Trump Chose His New Warmongering National Security Adviser Because He Was on TV a Lot
One of the cold comforts of Donald Trump's presidency is the embarrassing and insanely high churn in his administration. It's satisfying in a karmic way to see people willing to ally themselves with such a train wreck get betrayed or humiliated publicly. Unfortunately, for every henchman who falls, there are plenty more clamoring to fill the new slot.
So, Trump's national security adviser, H. R. McMaster, is out, and his replacement is essentially a worst-case scenario: John Bolton, the former Bush-era U.N. ambassador. Bolton is a full-blown warmonger who helped push the U.S. into war with Iraq and who strongly believes the country should preemptively go to war with both North Korea and Iran. That's not a one-or-the-other scenario, either. And just to up the shadiness level, his super-PAC has been a customer of Facebook-data-swiping Cambridge Analytica since 2014.
The strange thing is that Trump had already considered Bolton as national security adviser when first putting his cabinet together. But he ruled him out because he thought Bolton, with his mustache, wasn't attractive enough to work for him. Trump needed a cabinet full of lookers with innovative fashion sense, like Steve Bannon.
What happened? Well, in the time since then, Bolton has made a lot of appearances on Fox News, and...well, there isn't an "and," there's just that. According to Politico:
A White House official said Trump was ultimately drawn to Bolton, in part because he was impressed by his many appearances on Fox News.
Larry Kudlow, the economic analyst and CNBC contributor who was recently named as a replacement for former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn, also appealed to Trump because of his appearances on cable news. Trump has also developed close personal friendships with both men, the latest indication that personality plays a central role in the president’s personnel picks.
Of course, we've known for a while that most of Trump's ideas are just regurgitated talking points from Fox & Friends, which he watches religiously. But we've entered a new circle of Hell, now that he's just making staff decisions based on their guest lineup.
