"Oh, Go to Health"

When I saw that Trump had nominated Robert Kennedy, Jr. to be Health and Human Services Secretary, my first reaction was to literally laugh.  Honest.  It was just one of those immediate, reflexive bursts, along with an eye roll and shake of the head.  An “Of course, he did!: sardonic laugh.

I mean, seriously, what did anyone expect?  Especially after nominating Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General, Tulsi Gabbard to be Director of National Intelligence and Fox Host Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense.  And naming Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as co-Directors of Government Waste.

More on Kennedy in a moment, but first, because it's still too otherworldly nonsensical --  

How ludicrous a choice is Matt Gaetz to head the DOJ?  Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe told CNN that Matt Gaetz is someone who “quite frankly, couldn’t get hired by the FBI” (which is under the control of the Attorney General.  “Probably couldn’t qualify for a clearance.”

Head-numbing funny as that was to read, I then realized the same was true for Trump.  Except that, with 34 felony convictions and being found liable for rape and guilty of fraud, there would be no “probably” about it.

And the nomination is even more problematic for Trump because any nomination can only afford to lose through MAGOP votes and the Wall Street Journal reported that a person close to Senate discussions said that “as 30 Republican senators may cast a ‘no’ vote on Gaetz.”  To which he added, “It won’t even be close.”

(While I agree this is very possible, given how detested Gaetz is in Congress, there is still no evidence of a spine being found in the party’s caucus.  So, we’ll have to wait and see.  Most of the other nominees are likely safe, no matter how woefully unqualified and dangerous, but again, we’ll have to wait and see.  After all, Gabbard for the risks she poses, and Kennedy for his risk and out-of-control craziness may be a couple of bridges too far for some MAGOP senators, as well.  And could either be voted down or have their nominations withdrawn.  But…well, you know the mantra:  we’ll have to wait and see.)

But, of course, there’s a lot of ludicrous to pass around.  High on that list is Elon Musk saying that he wants to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, which is about 30% of the $6.8 trillion budget.  Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers explained how impossible, indeed close to lunatic this is. As he pointed out, the entire federal workforce makes up just 15% of the national budget.  That means if you got rid of absolutely every person who works for the government – everyone -- and had zero people left to do any work, you still would only be halfway to the amount that ace economist Musk wants to cut.

These are the clueless people Trump is putting in charge.  That was the richest man in the world.  Matt Gaetz is under an ethics investigation by his own party, and he quit the House so that he wouldn’t face condemnation.  And we haven’t gotten to Tulsi Gabbard as DNI – or Robert Kennedy Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Hu…

Sorry, I can’t even type the name again.  Once is enough.  And I won’t even get into all the vast reasons so many consider him a total nutjob whose own, honored family has separated themselves from his politics and issues.  Some of which are related to medical matters (like condemning vaccines, saying COVID only attacked certain groups of people, wanting to remove health-protecting fluoride from water systems, recommending quack COVID “cures” like Ivermectin, a version of which is known as horse drench, and hydroxychloroquine, which treats malaria, and saying that Dr. Anthony Fauci should be prosecuted), and some of which exist on their own planet (like running dumping a dead bear in Central Park).

More problematic is that the Department of Health and Human Services (I feel comfortable typing it here in its own standalone paragraph) doesn’t just deal with vaccines – but whoever heads the division oversees Medicare and Medicaid, as well as 11 other programs, decides what drugs are approved, and much more.  Including the areas of mental health, public health, alcohol and drug treatment, social services, assistance to people with disabilities and controls a $1 trillion budget, the largest in the country.

And, of course, Trump has nominated anti-vaxxer and conspiratorialist Robert Kennedy Jr. to be in charge.  Who is surprised?  What could go wrong?

(NOTE:  The people of Samoa could tell you.  After a tragic mistake in 2019 when two nurses accidentally mixed a measles vaccine with a muscle relaxer, two babies died.  The Children’s Health Defense non-profit came to Samoa, met with prominent anti-vaxxers and railed against vaccines.  The CDF’s founder and chairman came the country, encouraged the anti-vaxxers and met with the Samoan president to make the case against vaccines. As a result, the vaccination rate dropped from 75% to 31%, and a measles epidemic ensued.  In a population of 200,000, 83 people died – most children, the equivalent of 120,000 deaths in the U.S.  Oh, that founder and then-chairman of Children’s Health Defense was Robert Kennedy, Jr.  After the Samoan government instituted emergency vaccination regulations, a leading anti-vaxxer in the country was arrested for incitement against a government order.  Kennedy wrote an article calling the man “a medical freedom hero” and blamed the deaths on the vaccines, adding that the increase of cases – which led to all those deaths, mostly children – was nothing more than “a mild measles outbreak.”)

What could go wrong?  Now, add in being in charge of mental health, public health, alcohol and drug treatment, social services and assistance to people with disabilities.

And we haven’t even gotten to Kash Patel rumored to head the FBI and Sebastian Gorka to be National Security Advisor.

But…no one should be surprised.  Nobody.  This is who the 65 million people who voted against Trump tried to explain who he was.  Because…this is who Trump is.  When MAGOP officials would try to cover for Trump’s lapses into dementia and pathological behavior by dusting aside with “It’s just Trump being Trump,” I noted that that is precisely the problem.

And cabinet nominations of Matt Gaetz, Robert Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Kristi Noem, Marco Rubio, Elise Stefanik, and maybe Kash Patel and Sebastian Gorka, with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as advisors is the damning result.  And God help us, who else to come.

The bad is that this is horrible for the country.  The good is that this is horrible for Trump.

The midterm elections are November 3, 2026.