Transitioning Into Chaos

English: Donald Trump's signature. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since we last left you, President-elect Donald Trump has been holed up inside his Trump Tower office in New York, preparing to downscale to the White House come January 20, 2017.  He's been meeting with his transition team, ironing out who's going to be in his Cabinet (more on that later), and what happens to his business interests.

Meanwhile, questions have been raised about the legitimacy of Trump's victory.  While he may have won the Electoral College's vote, Democrat Hillary Clinton leads the popular vote by nearly two million.  Court-ordered recounts have been made in Wisconsin and Michigan, and they both show that Trump won by slight margins.  And the CIA concluded that the Russians might have interfered with the election to make sure Trump won.

But Trump doesn't care about any of this, and why should he?  This is the same man who hollered during the campaign that the election was being rigged.  Well, it was rigged all right--in his favor.

Trump's most notable accomplishment thus far was to convince Carrier, an air conditioner manufacturer, to keep some of its jobs from moving to Mexico from its plant in Indiana.  That's great, but it still means half of the jobs are going south of the border.  And Carrier, which has many government contracts, can't afford to offend the future President.  Trump has to learn that he can't save every job that's either being automated or going overseas.

While Trump has been trashing Alec Baldwin's portrayal of him on "Saturday Night Live" on Twitter, taking phone calls from the President of Taiwan that sets off diplomatic alarm bells in Beijing, and telling the world he isn't all that interested in getting a daily intelligence briefing because he says he's a smart guy, he's been packing his Cabinet nominees with corporate types, retired generals, far-right ideologues and former rivals.  They all seem to share Trump's disdain for climate change, trade policy, immigration and the Affordable Care Act.

Sometimes Trump makes a show out of his nominations, just like he used to do on TV's "The Celebrity Apprentice"  Take Secretary of State, for example.  The list of candidates read like a Who's Who of conservative politics--Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, David Petraeus and John Bolton.  Instead of those guys, Trump is reported to have chosen Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil.  His being pals with Russian president Vladimir Putin is qualification enough for Trump, even if it scares the living daylights out of the rest of Washington.

At least Trump had the sense to hire women who aren't beauty queens to fill important positions in his administration  Nikki Haley, the Governor of South Carolina, has been named United Nations ambassador.  Betsy DeVos, charter school advocate and philanthropist, was picked to be Education secretary.  (Isn't this the Cabinet position Republicans always want to get rid of?)  Elaine Chao, who was Labor secretary under President George W. Bush, has been nominated to lead the Transportation department.  Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is her husband.

All of these nominations have to be approved by Congress.  Some of the nominees raise questions about their stands on social issues, and how to implement Trump's most controversial policies here and abroad.  The hearings will also be a good test for how much push-back a Republican Congress gives the new President before ultimately caving in to him.

Barring an Electoral College miracle, Donald Trump will be sworn in as President in less than two months.  He will not have the mandate to do whatever it is he wants, but it doesn't really matter.  He could be the best President we've ever had, or he could be the worst.  He could also be the last, as far as anyone knows.  Our freedom and our future depends on it.