This is the shape of things to come. We are on the Eve of Kakistocracy, which is rule by the least qualified people in a society. This is something you don’t see in nature. Animals don’t pick the dumbest member to lead the pack but humans do or at least America did last week. So this is what’s coming into office. Marco Rubio is Trump’s announced secretary of state but Grennel allies are heartbroken, evidently.
“We are still waiting on the decision from President Trump and the campaign leadership on what their official decision is,” said one Grenell ally on Tuesday morning, granted anonymity to speak freely about the matter. “What we have been hearing is that no decision has been made.”
Spokespeople for Trump have not confirmed the selection, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The person said Grenell’s camp was “operating under that context” — that Trump’s mind isn’t fully made up in favor of Rubio — until they hear official word otherwise.
Later Tuesday morning, Grenell himself replied to a post about the decision not being final and his allies not giving up the fight, by saying, “BS. Stop grifting. Not true” — a sign he too has accepted the decision Trump reportedly made. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment. […]
Grenell hosted fundraisers for Log Cabin Republicans featuring Melania Trump, who was paid six figures to appear at the gay conservative organization’s events, and he has been involved in Kushner’s plans to build a luxury hotel in the Balkans.
Some people close to Trump did not like that Grenell appeared to be actively lobbying for the role of secretary of State — a major no-no in Trump world. Grenell, it was noted by some in Trump circles, sat next to Trump at a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York in September.
Behind the scenes over the past several days, Grenell’s critics also reminded people involved in the transition of his prickly personality that has rubbed some key people close to Trump the wrong way, according to people familiar with the conversations.
Yet as Grenell’s detractors saw him as self-serving, some top MAGA voices view him as a loyal ally pushing Trump’s America First agenda. They continued to hold out hope that he would be installed, even after almost every major news organization reported the former president’s plans to nominate Rubio. The news of Trump’s State Department pick was first reported by The New York Times.
Just before 11 p.m. in Palm Beach, influential Republican activist Charlie Kirk on Monday wrote a veiled message warning his four million followers not to trust all the reporting they’re seeing about the cabinet.
As you see, the infighting at Mar-a-Lago is enough to scare Machiavelli into giving up politics and becoming a priest or a hermit in the woods. This is going to get batshit. We’re just going to have to get through it until 2026 and start things going back to sanity. We are where we are on the political cheesboard. All we can do is watch the moves and do our best.
We not only have Trump to deal with, we had a terrible Senate map and nothing to be done about that, and the country is split down the middle. But the pendulum will always swing back.
