lago
to pay homage to incoming president Donald Trump.
According to
Nielsen television ratings, the audience for “Morning Joe” dropped 17% in the hour after Brzezinski relayed the details of the couple’s meeting with Trump. The audience decline was even more pronounced—down 38%—among the 25-54 demographic, a key metric for advertisers.
Criticism soon came in from multiple sources. Katie Phang, host of MSNBC’s “The Katie Phang Show,” wrote
on X as the disclosure was made, “Normalizing Trump is a bad idea. Period.”
Radio host Charlamagne tha God characterized
the hosts’ actions as part of “a ratings and revenue game,” and failed Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley echoed his sentiments on her satellite radio show.
The “Morning Joe” show turned off the ability to comment on its social media account
, a move likely meant to avoid negative viewer feedback.
In on-air comments addressing the criticism, Scarborough claimed
—as Trump has in the past
—that anonymous supporters have praised his decision.
“Yesterday I saw for the first time what a massive disconnect there was between social media and the real world because we were flooded with phone calls from people all day, literally around the world, all very positive, very supportive,” the former Republican congressman explained.
Some sources of support have emerged. “The View” panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served in the Trump administration and authored
articles on anti-vaccination conspiracy theories for World Net Daily, said the hosts were right to court Trump.
“We need to stop demonizing people because they supported a man who just became president of the United States. We should hope good people are around him, and smart journalists are challenging him,” Griffin said.
Similarly, the hosts of “Morning Joe” rival “Fox & Friends” on Fox News were happy
about the capitulation and praised Trump for welcoming the pair to his residence.
CNN has reported
that the cave-in by Scarborough and Brzezinski was brought about by fears of retribution by Trump, who has a significant track record in threatening media outlets that report the truth about him and his inner circle.
But unlike most of the people who watch their program, the couple are extraordinarily wealthy and have financial resources numbering in the tens of millions
that they could access if Trump pursued any action against them.
Based on their years of familiarity with Trump’s vendetta, the “Morning Joe” hosts could have renewed efforts to inform their viewers on the disdainful aspects of Trump’s personal and political agenda. Instead, they chose to break bread with him, and this is the immediate result.
Knives are out for the vice president-elect as JD Vance’s fellow Republican senators trash him for skipping out on confirmation votes for President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees.
Even though Republicans are currently in the Senate minority, the party is trying to block Biden’s nominees by slowing down the confirmation process in order to run out the clock and keep Biden from filling vacancies on the federal bench.
As of Tuesday, the Senate has confirmed 217 of Biden’s picks, with 44 vacancies, according to CBS News
. If Biden fills them all, he’ll have gotten more judges onto the federal bench than Donald Trump did in his first term in office.
But Vance, along with a handful of other Senate Republicans, have been absent from the chamber, leaving the GOP without a sufficient number of votes to achieve their goal of slow-rolling the process and blocking confirmations.
“If we don’t show up, we lose,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told
The Hill. “I don’t care what the reasons were. We have fewer than 15 scheduled legislative days. You have to show up. Period. End of story. There’s nothing more important.”
“This leftist judge would have been voted down and the seat on the important 11th circuit would have been filled by Donald Trump next year had Republicans showed up,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote
in a post on X, referring to Monday’s confirmation
of Embry J. Kidd. “Now, the leftist judge will have a lifetime appointment and the people of FL, AL and GA will suffer the consequences.”
“The Democrats are trying to stack the Courts with Radical Left Judges on their way out the door. Republican Senators need to Show Up and Hold the Line — No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!” Trump wrote
in a post on his Truth Social platform.
As an excuse for why he didn’t make it to the vote, Vance said he was interviewing FBI director candidates. (However, the current FBI director’s term doesn’t end until 2027
, so replacing him would require Trump to fire the current director
.) Vance made the excuse in a since-deleted X post
, in which he lashed out at Grace Chong—an ally of Trump ally Steve Bannon—after Chong criticized Vance for not showing up for votes.
