• Elon Musk should combine an old and a new passion, and launch some federal agencies into the sun.
• In the end, Senate Republicans folded. Having stopped Matt Gaetz from becoming attorney general without needing to take a vote, the president’s party made a lot of noises of discomfort about nominees Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of health and human services, and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence. In the case of Kennedy and Gabbard, the nominees responded with lavish public spectacles of distancing themselves from their records. But all three got confirmed, with only Hegseth (for whom Vice President JD Vance cast a tiebreaking vote) receiving more than one no vote from Republicans. At this writing, only labor secretary nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer faces any remaining Republican opposition. The intense public campaign mounted against Iowa Senator Joni Ernst by Trump backers surely helped keep the conference in line. The lone dissenter from Kennedy and Gabbard was Mitch McConnell. Now free of leadership responsibilities, thinking of his legacy as he turns 83, and expected not to seek reelection in 2026, McConnell can say what he thinks. As a childhood polio survivor, he was especially critical of Kennedy’s history of sowing mistrust of vaccines. Trump may regret that more Republicans didn’t save him from his own folly.
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