My dad died more than 16 years ago, and yesterday at least, I was glad he wasn’t around.
He worked for the Department of Defense for 40 years, most of that in the Pentagon, and retired during the Bush 41 Administration. He worked under Defense secretaries who were good and not so good, but he never saw anything like the cabinet secretary who will take office in January.
I don’t think my father would ever have believed American voters would elect Donald Trump president once, let alone twice. But I think it would have been totally inconceivable to him that a president would pick someone like Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense.
As best as I can tell, even though Hegseth is described as a veteran of two wars, his military service was as a major in the Minnesota National Guard and not in the U.S. military. Still, his only real claim to fame is his role with Fox News, where he has been one of Trump’s most loyal minions.
Ridiculous, huh?
The only amazing thing about it was how quickly it got even sillier. Within 24 hours. Trump nominated South Dakota’s puppy-killing governor Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary, former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as director of National Intelligence and — goofiest of all — Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general.
That doesn’t mean it can’t get even worse.
I’ve got to figure Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert are sitting by their phones waiting to hear from their hero, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Judge Jeanine Pirro getting a call either.
When I look at Trump’s appointments. maybe the best thing to do is paraphrase Bette Davis’s classic line from “All About Eve.”
“Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy four years!”