gotchanewsdaily.com 
CNN
—
For Donald Trump, every defeat is just the catalyst for his next battle.
No sooner had the president-elect suffered his first big reversal since winning reelection – when his scandal-tainted pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, withdrew Thursday after days of steadily worsening scrutiny over alleged sexual misconduct – Trump doubled down.
In Gaetz’s place, Trump chose Florida’s former attorney general, Pam Bondi, another ultra-loyal MAGA warrior who is one of the most outspoken proponents of his theory that US justice was weaponized against him.
Gaetz – who denies wrongdoing – may be gone, but Trump’s craving for the Department of Justice to act like his personal team of lawyers rather than an independent guardian of the law is showing all signs of remaining intact.
On the face of it, Gaetz’s withdrawal was an embarrassing defeat as he lost a tussle with Republican senators who didn’t relish the dilemma that would have come with a vote either for Gaetz or against Trump. Sources told CNN that the president-elect wanted Gaetz because he shared his desire to purge ‘deep state’ adversaries in the DOJ and was completely loyal. But Trump forgot another necessary quality — that his pick not create any discomfort for the senators he needs to keep on his side even as they look at their own next election battles.
The Gaetz disaster suggests that despite his big election win, some laws of political gravity still apply to Trump.
There was a sense of hubris from Trump in picking possibly the least qualified, most controversial and disliked potential attorney general nominee in modern history. His selection of other Cabinet picks – who seem, by normal standards, deeply unqualified – also looks like the kind of classic overreach and misreading of a mandate that can get new presidents into trouble.
The haphazard decision making and lack of vetting that led to the Gaetz selection — sources said Trump settled on him while flying to and from Washington last week — hardly suggests his second term will be much more disciplined than his first. And picking a candidate whose main qualifications seemed the certainty he’d delight Trump’s base and horrify elites underscores the president-elect’s impulsiveness.
Yet Trump’s omnipotence in the GOP – and his party’s refusal to convict him in two impeachment trials – means that it would be unwise to see Gaetz’s downfall as a harbinger of the new Senate GOP majority’s willingness to curb an all-powerful new president. With constitutional honor satisfied, and feeling an obligation to their party leader, some senators might even be more disposed to back Trump’s other provocative picks.
And the loss of Gaetz – whom Trump said Thursday has a “wonderful future” – is likely to have no impact on the goals of a second presidency that Trump has promised to devote to retribution.
Scandals surrounding Trump’s picks mirror his own legal morass
White House administrations always reflect the person at the top.
This may explain why two-and-a-half weeks into his transition, several of Trump’s Cabinet picks are embroiled in allegations of sexual misconduct, ethics or legal controversy.
Former Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for the Department of Defense, is facing fresh revelations about an alleged sexual assault of a woman in California seven years ago. Like Gaetz, Hegseth was not prosecuted over the allegation and denies he did anything wrong. His lawyer has said, however, that while the Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran regards the encounter as consensual, he entered into a settlement agreement with his accuser that included an undisclosed payment and a confidentiality clause.
