When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.

 Turkish proverb

Back in the previous century, when I was a mere child, my friends and I used to delight in the antics of Abbott and Costello, in particular a skit entitled, “Who’s on First?” The sketch was a classic exercise in miscommunication, but the title seems perfectly descriptive of what we may be in for in the next four years.

With a little less than a month to go, we now can see the shape of the next Trump administration, not that it comes as a surprise. Donald Trump has surrounded himself for the most part, perhaps entirely, with men and women who will do his bidding regardless of whether what he wants done makes sense or is in the interests of the country he professes to love. In some cases, he won’t even have to ask. Some of his nominees are already chomping at the bit in anticipation of doing what they think he wants; and some of them want to do it because it’s also what they want. Donald Trump wants revenge and vindication for his supposed suffering, and he apparently aims to get it.

Some of his nominees might be considered reasonably or even well qualified for their positions, with knowledge of the issues and programs they will have to oversee. Some of them may be quite conservative, but elections have consequences and presidents are entitled to make their choices. At least four of the choices–for secretary of Defense, director of National Intelligence, secretary of Health and Human Services and Mideast envoy–are problematic to say the least. In normal times, we could expect the confirmation process to expose the weaknesses of these four appointments. These are not, however, normal times. We shouldn’t be surprised to find that the Senate, under Republican control, will do a lot of huffing and puffing before approving most, if not all, of the nominees, qualified or not. And it doesn’t do any good to recall how unnecessary all of this is. Had the Republican senators voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial four years ago, we wouldn’t be facing Trump’s second coming.

Only seven Republican senators voted to convict Trump in 2021, and four of those will not be in the Senate in the next Congress. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader at the time, delayed the impeachment trial until Trump had left office. Then, when the trial was held McConnell rationalized that because Trump was no longer in office, he could not be impeached. After the vote, McConnell said Trump was morally and legally responsible for the tragic events of January 6, 2021. McConnell reminded everyone that Trump could still be tried in court for his alleged offenses. So much for that.

Here’s a look at some of the prospective cabinet members and advisers:

• An alleged drunk and sex offender, with no relevant experience, to run the Pentagon
• A Russian sympathizer, with no relevant experience, to oversee intelligence gathering
• An anti-vaxxer, with no relevant experience, to head the greatest government funded research organization in the world and oversee healthcare programs in general
• A truck salesman, with no relevant experience, who hasn’t been to the Middle East for years to be Trump’s Mideast envoy
• The world’s richest man, with no relevant experience, to apparently stick his nose into whatever he feels like.

Let’s stay with that last one for the moment. Elon Musk, who borrowed $465 million from the federal government in 2010 to save Tesla, has been appointed, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, as sort of budget kibitzers with vague portfolio to cut the federal budget. Both men are very smart, very rich and have no apparent expertise in government or the federal budget. Nonetheless, Musk felt qualified to torpedo an appropriations bill headed for congressional approval to keep the government’s lights on after December 20. In killing the bill, Musk seemed to be acting as henchman to the President-elect, or deputy President, or maybe President–and the inauguration is still a month away. Trump seemed to approve what Musk had done, especially because Trump wanted the unnecessary debt ceiling to be raised now, while Biden is President, rather than next year when Trump is in office. (A little sidelight here. In his first term Trump increased the national debt by $7.8 trillion, or almost 40 percent.)

By telling Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who worked on the bill for weeks, to kill it, Musk may also have effectively ended Johnson’s career as Speaker. Johnson, it may be recalled, was elected Speaker after three weeks of Republicans thrashing around to replace Kevin McCarthy who was elected Speaker after 15 ballots (an historic record) and then thrown out of office (another first) after less than a year because he helped pass a bill to avert another government shutdown.

Musk, by the way, has doubtless profited from the federal government’s $7,000 tax credit for the purchase of electric vehicles; also, from the federal government’s use of Musk’s Starling satellite system; also, from his government contracts with his SpaceX company. Conflict of interest anyone? Musk’s activity in killing the bipartisan bill wasn’t an isolated incident. He also tweeted on X, his wholly owned media platform, that a far-right party with neo-Nazi connections is Germany’s hope for salvation. Is that the position of the incoming Trump administration? Does Musk’s portfolio include foreign policy? We don’t know–and neither does the rest of the world.

Moving right along: Musk’s effort to deep six the bipartisan spending bill failed miserably, exposing Donald Trump’s weakness even before he became President. Trump and/or Musk apparently thought he became President the day after the election. It’s difficult to know what role Elon Musk thought he was playing, perhaps thinking that he had bought the presidency with the $227 million he spent on Trump’s campaign.

This recitation may seem a little scattered, but that’s because the situation it’s describing is chaotic. If anyone thought that a second Trump administration was going to be organized and orderly, they’ve just gotten a taste of the circus that’s coming. The world’s richest man, who was not educated in the United States and doesn’t seem to understand the Constitution or how American government works, in league with the self-styled billionaire who is awaiting his second term in office, who also doesn’t seem to understand the Constitution or how American government works, have managed to bungle their first major legislative effort even before they officially take office.

Prior to these events, Trump–for all his buffoonery–looked a little scary because of all the dark threats he was making, explicit and implicitly. Now he also looks scary because he still doesn’t seem to know–as he didn’t the first time around–how things work in the government he will again supposedly be in charge of–unless Elon Musk will be. And Musk doesn’t get it either. We might consider the above dark comedy if it weren’t so serious. A president who doesn’t know what he’s doing in terms of the office he’s about to hold has nominated a group of unqualified people for positions that they know little about and is proposing programs that will derail the economy, weaken our national security and impoverish those who are already struggling, all the while further enriching those who least need it.

Consider this picture a preview of what’s to come. Stay tuned.