Yesterday morning, I asked why President-elect Donald Trump seemed to be pausing before announcing Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. By the evening, we appeared to have an answer. He wanted to combine that news, which distressed the anti-elitists in the MAGAsphere and reassured Republicans in Washington, with his announcement that Tulsi Gabbard would be his Director of Intelligence, which has delighted the anti-elitists and horrified Washington. With one hand the good Donald giveth, with the other he taketh away.
How will Gabbard cope in a cabinet now stuffed with hardline pro-Israel hawks who despise her?
Gabbard’s appointment should please those who don’t like futile wars and deep-state deceptions. There had been hopes that she might get Secretary of Defense but Fox News’s Pete Hegseth got that job – reportedly because he happened to be sitting in a useful part of Mar-a-Lago at the right time. Yet Trump’s decision to put Gabbard in change of America’s spy networks is arguably more radical.
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