President-elect Donald Trump wants his new administration to work together with more purpose than the last — and that means exacting promises of loyalty immediately from those joining it, and reprisals against those who dared oppose him last time, Brian Karem wrote for Salon on Wednesday.
This comes as Trump insiders reveal details about his transition team's rigorous new loyalty test for prospective officials.
The incoming president, wrote Karem, is "not turning the other cheek. He’s slapping yours."
"He’s demanding, and in some cases getting, fealty in advance before he steps back into the Oval Office and wields the power that, unfortunately, it appears Joe Biden and others have already obsequiously ceded to him. Christopher Wray, in the latest move of surrender, decided Wednesday to quit rather than have Trump fire him as the head of the FBI. Of course, Trump praised the move. Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, meanwhile, is donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund after previously claiming to move away from politics," wrote Karem.
Wray's resignation in particular set off alarm bells among observers, as it's yet another institutional practice thrown out the window so Trump can put the FBI in the hands of loyalist Kash Patel, a conspiracy theorist whose enemies list even includes some Republicans.
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All of this, he wrote, marks a "Join or Die" moment in Trump world and beyond it — and just in time for the holiday season, no less.
"While he continues to sell us Christmas ornaments, hats and holds raffles to see which of his lucky supporters (if any) get free tickets to his inauguration, Trump faces one of the greatest existential crises in the history of our republic," wrote Karem. "He’s vowing revenge with his Cabinet nominees while also claiming nothing will bring unity like his success."
Trump's demands and pushes to reshape government in his image, he concluded, are but a microcosm of how, this holiday, America has more than ever lost its way in standing united.
"Fear, anger and defeat have turned some bitter and made others believe in a false sense of superiority to the rest of us mere mortals," he wrote. "The Democrats mean well with all their annoying preaching and their inability to communicate simple messages. I’m sure many Republicans, even with their anger and vitriol, think they are doing the best for society even as they risk burning it all to the ground – in fact, because they want to burn it to the ground."