'Astonished': Conservative baffled as America gets used to 'SNL' parody nominees

Donald Trump’s eyebrow-raising cabinet picks for his next administration came under criticism from anti-Trump conservative Tom Nichols, who remarked that the president-elect’s selections appear better qualified for a Saturday Night Live skit than a high-profile government job.

Nichols, a retired Naval War College professor, spoke Tuesday in a podcast with The Bulwark, where he told host Tim Miller that he’s feeling “more optimistic” since Election Day, but also “less optimistic too.”

“I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn’t expect his cabinet nominations to sound like the set up for a cold opening of ‘Saturday Night Live,’” Nichols said before going on to offer a visual description of the show’s writing process.

“You know, it’s like you can see them sitting around the writer’s room and it’s like, ‘Ok, ok, alright so Pete Hegseth comes in, because he’s the secretary of defense now, right, and Tulsi Gabbard is in DNI, ok’ – and you’re saying, ok nobody would do this – even Donald Trump," Nichols said. "So in that sense, I’m like just astonished how quickly we’ve normalized saying things like defense nominee Pete Hegseth as if that’s a thing you would say outside of a parody.”

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But while Nichols delivered a bleak assessment of Trump’s potential cabinet once he is back in the White House, he also urged listeners against being discouraged.

“On the other hand, I really want to caution people against this preemptive despair and nihilism,” he said, adding: “Look the guy is not a supernatural being.”

He pointed out that former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrawing his name from consideration as Trump’s attorney general selection amid an avalanche of damning allegations against him “should tell you something.”