Publicly, Donald Trump is being uncharacteristically quiet as those he intends to appoint to his Cabinet are having their dirty laundry aired for days on end, writes Bulwark columnist Andrew Egger on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the MAGA loyalists, what Egger calls the "Bannonites," are talking about the controversial Cabinet picks as "titanic, existential struggles over whether it will be Trump or the establishment that controls the GOP."
Republican senators like Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), James Lankford (R-OK), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) are all on the list of those "representatives of the 'uniparty,' the 'D.C. duopoly,' the 'globalists' representing 'entrenched special interests.'"
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Some of those far-right Trump loyalists, like Roger Stone, see those members as being pressured by "the establishment" to tank some of the nominees.
But Egger thinks Trump will ultimately "get his critical mass of agenda-loving sycophants sooner or later." He wonders how many of them will be there and in what top jobs.
"How many of those sycophants will be alleged rapists, drunks, naked conspiracy theorists, Kremlin enthusiasts, people with publicly published lists of political enemies, and so on," he asks.
Meanwhile, Trump appears silent and Hegseth's skeletons are being dragged out of the closet. While he desperately tried to keep sexual assault allegations from impacting his Fox hosting job, the accusations became public anyway. Now he's facing questions about whether he has a drinking problem.
On his Wednesday show, Steve Bannon asked where the president-elect is and why he's not fighting for his appointees.
Axios noted Thursday morning that Trump “isn’t working the phones” for Hegseth’s the way he did for Gaetz. In fact, on Tuesday night there was already speculation about his replacement.
"Recall it was this way with Gaetz, too," writes Egger. "When it became clear the Florida man didn’t have the votes to be confirmed as attorney general, Trump judged it a poor use of his political capital to try to force the issue."
But it's Hegseth’s career "falling apart, not his," Egger says of Trump. "He’ll start bullying senators plenty quick when we get to stuff he really cares about."