Trump’s latest Fox News hire looks even worse than Pete Hegseth | Margaret Sullivan

The revolving doorway betwixt the Trump administration and rightwing Fox News took different chaotic rotation this week, arsenic America’s TV-obsessed president tapped Jeanine Pirro for a salient ineligible post: apical national authoritative for Washington DC.

Pirro is unqualified, possibly adjacent much truthful than was her erstwhile Fox workfellow Pete Hegseth erstwhile helium was named Trump’s defence caput a fewer months ago. In that important position, Hegseth has been a unsafe embarrassment, arsenic his shockingly inappropriate communications person exposed nationalist information secrets to the world.

Pirro, though erstwhile a county-level territory attorney, hasn’t held a authorities ineligible presumption successful decades. But she has been opining connected Fox for 14 years, mostly precocious arsenic a big connected The Five, the network’s fashionable day talkshow.

But nary matter. She “is successful a people by herself”, Trump wrote connected societal media successful announcing his volition to marque her the interim (and possibly permanent) prosecutor.

His statement whitethorn beryllium accurate, but surely not successful the mode helium intends.

Pirro’s grounds astatine Fox is startlingly checkered, adjacent for that propaganda outfit. She got successful occupation with the network’s brass a fewer years agone for her anxious promotion of Trump’s lies astir expected elector fraud successful the 2020 election. (The voting-fraud lies became portion of a defamation suit against the web by a voting-systems company; Fox paid astir $800m to settee the case and had to acknowledge that statements made connected aerial were false.)

Fox once suspended her for her disfigured commentary connected Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s wearing a hijab, which Pirro suggested was an adherence to “sharia lawm which successful itself is antithetical to the United States constitution”. And she advocated for a “cleansing” of the FBI and the justness section due to the fact that their ranks were afloat of radical who “need to beryllium taken retired successful handcuffs”.

But nary of this causes immoderate existent interest for the president, apparently, due to the fact that Pirro has 1 immense happening going for her. Over the people of a agelong relationship and galore visits to Mar-a-Lago, she has been relentlessly loyal to Trump.

In fact, she has gone good beyond loyalty into straight-up sycophancy.

On this score, Pirro has what it takes.

“Since Trump returned to office, Pirro has kept engaged by showering him with praise and lashing retired astatine anyone who stands successful his way,” wrote Matt Gertz, elder chap astatine the progressive watchdog radical Media Matters, noting that she is the 23rd erstwhile Fox worker whom Trump has tapped for his administration.

Tom Homan, a erstwhile Fox contributor, became Trump’s “border czar”, aggressively carrying retired the administration’s anti-immigrant policy, and Mike Huckabee, the erstwhile Arkansas politician and erstwhile big of a play Fox show, was named ambassador to Israel.

Beyond her peerless cheerleading, Pirro would beryllium utile to Trump successful applicable terms, noted the New York Times successful a quality story.

She supports “Trump’s efforts to nonstop vengeance connected his governmental enemies, has backed his challenges to national judges who person questioned the legality of his migration policies and spent months protesting the legitimacy” of Biden’s 2020 predetermination to the presidency.

Although Trump often doesn’t instrumentality the favour of loyalty, helium has stepped up for Pirro’s household by pardoning her erstwhile husband (once Trump’s lawyer), who successful 2020 was convicted of conspiracy and tax-evasion charges.

All told, this is immoderate superior symbiosis. In stepping distant from her high-profile – and high-earning – TV job, Pirro whitethorn lick a sticky occupation for Trump, whose earlier prime for the DC prosecutor’s presumption ran into occupation with Senate Republicans.

It’s not wide if Pirro’s information volition succeed, particularly successful the agelong term. Although Trump is nominating her connected an interim basis, there’s small uncertainty he’d similar it to beryllium permanent. But adjacent the interim assignment whitethorn tally into a ineligible combat implicit conscionable however galore acting US attorneys the president tin name consecutively.

You mightiness deliberation that with Hegseth’s rocky and wide criticized commencement arsenic defence caput – wherever helium oversees astir 3 cardinal employees portion maintaining a TV star’s steadfast jawline – the president would hesitate to take different unqualified TV property for a cardinal role.

But Trump intelligibly doesn’t spot it that way.

There’s hardly thing better, it turns out, than Fox News connected one’s resume. Even amended erstwhile it’s paired with a coagulated grounds of fealty to the Audience successful Chief.

• Margaret Sullivan is simply a Guardian US columnist penning connected media, authorities and culture