photo by: Creators Syndicate

Jamie Stiehm

“Julius Caesar did not seize power; the Roman Senate ceded power to Caesar.” — Sen. Robert C. Byrd

Let that be a lesson to us from the West Virginian’s grave.

Donald Trump promised to be a dictator on day one. Yet we missed his meaning: the first day after the election. Right away, we felt the president-elect’s revenge, blowing in on the gales of November.

The United States Senate stands in front of those winds, testing the limits of its own power. History rhymes again. Our Constitution spells it out that the Senate has the right (and duty) to approve the president’s choices for his cabinet.

That’s the balance of power between the branches of government. But that power is just pen on parchment if it’s not used.

You know the names: Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, Matt Gaetz and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. These four Trump nominees to lead the Intelligence, Defense, Justice, and Health and Human Services departments are not only know-nothing picks prepared to be putty in his hands.

What they think they know is utterly, tragically wrong.

Trump is daring the Senate to cross him to “advise and consent” on Cabinet nominees that curdle blood of official Washington. At first blush, some senators took the nomination of Gaetz as a bad joke.

Those who know the House troublemaker in Congress the best like him least.

In a narrow Republican majority Senate, 53-47, only a few good brave senators can stop — or slow — the Trump juggernaut at this precarious moment.

Before considering each nominee, let me say the horror and shockwaves are exactly the point. Trump’s defiance is nothing new but marks a new order of magnitude. Each hire would seek to thwart — even to undermine — the agency’s mission from within.

Make no mistake, Trump is bitterly launching another lethal attack on the U.S. government by upending these four federal agencies. In a way, this is a vengeful variation of the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol, which he incited.

Trump’s contempt for the political establishment — and policy expertise — is now as clear as it can be.

Starting with Gabbard as director of national intelligence, “unqualified” is too good a word. The former congresswoman is considered questionable on national security herself, at odds with American foreign policy toward Russia and Syria.

The best thing newspapers had to say about Gabbard and others is that they are Trump “loyalists.” And that he is following his “instincts.”

The prospect of Pete Hegseth, a Fox host, running the Pentagon? It hurts to laugh. He is a hard-right personality with National Guard service and armed with plenty of opinions — on women and “wokeness” in the military. He’d comply with Trump’s illegal wish to use the military for mass deportations.

Married three times, Hegseth has a salacious past, with a sexual assault allegation settled out of court. But this kind of thing only endears him to Trump.

Gaetz and Kennedy also have problematic records with women. For Trump, found liable for sexual assault in court, that matters not a whit.

Gaetz, under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for sex trafficking a minor, may have found a way out. He just resigned from the House after he and Trump agreed — on a flight — that he should be named attorney general.

Gaetz makes reckless statements about abolishing the FBI — on Trump’s enemy list — and has done little to distinguish himself in Congress.

Wait! Gaetz paralyzed the House for days to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). He’s a first-class disrupter and proud of it.

Having the bad boy of the Kennedy clan on the team makes the taunting Trump set complete and gives him grim delight.

Kennedy is known as a vaccine denier and helped cause a measles outbreak in Samoa. To medical professionals, it’s an outrage to throw shade on a miraculous advance in public health.

Trump possesses a strange charisma with a lust for power — but he’s no courageous Caeser. Since the Supreme Court is on his side, the Senate is really his only restraint.

Beware: The last blow to the Roman Republic (our own model) came in 44 B.C., when the Senate declared Caesar dictator for life.

— Jamie Stiehm is a syndicated columnist with Creators.