Outside the Beltway

Dispatches from the Dumbest Timeline

Not just dumb, but dangerous too.

Steven L. Taylor · Thursday, May 7, 2026 · 7 comments

Let’s start with The Atlantic and Kash Patel’s Personalized Bourbon Stash, wherein we are reminded, yet again, that one of the country’s highest law enforcement officials is dangerously unqualified for his job.

Patel’s enthusiasm for self-branded merchandise is also well documented. “He is known as being very merch forward,” one DOJ employee told me. Even before he was confirmed as FBI director, Patel sent out Ka$h-branded merch boxes that included hats, socks, and other items depicting the comic-book character the Punisher, one person who received such a box told me. As my colleague Elaina Plott Calabro reported in 2024, before Patel became FBI director, he previously sold “Justice for All” #J6PC tees in honor of those arrested for their actions on January 6, 2021. (That item is no longer available from the Kash Foundation, which was founded by Patel but is now, according to its website, “an independent nonprofit, not endorsed by, associated with, or influenced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, or any government agency.”)

Of the things I would like an FBI Director to be known for, being “very merch forward” is not on my list. Indeed, it would never have occurred to me to even consider it prior to the Trump era.

As is frequently the case when writing about this stuff, I am forced to note that swag is far from the most troubling aspect of Patel’s tenure in office, but the piece continues to underscore that he is basically a grifting frat boy, at best, who is hardly helping make America safer.

Speaking of members of the administration doing the opposite of making us safer, ProPublica reports,
Babies Are Bleeding to Death as Parents Reject a Vitamin Shot Given at Birth.

Their autopsies, which took place over the last several years, all came to the same conclusion: The deaths were caused, in whole or in part, by a rare but potentially fatal condition known as vitamin K deficiency bleeding.

In almost every case, the babies’ deaths could have been prevented with a long-standard vitamin K shot. But across the country, families — first in smatterings, now in droves — are declining the single, inexpensive injection given at birth to newborns to help their blood clot.

Recognizing that this kind of anti-vax behavior is not solely caused by the current administration, the following should be noted:

In December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped recommending that all newborns get the hepatitis B vaccine, which has been highly effective at fighting a virus that can lead to lifelong infections and liver cancer. A federal judge in March temporarily blocked the revised childhood vaccination schedule that included that recommendation. Some families are also rejecting the eye ointment.

Two weeks ago, at a House subcommittee hearing, Rep. Kim Schrier, D-Wash., pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reassure parents that the vitamin K shot is safe. He refused and pushed back.

“I’ve never said, literally never said, anything about it,” Kennedy said.

“That’s exactly the point,” responded Schrier, who is a doctor. “You don’t say anything about it, but the doubt you’ve created about all of medicine and science is causing parents to make dangerous decisions.”

An HHS spokesperson did not respond to questions but in an email blamed the administration of former President Joe Biden for the rise in parents rejecting vitamin K shots. “Vitamin K at birth,” the spokesperson added, “remains the standard of care.”

This reminds me of similar answers about measles vaccines, wherein Kennedy will insist that the vaccine is still the standard of care, but at the same time, allowing silence (as coupled with raising the general anti-vaccine, and really anti-medical science, rhetoric and attitudes take hold nationally.

For example, as reported by the NYT: F.D.A. Blocked Publication of Research Finding Covid and Shingles Vaccines Were Safe.

The studies, which cost millions of dollars in public funds, were conducted by scientists at the agency, who worked with data firms to analyze millions of patient records. They found serious side effects to be very rare.

In October, the scientists were directed to withdraw two Covid-19 vaccine studies that had been accepted for publication in medical journals. In February, top F.D.A. officials did not sign off on submitting abstracts about studies of Shingrix, a shingles vaccine, to a major drug safety conference.

The withdrawal of the studies is the latest step by the administration to try to limit access to vaccines. It has sharply cut research funding for vaccine development, released unvetted information casting doubt on vaccines, and blocked other information supporting their safety, most recently a paper on Covid vaccine effectiveness by career scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Indeed, I will add in here an editorial from the NYT: Measles Is Back. What Comes Next Will Be Worse.

Back to national security, ProPublica also reports on The Counterterrorism Czar Without a Counterterrorism Plan.

The urgency of the moment has trained a spotlight on Sebastian Gorka, the White House counterterrorism adviser tasked with drafting a blueprint for fighting homegrown and international threats. Nearly a year ago, Gorka declared a national counterterrorism strategy “imminent.” By July, he was “on the cusp” of unveiling the plan — a phrase he repeated three months later in October. And again in January.

To date, no strategy has appeared, and no explanation for the delay. When it is finally released, current and former counterterrorism personnel say, they expect a document rooted in politics rather than intelligence, with little detail on how to combat threats after a year of deep cuts across national security agencies.

[…]

In the first Trump administration, Gorka lasted just seven months before being forced out by the “adults in the room,” as some staffers referred to the more moderate gatekeepers then around the president. In that brief stint, he reportedly struggled to obtain security clearance and faced an outcry over ties — which he denies — to a far-right group in Hungary.

After the exit, he hosted a right-wing podcast and popped up in ads selling fish-oil pills for pain relief. Then his fortunes changed again with the 2024 election that swept Trump back to power, this time with a more conspiratorially minded wing of the Make America Great Again movement. Gorka’s loyalty paid off with a phoenixlike return to the White House in a role sometimes called “counterterrorism czar.”

But really, who needs a serious counterterrorism plan? It’s not like we started a war with a country that is known for its deployment of terrorists or anything!

All of this is an ongoing reminder and chronicling of the consequences of appointing grifters, cranks, and TV show hosts to positions of responsibility in our government. And such an observation is to show that the core problem with the Trump administration is not a simple D v. R situation. This is not simply a case of having an ideological/policy disagreement about, say, environmental regulations or the application of antitrust law.

This isn’t even about limited government (whatever that actually means) versus a more activist government. This is government by the incompetent, if not anti-governance. And the sad thing is that we are currently coasting, to some degree, on the inertia of competence that came before this administration (although plenty of obvious harm has already been done). The long-term damage is being done daily and will continue for several years at a minimum.

One of the reasons we need the Democrats to at least win the House is that they need to engage in serious oversight to help make clear what is going on, but I do have my concerns about whether they understand this need. And any presidential candidate for 2028 needs to be prepared to talk about (and, more importantly, implement) fixes to the mess they will inherit.

And note: calling all of this the “dumbest timeline” may sound flippant, but I think it is worth underscoring two things about Trump 2.0 in particular. First, as James Joyner noted about Iran and gas prices the other day, all of this was not only predictable, it was predicted. A lot of people chose this version of American government. We did not have to have this timeline. Second, as noted above, it has to be understood that these criticisms are not because of mere policy or philosophical differences; the people in office and the choices they are making are objectively terrible, if not outright stupid. History will take account, but it is important to pay attention now and understand that this is not merely some partisan squabble.