Scylla and Charybdis. We must avoid going too far to one side or the other in estimating the dangers of the incoming Trump administration.

There is an ancient Greek myth about two monsters, Scylla and Charybdis, who sat on either side of a narrow passage of water. Sailors had to make sure that in avoiding one of the monsters they didn’t steer too close to the other and fall into its clutches. As we will see, that is the analogy we should keep in mind when considering the perspectives for the coming Trump administration. In Oaklandsocialist’s previous articles (See part one, and part two) we emphasized the extreme dangers that Trump poses. Here, we will indicate some of the apparent limitations on him.

The most important appointments Trump will make are for the offices that will carry out his intention to repress democratic rights. Those are, first and foremost, the Attorney General and also the head of the military – Secretary of “Defense”. Running a close second is the coordinator of national “intelligence”, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Let’s look at what’s happening with those appointments.

Matt “Botox” Gaetz. He is a stretch too far even for some Republican senators.

Matt Gaetz
Trump tried to appoint Matt Gaetz as attorney general. Gaetz is a complete wild man who was threatening to “abolish every one of the three letter agencies, from the FBI to the ATF.” Of course, he (and Trump) have no intention of abolishing federal law enforcement. What Gaetz meant was he intended to carry out Trump’s wish to use federal law enforcement as his (Trump’s) own personal weapon. As with every dictator and would-be dictator, that means among other things using those forces to blackmail and enforce bribes on any company that wants to do business in the United States. This is not only expensive for the capitalists, it also creates totally arbitrary rules of the game, making it nearly impossible to invest with any sort of clarity.

This also places all politicians at the whim of the president. It sharply undercuts the authority of the 100 U.S. senators, including their power to advance their own careers and obtain their own lesser bribes in the form of campaign donations. So, the major capitalists could not have it, nor could their representatives, the U.S. senators.

It takes a certain type of personality to impose outright authoritarianism, especially at a time that capitalism does not need it. That type is one who has no limits, neither politically nor personally. That is Matt Gaetz, and even many Republican senators realized they could not trust him. The fact that he is credibly accused of trafficking teen age girls and using cocaine is just the icing on the cake.

Enough Republican senators made it clear that they would not vote for Gaetz’s confirmation that it was clear he would not be confirmed. Also, even the Republican senators made it clear that they would not tolerate their new majority leader, John Thune, putting the senate into recess so that Gaetz’s nomination could bypass the confirmation process entirely. Had Thune done that, he would have nearly completely emasculated the senate. That would have meant undercutting the power and influence of the individual senators.

The result was that Gaetz had to withdraw and Pam Bondi was nominated in her place. Bondi only exhibited the normal levels of corruption, for example taking a bribe  in the form of an illegal “campaign contribution” from Trump in 2013 in exchange for keeping Florida out of a lawsuit against Trump University. She exhibits only the normal levels of repression, for example in her homophobic   attacks. The thing is that the Republican senators, and probably a number of Democratic senators also, feel they can work with her, so her appointment should sail through.

The Christian nationalist tattoo on Hegseth’s arm. His nomination is also in danger.

Pete Hegspeth
The other key figure as far as Trump’s repressive apparatus is the secretary of defense, bearing in mind that Trump intends to call the army onto the streets of the US if he feels it is necessary. To do this reliably, Trump has named Pete Hegseth to that post. Hegspeth comes from the minority Dr. Strangelove   wing of the US military. Dr. Strangelove  was a brilliant movie starring Peter Sellers about a fictional US general who

Peter Sellers as the mad general in the brilliant movie “Dr. Strangelove”. That school of thought still exists, but the major wings of the U.S. capitalist class don’t trust them.

believed in a “pre-emptive” nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. That wing of the military actually did exist and it exists today. Hegspeth, with is fascist tattoos, is of that mentality. An article   in The Atlantic explains that Hegspeth “considers himself to be at war with basically everybody to Trump’s left, and it is by no means clear that he means war metaphorically…. [He believes] the Holocaust was perpetrated by “German socialists… the manner in which we study politics, history, and economics in American schools—public and private—today is the product of Marxists. That was always the plan, and it worked…. Fire any general who has carried water for Obama and Biden’s extraconstitutional and agenda-driven transformation of our military….” Firing such generals would create havoc in the U.S. military.