“Grace Chong is a mouth breathing imbecile who attacks those of us in the fight rather than make herself useful,” Vance wrote in a post on X
. “I tend to think it’s more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45. But that’s just me.”
But that excuse wasn’t good enough for The Wall Street Journal’s right-wing editorial board, which wrote
, “Nice to hear he’s on the job that begins in January, which is two months away. But a few good GOP excuses can mean a lifetime on the bench. Republican Senators have a duty in the lame duck to show up for these votes. Any judicial vacancy that goes unfilled now will be Mr. Trump’s to nominate someone to fill.”
Vance, for his part, has missed almost every Senate vote
since Trump chose him as his vice presidential running mate this summer.
Ultimately, Republicans are mad at Vance at quite an inopportune time.
Interesting that Vance can make it to Capitol Hill to shill for an accused sexual predator, but not to do his actual job that he is paid $174,000 a year
of taxpayer money to do.
Of course, we really aren’t complaining that Vance is absent. One less obstructionist seeking to hamstring Biden isn’t a problem for us.
If Donald Trump gets his way, his Cabinet will look more like a junk drawer, filled with unqualified crackpots who made names for themselves on television.
Pete Hegseth
, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense; Sean Duffy
, Trump’s pick for the Department of Transportation; Mehmet Oz
, Trump’s choice to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; and Linda McMahon
, who Trump selected to lead the Department of Education that he wants to cut
, all made names for themselves in the entertainment world.
Hegseth is a Fox News host
who has spewed anti-Muslim bigotry and misogyny on the right-wing propaganda network for years. While Hegseth is a veteran, he has no experience running an organization as large and complex as the Department of Defense. The Defense Department makes up 17% of the entire federal budget, only behind the Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration, according
to statistics from the Treasury Department.
Oz, meanwhile, was catapulted to fame by Oprah Winfrey (girl, you got a lot of explaining to do), and later branched out on his own with the “Dr. Oz Show,” where he gave medically unsound advice and peddled weight loss supplements
that don’t work but made him super rich.
Duffy got his start on MTV
, appearing first on the “Real World” and later on two seasons of “Road Rules.” He used his reality TV past to help win a seat in the U.S. House in 2010, but resigned from Congress nine years later. He then took a job as a co-host and contributor on Fox News—Trump’s favorite television network that airs fawning coverage of Trump and the GOP.
McMahon got ridiculously rich with her husband by founding World Wrestling Entertainment, another one of Trump’s favorite programs to watch on television
. Like the other cast of clowns Trump nominated, McMahon is not qualified to run the DOE. She was never an educator, and in fact had to resign from the Connecticut Board of Education after she lied about having a degree in education
.
And who can forget Trump himself, who is famous for hosting the now-defunct NBC reality show “The Apprentice,” where he cosplayed as a successful businessman. NBC’s former head of marketing wrote an op-ed
for U.S. News & World Report ahead of the 2024 election apologizing for his role in crafting the image Trump has now used to win the presidency twice:
To sell the show, we created the narrative that Trump was a super-successful businessman who lived like royalty. That was the conceit of the show. At the very least, it was a substantial exaggeration; at worst, it created a false narrative by making him seem more successful than he was.
In fact, Trump declared business bankruptcy
four times before the show went into production, and at least twice more during his 14 seasons hosting. The imposing board room where he famously fired contestants was a set, because his real boardroom was too old and shabby for TV.
Trump may have been the perfect choice to be the boss of this show, because more successful CEOs were too busy to get involved in reality TV and didn’t want to hire random game show winners onto their executive teams. Trump had no such concerns. He had plenty of time for filming, he loved the attention and it painted a positive picture of him that wasn’t true.
At the end of the day, Trump doesn’t care about experience.
He is more concerned whether people fit the image of the role he’s choosing them for, rather than if they can actually do the job. As the Associated Press reported
, Trump likes the “central casting” look.
“We are becoming the world’s first nuclear-armed reality television show,” Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut wrote
on X. “Just spitballing here, but what if the Attorney General and the Secretary of HHS fight each other in an octagonal cage?”
