No. of Recommendations: 2
I can't help but think Trump knows this guy won't be confirmed -- so there is some other reason behind this pick mind you, I rarely can credit trump for thinking too far ahead.
I try to keep things simple with Trump. As you say, he doesn’t think too far ahead. Gaetz is a bit better at that. They both like to save face.
We also know Trump is easily swayed by flattery.
So my guess is that this is all driven by Gaetz and not Trump. Gaetz needed an out for his House investigation. But he didn’t want to simply resign, as that would look exactly like what it is - bailing out because the House investigation is bad.
So he cooks up a plan to get into the Trump AG spot. It’s a win win for the two of them. Gaetz would become Trump’s toady and kill off any DOJ investigation into Trump. And while he’s at it, he’d kill off any into him as well.
As to confirmation, Trump is trying to run roughshod over the process. Only time will tell if that will work. He got a small setback when Scott lost the top Senate spot. Thune is still a GOP faithful, but isn’t the pushover for Trump that Scott would have been. I suspect Thune will be much like McConnell - talks about being skeptical of Trump, but will cave on most things out of loyalty to party. My guess is that he won’t cave on the recess appointment. He might let Gaetz through, or he might make him the sacrificial lamb so someone else of dubious qualifications can get confirmed. Gaetz doesn’t have a lot of friends on The Hill, so it wouldn’t be hard to do some horse trading with Gaetz on the short end of that trade.
Even then, it all might work to keep Gaetz investigations under wraps. And that is Gaetz’ long term goal.
—Peter
