“And also China Mitch made it clear that anyone not on his approved list would be DOA in the Senate.”
Trump could have nominated someone Mitch didn’t like. Assuming the candidate was squeaky clean, if Mitch balked Trump could have gone the to the people and asked them to pressure their GOP representatives. If the candidate was fully qualified, and squeaky clean, on what grounds would Mitch refuse the nomination, particularly if the GOP base was screaming at their Representatives and Senators. We’ll never know if it would have worked, because Trump never tried.
As a side note, do you believe Anthony Scaramucci was on Mitch’s OK list? How about Omarosa Manigault Newman? Jared Kushner?
I do remember Trump praising to the high heavens the following appointments HE made - James Mattis, Rex Tillerson, John Kelly, Jeff Sessions, Reince Priebus, Bill Barr, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Barrett among others. If Mitch “forced” Trump to make his lousy appointments, why was he so effusive in praising them at the time of nomination?
I recall Trump on the campaign trail saying he had a huge rolodex full of incredibly intelligent businessmen who wanted to come to Washington to help him drain the swamp. He mentioned Carl Icahn several times as one of those people. Was this just another “Mexico will pay for the wall” campaign exaggeration? At the end of the day, Trump appointed Washington insiders, with the exception of Ben Carson and Rex Tillerson.
One other comment. Trump appointed Chris Christie to be his transition team director during the campaign. The transition director’s job was to find and vet potential candidates for key jobs so on the day after election Trump would be ready to start filling key positions. The day after the election, Christie had nothing to show and Trump fired him in the first few weeks of the transition. Mitch couldn’t have force Trump to hire Christie since no Senate approval was required for the job. Trump could have put anyone in the position. Perhaps the most critical appointment of a presidential candidate along with his campaign manager.
Christie was a bad idea for that, but if possible, his replacements with Kushner and Pence were even worse.
Trump has been compromised IMO all along. Kushner appears to have been his handler.