In finalising his cabinet, Donald Trump has come to resemble an American Caligula, the Roman emperor rumoured to have considered appointing his beloved stallion as consul. So unorthodox have been the president-elect’s appointments that I half expected him to nominate his golf cart as the new transportation secretary.
Certainly, there’s been a “bread and circuses” feel to the staffing of the new administration, a phrase coined in Roman times to describe how leaders won the approbation of the populace not through the proficiency of public servants but by something more performative. Crowd-pleasing gimmickry. Attention-grabbing stunts. How fitting, then, that the formation of Trump 2.0 should coincide with the release of Gladiator II.
Illustration by Dionne Gain
After selecting Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and Linda McMahon, a wrestling impresario, to become education secretary, Trump now wants Kash Patel to head up the FBI. This mega-MAGA 44-year-old, who served during Trump’s first term as a White House “political enforcer”, has a side hustle in selling pro-Trump merchandise. As well as penning Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, he has written a children’s book, The Plot Against the King, which, as The Atlantic reported, features “a wizard named Kash who sets out to save King Donald from the sinister machinations of Hillary Queenton”.
At least the American republic can breathe a sigh of relief that........