Uh . . .

Initial thoughts on Trump's intent to nominate Matt Gaetz as Attorney General:

Many do not appreciate the subtlety and nuance of Donald Trump's thinking on political philosophy and governance.  It was a recent rereading of The Federalist, a copy of which he keeps on his bedstand, that inspired him to devise this test of the political and moral strength of our institutions and of the system of checks and balances developed by our Founders.  It's a test reminiscent of Solomon's in the Old Testament.  Just another example of 4-D chess from The Master.

On second thought:

Nominating Matt Gaetz for AG is a political and moral atrocity.  A disaster should he actually become AG.

There is nothing 4-D about it.  Trump will only appoint as AG a person that he has complete faith will unquestioningly follow his instructions and desires and be his "wingman" just as Bobby Kennedy was for his brother and Eric Holder for Barack Obama.  Expertise in the law or in the day to day issues addressed by the Department of Justice is of a secondary, or even tertiary, concern.

To understand why, we need to go back to January 2017, when the Russia collusion story explodes publicly.  Trump knows the allegations contained in the Steele Dossier are phony, though much of the public, including myself, don't know what to make of it.  

He's appointed Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.  Sessions is not a personal friend, but was the first senator to endorse Trump.  However, he's also an old-fashioned "honorable Republican" statesman and when presented by the Democrats with a phony conflict of interest story about the Russian ambassador he recuses himself from anything to do with the Russia collusion allegations (something Eric Holder would never have done in similar circumstances).  It effectively leaves the Justice Department's actions in that matter in the hands of Trump's political enemies.

By later in the spring, Trump becomes aware James Comey at the FBI is actively conspiring against him and fires the FBI Director, but allows Andrew McCabe to become acting director, not realizing he is also part of the conspiracy to get the president.

In May, Robert Mueller is appointed Special Counsel for the Russia investigation.  By now, Trump has his own lawyers to represent him in that investigation.  Those lawyers are experienced hands, but not previously known to Trump and hired on the recommendation of people around him.  They tell the president that Mueller is a straight shooter with a great reputation and advise him to cooperate fully which they think will quickly put an end to the investigation.

Trump takes that advice, does not invoke Executive Privilege, and turns over more than 1 million White House documents and allows his own White House Counsel to be interviewed about conversations he had with Trump, an unprecedented move by any president in American history.

It is from his counsel's interviews that we know, as reported in the Mueller Report, on at least two occasions, Trump complained that he needed an Attorney General like Bobby Kennedy or Eric Holder to protect him, just like they protected their presidents.

But despite giving the cooperation as advised by his lawyers, Mueller did not go away.  To what extent Mueller was already mentally slowed down, as we saw in 2019, is unknown, but it was no secret he despised Trump and he hired a rabid pack of Democratic partisan lawyers who were never going to stop their investigation, regardless of the facts.

To become the new FBI Director, Trump nominated Christopher Wray, as suggested by Chris Christie.  Wray was not personally familiar to Trump and has turned out to be horrible at the agency.

In February 2019, William Barr became Attorney General.  Barr saved the Trump presidency by finally shutting down the Mueller gang, and provided good advice to help advance several of the president's initiatives.  However, Barr was not a MAGA devotee who would do anything the president demanded, several times disagreeing with Trump.  Things finally cratered between the two of them when, after the 2020 election, Barr reported (correctly) to Trump that he found no evidence the election was stolen.  Now Barr is considered an agent of the Deep State.

The bottom line is Trump will no longer rely on the advice of others to appoint someone he doesn't personally know, with a track record of loyalty, to oversee DOJ and the FBI.  The problem is that the lawyers Trump knows with such a record are second and third-rate, with poor legal skills, and with questionable judgement and character.  There are conservative lawyers who'd love a chance to clear out DOJ and FBI and restore integrity to those agencies but Trump does not know them, they have not proved their loyalty to him so, as it stands now, they will not have the opportunity to effectively do what needs to be done.

As I am writing this, several news outlets are reporting that Trump is going to nominate Robert Kennedy Jr as Secretary of HHS.  This is lunacy.  One of the reasons I did not vote for Trump is I thought his presidency would implode, but this is happening faster than I thought.

[UPDATE Nov. 21 - One down, one to go!  Though I'm less optimistic about getting the second one.]