Observers proposed several explanations for President-elect Donald Trump's flabbergasting nomination of former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general, which ended last Thursday, eight days after it was announced. Those theories were superficially plausible but ultimately unsatisfying. The explanation that best fits the facts is that Trump tends to act on impulse without regard to foreseeable consequences. While that tendency is worrisome in a chief executive, it means that some of his most alarming plans for a second term may come to naught, frustrated by his own lack of foresight and strategic acumen.
By picking a widely disliked legislator with scant legal experience and skeletons that had been tumbling out of the closet for years, some journalists surmised, Trump was prioritizing personal loyalty above all other concerns. According to this theory, Trump was determined to install a lackey at the top of the Justice Department so he could use its formidable resources to deliver on his threats to investigate, prosecute, and imprison his political enemies once he was back in power.
