Donald Trump just pulled a DNI fast one on us
Donald Trump keeps proving that he’s not very good at getting his way in politics. If he were, he’d have a high approval rating and a long list of accomplishments. Instead he’s limping along with an underwater approval rating, getting humiliated on a regular basis, trying to wash off the forever-stink of impeachment, and facing bleak 2020 election prospects. But today Trump reminded us that while he only has a few tricks up his sleeve, he still knows how to use them.
Whenever a high profile vacancy opens up, one of Trump’s favorite tricks is to pick someone who’s horrifying, but falsely leak the name of someone who’s even more horrifying. Then, by the time the public gets done being outraged over the leaked name, Trump goes ahead and appoints his real choice all along. Because this person is slightly less horrifying, the public mistakenly thinks it scored a victory. For instance, Trump periodically likes to leak that he’s going to appoint his own daughter to this or that high-ranking position, just to elicit outrage, so he can then get away with appointing someone who is also ill-suited for the job but who isn’t related to him.
When Dan Coats vacated the Director of National Intelligence position six months ago, Donald Trump tried to nominate Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe to replace him. But Senate Republicans publicly let it be known that Ratcliffe was too dangerous of an idiot to hold the position, and so Trump backed down and picked someone far more suitable, Joseph Maguire. But earlier this month Trump fired Maguire for daring to do the job properly, and so now he’s back to square one.
When Trump named U.S. Ambassador to Germany and glorified internet troll Richard Grenell as Acting Director of National Intelligence earlier this month, there was a lot of hand-wringing in the media about how Grenell was going use the Acting DNI position to somehow magically hand Trump the 2020 election. Of course nothing works that way, and Palmer Report pointed out that Grenell wasn’t even resigning his Ambassador position, meaning he wasn’t planning on being in the role for long.
Today Donald Trump announced his new nomination for permanent Director of National Intelligence: John Ratcliffe. This wasn’t difficult to see coming. This was the guy Trump wanted all along. His mistake last time was not floating someone far worse first. This time around Trump appears to have remembered to use his favorite trick. By temporarily installing someone as horrifying as Grenell in the role, he’s created a situation where the public might actually accept someone mildly horrifying like Ratcliffe – just to get Grenell out of the role.
Plenty of pundits are floating the notion that Trump is nominating Ratcliffe because he knows the Republican Senate will shoot it down again, and he can use it as a stall tactic to keep Richard Grenell in place. I don’t buy it. There’s still no indication that Trump is looking to keep Grenell in the position for any amount of time. And frankly, Grenell is just a troll who wouldn’t be able to magically use the DNI position to do anything to help Trump anyway. He’s evil, but he’s not some evil genius.
But still, we saw all this doomsday media hype about Donald Trump installing Grenell into the role in a way that was going to cause Trump to be able to wave a magic wand and make every evil thing go his way, so perhaps the media pundits are now trying to avoid having to admit that they were wrong. The reality is this: the Republican Senate probably will confirm Ratcliffe this time, despite its reservations. Trump is a one-trick pony, but he appears to have used his one trick to get his way this time. We’ve got to stop falling for the doomsday hype. It’s how Trump uses a canard like Grenell to snooker us into swallowing someone like Ratcliffe.
