Why Trump Chose Gaetz, Hegseth and Gabbard: Retaliation

Donald Trump spent much of the 2024 presidential campaign seeking revenge on his enemies and overthrowing the federal government. Three cabinet decisions in the last two days show what this could look like.

As of last night, Trump announced plans to nominate Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, and Matt Gaetz as Attorney General. At first glance, the trio appear to have little in common, aside from having, on paper, poor qualifications for the jobs they are tasked with filling. (Gabbard and Gaetz are also largely unpopular among members of the respective parties in which they served in the U.S. House of Representatives.)

Think about where all three were nine years ago. Hegseth was an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who served in the Army Reserves and supported Marco Rubio in the presidential election from his relatively new position as a Fox News commentator. Gabbard was a Democratic representative from Hawaii and vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee; She would resign the next year to support Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid. Gaetz was a little-known member of the Florida House of Representatives and planned to run for his father’s Senate seat in 2016. To this day, none of them share an ideology: Hegseth is a culture warrior, Gaetz a libertine with an unusual mix of political views, and Gabbard a seeming dove with her own strange commitments.

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What brings them together is not only their loyalty to Trump, but also a shared feeling of being persecuted by the departments they were nominated to lead. It is what they share with both Trump and each other, and it is their primary qualification to serve under him.

After the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, Hegseth defended the rioters on Fox News. “These are not conspiracy theorists motivated only by lies – this is a bunch of nonsense that people want to tell us,” he said. “These are people who understand the basic principles; They love freedom and they love free markets.” Two weeks later, the National Guard said it had removed 12 members from duty on Joe Biden’s inauguration day due to concerns about extremist groups.

According to his own statements, Hegseth was one of the dozens. He said a tattoo of a Jerusalem cross had targeted him. He soon left the military and then wrote a book attacking the military as a bastion of “wokeness” and decay. “The feeling was mutual – I didn’t want this army anymore either,” he wrote. He remains a vocal critic of the Pentagon’s leadership, pointing out, among other things, that General CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, only holds his role because he is black.

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Gabbard seems an odd choice for DNI, a role created after 9/11 to try to resolve siled information issues between intelligence agencies. Although she is a veteran and former lawmaker, she has no clear interest in intelligence and has not served on the House Intelligence Committee. However, she has a grudge against the secret services. She says she was placed on a domestic terrorism watchlist this summer, resulting in frequent additional screenings at airports. Gabbard says she believes this is due to criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s impossible to confirm any of this because the watch lists are truly a civil liberties nightmare: They’re not public, the reasons why someone ends up on them are opaque, and the process for challenging them is puzzling.

Gaetz is somehow an even more unlikely choice for the nation’s top law enforcement officer than Gabbard for DNI. He has extensive law enforcement experience, but was generally the suspect. In 2008, he was pulled over for speeding and suspected of driving drunk. However, he refused a breathalyzer test and the charges were dropped. Court documents alleged that Gaetz attended drug- and sex-fueled parties with underage girls, which Gaetz denies. The House Ethics Committee is currently investigating him for various alleged crimes. (My colleague Elaine Godfrey reported that Gaetz showed videos of naked women to colleagues; Gaetz was a leading opponent of a revenge porn law in the Florida legislature.)

More specifically, Gaetz was also the subject of a lengthy Justice Department investigation into possible sex trafficking. A senior Trump adviser told the House committee on Jan. 6 that Gaetz asked Trump for a pardon at the end of his first presidency. After years of investigation, the DOJ informed Gaetz’s lawyers in 2023 that no charges would be filed against him. The experience infuriated Gaetz at the Justice Department.

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Each of these appointments, if confirmed, would present the nominees with a chance to exact revenge on the people they believe have wronged them. Whether they can be confirmed will be a good test of how compliant the Republican Senate under new Majority Leader John Thune will be to Trump’s agenda.

Hegseth would always be the least qualified candidate to lead the Department of Defense; It’s a sprawling bureaucracy, and he has no experience with it other than as a low-ranking officer. But Hegseth is personally very popular and already has support from powerful Republicans. Gabbard’s past criticism of Republicans may raise some eyebrows, although she has become a loyal member of Trump’s inner circle. Gaetz will be the biggest test, in part because many Republicans despise him personally and because the investigations into him make him radioactive. (Perhaps these nominees are why Trump has so eagerly demanded recess nomination power.)

If Trump gets the confirmation of Hegseth, Gabbard and Gaetz, he will be on his way to the promised retribution. And even if one of them falls, he still has his intentions made clear.