Trump's First Defeat

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

51% : The fact that Gaetz, like Trump, has a personal vendetta against the Justice Department seemed to be his main credential for the job.
44% : The president-elect likes to take a gamble, even if he sometimes loses, but as I argued last week, the presence of so many unqualified picks might perversely make it easier for some of them to get through -- after all, the Senate couldn't reject them all, right?Read: The perverse logic of Trump's nomination circusGaetz's quick exit shows that Senate Republicans aren't willing to accept literally anyone who Trump throws their way, and the fact that they were able to send that message so quickly suggests just how deep their reservations were.
42% : If the rejection is a sign of weakness for Trump, it is also one for his vice president-elect, Senator J. D. Vance.
37% : Before Trump chose Gaetz, he reportedly concluded that other contenders simply didn't have what he wanted in an attorney general, according to The New York Times.
36% : Trump doesn't appear to have bothered to vet Gaetz in any serious way before nominating him, but all of this was known.
31% : It seems unlikely that Trump intended either of these -- he doesn't usually play to lose -- but that could be the effect.
20% : Just two days ago, Trump was insisting he had no second thoughts about picking Gaetz.
17% : Alternatively, Gaetz could end up looking like a sacrificial pick to save the others, or like a stalking horse for Trump to appoint someone else at DOJ.

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