Nah he wants cult deputies who he has leverage over so their loyalty is synonamous with their survival.

BTW, it doesnt have to run deep, Trump leaves all the thinking to his handler, Putts

I actually 100% agree that he hasn’t thought it through that far but also 100% believe it will play out how I described.

He’s an instinctual fascist.

I imagine a dimly lit room with Steve Bannon and Roger Stone telling Trump with a grin “pick Gaetz, that will really piss off the libs”. Then he smiles, thinking he’s the big man making all this happen, as he takes another bite of his McDonald’s.

also, don’t forget that, these are people willing to work with him. i imagine that is not big club.

Also people that will do what he wants without question. His first time around, he had actual grownups that would talk him out of stuff. This time around, we may not have that luxury and and he might actually nuke hurricanes.

It’s not so much about alignment of views as it is pure loyalty. He wants people who will unquestioningly follow foolish, immoral, or illegal orders. And the best way to do that is to pick people who are completely dependent on Trump himself.

Think of someone like Gaetz. He was likely about to be kicked out of the House. Or Tulsi Gabbard, someone with zero political future on either side of the aisle on her own. He’s not just looking for people he likes; he’s looking for weirdos and political wash-outs who have zero future prospects without him. If Gaetz is working for Trump, and Trump fires him, where exactly does Gaetz go from there? The pro-Trump folks will see him as a traitor. The anti-Trump folks will still see him as the sex pest he is. He ran for Congress right out of law school, so he can’t really just go back to practicing law.

Gaetz’s only real path forward in life is complete subservience to Trump. If he gets and stays in Trump’s good graces, he can be supported through the Trump regime, and then, if he leaves on good terms, he’ll remain popular among the MAGA-set going forward. At that point he can always get a high-paying consulting job at some Trump-friendly company.

Compare Gaetz to Trump’s previous AG, Bill Barr. Prior to Trump’s first term, Barr had a decades-long legal career in multiple presidential administrations and in indsutry. I’m sure he was already well off enough for quite a comfortable retirement prior to becoming Trump’s AG. If Trump had ever told him to do something that he absolutely would not do, he could simply retire to life as a private citizen quite contentedly.