Column: Trump’s Cabinet picks are not normal. Will they be appointed anyway?

Hello and happy Tuesday. There are 62 days until President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in, and today we’re talking about keeping things normal.

Normal, of course, is subjective. As anyone who’s getting ready to attend a Thanksgiving dinner knows, often families can’t even agree on what normal looks like. My own Ohio grandmother used to make lobster in aspic for our special meal. Her Depression-era upbringing made her believe it was the height of fancy-pantsy, but it still gives me nightmares.

When it comes to Trump’s Cabinet picks, most of them so far are anything but ordinary.

“Normally, you let the president get his team, put his team in place,” said Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University. “But these are pretty big, bold statements by Trump that he is going to go for vengeance and to destroy the deep state.”

Those anything-but-routine picks upend another normal: the confirmation process.

Traditionally, the Senate would hold hearings to vet nominations — and it may for uncontroversial picks, such as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to head the Interior Department.

But today, we’ll look at three of those Cabinet choices who all have, to put it too politely, sex baggage weighing them down.

What’s not normal is that this isn’t even their biggest problem. Let’s take a closer look at how low the bar has sunk for abnormal.

The man with the crusader tattoo

First up is Pete Hegseth. The veteran and former Fox host has been tapped as the Defense secretary nominee.

His scandal, as reported by the Washington Post, is that a woman accused him of rape in 2017 and he paid her to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Hegseth has denied wrongdoing, and through his attorney called the encounter consensual.

According to the Post, the alleged rape happened at a gathering of the California Federation of Republican Women in Monterey. The woman who filed the police complaint was there with her husband and small children, and was a staffer charged with getting Hegseth back to his room after he got drunk in the hotel bar.

While this story is troubling, it’s not the least surprising because others in Trump’s orbit, including Trump, have faced or are facing sexual misconduct allegations.

The more troubling thing about Hegseth, in my opinion, is one of his many tattoos — “Deus vult” inked on a bicep. For those of you who aren’t fans of the First Crusade, it apparently was a phrase the Christian soldiers shouted, meaning “God wills it.”

In a more recent millennium, the phrase has been picked up by Christian nationalists and white supremacists. The tattoo was concerning enough that when Hegseth’s National Guard unit was deployed to Joe Biden’s inauguration, an anti-terrorism officer flagged it as “disturbing” and sent a memo to superiors, obtained by the Associated Press.

To be clear — the concern is over Christian nationalism, not Christianity. It raises some questions:

Should the head of the United States military believe that God wills us to be a nation ruled by Christianity?

And if so, how would that Christian nationalism affect Trump’s recent announcement to use the military to aid mass deportations?

The party guy

Meanwhile, no one is overly concerned that attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz is putting his Christianity first.

Gaetz, as you probably know, has faced years of investigation over whether he had sex with a minor at drug-fueled parties. The House of Representatives conducted an ethics investigation around that question and was ready to release its report when Trump gave Gaetz the nod, and Gaetz promptly resigned his seat as a congressman from Florida — thereby potentially squashing the report.

Now the question is whether that report will see the light of day. Here’s the thing: A report finding out that Gaetz is a perfect gentleman would probably be all over Fox News by now. And Monday, new allegations came out that he paid other women for sex using Venmo.

So really, there is nothing abnormal about Gaetz in Trumpworld.

He’s just another guy with sex allegations that he denies, being defended by a bunch of guys with allegations of their own.

But if confirmed, he will be the nation’s top law enforcement officer. So maybe we could ask him directly, under oath, about those allegations?

Maybe we could hear from the young woman who testified for the Ethics Committee, or at least see her testimony? Or the testimony of the other witnesses, one of whom claims to have witnessed him having sex with the minor?

It’s the vaccines, stupid

Which brings us to RFK Jr.

Y’all, I do not even have the energy to again go though all of the allegations facing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It’s somewhat shocking (but not unexpected at this point) that his sexting scandal with former New York Magazine writer Olivia Nuzzi, which came to light in September, has entirely faded from our consciousness barely two months later. How much can we take?

But, as Trump’s pick to head our Department of Health and Human Services, junior’s sexcapades are the least of our concerns.

I’d love to hear him answer questions about whether he will protect FDA approval of abortion drugs. Will he try to curtail vaccine mandates for schoolchildren? Will he fire our federal scientists and if so, who would he turn to for expertise?

So. Many. Questions.

So few answers

It would be normal for all of those questions to be asked and answered in confirmation hearings in the United States Senate.

That’s traditionally how Cabinet members are vetted by our lawmakers — and, by extension, voters — so that we understand exactly who is being put in power.

The first abnormal that needs to concern us right now is if that process is circumvented — which is what Trump is hinting he will do through “recess appointments.”

This means that, at his urging, the Senate would basically go on vacation and allow him to appoint his choices with no hearings — not a single question asked, even easy ones.

There is precedent for this, since back when airplanes didn’t exist, Congress only met a few months a year — but not with such unprecedented choices.

And there’s nuances to all this, but without boring you to death, this is basically one big whatcha-gonna-do-bout-it by a president who demands nothing less than complete obedience. If Republicans give in without a fight, it’s a sign that, in fact, we should expect four years of nothing but “how high” when Trump gives the order to jump.

“The big test here is how loyal are Republicans to Trump, versus their responsibility to stand up for their institution?” says Binder, the political science professor. “I don’t know if I am going to like the answer, but I’ll see.”

But the Senate willingly closing up shop so Trump can run wild isn’t even the worst possibility. The second — and most abnormal problem — is that there’s also some talk that Trump would use an arcane part of the recess appointment law to force the Senate to adjourn “until such time as he shall think proper.”

Trump could order Congress to go home, while he does what he wants.

That’s never been done before and it’s highly controversial, or, as Binder puts it, “explosive.”

But also, possible. And if it happens once, you can be certain, it will quickly become normal.

What else you should be reading:

The must-read: Trump pick Matt Gaetz under further scrutiny amid fresh allegations
What’s next: Trump confirms plans to use the military to assist in mass deportations
The L.A. Times special: Laphonza Butler reflects on her brief Senate career, the presidential race and her future

Stay golden,
Anita Chabria

P.S. Thanks to so many of you who answered my request from last week for suggestions on what to cover. More than one person asked me for the occasional bright spot in otherwise bleak days. So here’s a random one that may come in handy for Christmas shopping — a lost board game created by the author Kurt Vonnegut has just been released.

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