Niccolò Machiavelli suggested that in politics it can sometimes be “a very wise thing to simulate madness”. That idea was taken up by the Nixon White House at the height of the Cold War.
This week, Donald Trump brought his own version of the madman theory to Washington DC. It is debatable whether there was any simulation.
Republicans and Democrats alike were horrified on Wednesday when the president-elect nominated Matt Gaetz as his attorney general. Gaetz, arguably the most reviled member of Congress, has been the subject of investigations into allegations of illegal sexual activity and sex trafficking.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who has mused on whether Covid-19 was deliberately engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews, is Trump’s preference for secretary of Health. Tulsi Gabbard, who has amplified Russian falsehoods about biological weapons labs in Ukraine, is his proposed director of national intelligence. And the nominee for Defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has suggested Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque , one of Islam’s most sacred sites, could be replaced by a Jewish temple.
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In addition to their unhinged views, none of these individuals has any experience in government or the management of large organisations. The US departments of Health and Defence are among the most complex institutions in the world, spending trillions of dollars between them. US intelligence agencies handle vast quantities of classified information, some of which could put lives at risk. And the department of justice, which Gaetz will control if appointed, has immense powers which can be turned against political enemies.
Some observers suggest Trump is using Gaetz as a distraction in order to get his other nominees approved. That will not be necessary if new Senate majority leader John Thune accedes to his demand for recess appointments, bypassing the confirmation process. What is more probable is that Trump has decided to trust his own worst instincts and unleash chaos on the administrative state, with potentially catastrophic results.