 An article in The Guardian  presents Hegspeth’s point of view regarding the failure of the US invasion of Iraq as being caused by the enemy at home. That is the same position that Hitler took regarding Germany’s defeat in WW I.

Hegspeth’s nomination is also in trouble with some Republican senators. The superficial reason is the allegation that he raped a woman some years ago, but since when has that disqualified any Republican from office recently? After all, their president is a convicted rapist who has bragged about sexually harassing women!

Tulsi Gabbard in Syria. US capitalism cannot trust her.

Tulsi Gabbard
Running a close second in importance to attorney general and secretary of defense is the director of national intelligence. Trump has nominated Putin and Assad linked Tulsi Gabbard for the position. Her then- secret visit to Assad’s Syria were so suspicious that TSA had briefly placed  her on a “watch list”. Aside from her secret meeting with Assad, Gabbard has spread   pro-Putin propaganda, especially regarding Russia’s invasion into Ukraine. This concerns many Republican senators who tend to strongly support U.S. military support for Ukraine. That is why U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R, NC) said of her, “I have no intention of supporting anybody who equivocates on support for Ukraine.” Ukraine and the surrounding countries are too juicy of a fruit as an outlet for investment, and a source of raw materials as well as for U.S. exports to be surrendered to Russian imperialism, and no two-bit Putin and Assad supporter like Tulsi Gabbard will be allowed to take office as DNI without a fight. (None of this means that Ukraine shouldn’t get all the arms it needs to fight the Russian invasion.)

A number of Republican senators are deeply unhappy about Gabbard’s nomination. Nor do they like what the nomination represents: an intent to pave the way for a Russian victory in Ukraine.

Labor Secretary
Another extremely significant Trump nomination to which little attention has been paid is Lori Chavez-DeRemer for Labor Secretary.  She is a moderate Republican who is considered to be pro-labor. This nomination indicates that Trump recognizes that he cannot take on all possible opposition forces all at once. His own lizard brain recognizes the limitations of how far he can go at this time.

This choice indicates the conflicts and even chaos that is likely to occur in the Trump administration. Chavez-DeRemer will come into conflict with the influential Elon Musk and others regarding labor policy. Musk, and his supporters in turn, will resist putting high tariffs on Chinese imports. It may tend to partially paralyze the Trump presidency, or at least have him ricocheting from one extreme to another.

Conclusion
To return to the Scylla and Charybdis analogy:

On the one side is the danger of complacency. “We got through four years of Trump before, and we’ll get through it again,” is the thinking. This is the tendency to ignore the fact that Trump learned from his previous administration. Establishment conservatives like his former Chief of Staff John Kelly, his former Chair of the Joint (military) Chiefs of staff Mark Milley, even his former Attorney General Bill Barr (for all his sycophancy) successfully resisted Trump’s worst tendencies towards military adventures abroad (e.g. a U.S. invasion of Venezuela) and towards dictatorial repression at home (e.g. putting U.S. troops on the streets or overturning the 2020 elections). Trump will not have those types in his cabinet.

On the other hand, some think that Trump will institute outright fascism, or something close to it. I have even seen predictions that his administration will be like that of Assad, who has imprisoned tens of thousands and tortured to death many of them. Others say we should pretend that Trump might not take office on January 20. The setbacks Trump has received in his would-be appointments, plus his nominee for labor secretary, indicate the limits to how far he can go. Nothing is set in stone, and he may be able to go a lot further, but for now those limits do appear to exist.

That is all the more reason to continue to work to organize a working class resistance to Trump, focusing first and foremost on the unions.

Scylla and Charybdis. We must avoid going too far to one side or the other in estimating the dangers of the incoming Trump administration.