Wait, do I have to laugh if it's not funny?

You don't have to laugh, no.

Oh, okay.

This is not some, like, Stalinist dictatorship.

This is not Mar-a-Lago.

Express your true opinions.

From New York Times opinion, I'm Ross Douthat, and this is a matter of opinion.

Okay. Ross Douthit. And this is matter of opinion. I'm joined this week by my colleague and fellow columnist David French.

Hey, David.

Ross, it's great to be with you.

I'm so glad you could be with me because this is kind of a funny situation.

We actually, yes, you can laugh.

Yeah, no, I'm already laughing, Ross.

I'm already laughing.

God laughs at all podcasting plans.

And so apparently just Donald Trump, because we actually taped an entire matter-of-opinion

episode earlier this week, talking about what a second Trump administration might look like

with a lot of discussion of what was then a rush of White House cabinet appointments and

nominations. But then no sooner had we finished taping the episode, then President-elect

Trump announced two more really big ones, Florida Congressman Matt Gates for Attorney General,

and former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence. And we thought

we had to talk about this. And unfortunately, Carlos and Michelle are, you know, have escaped to a beach somewhere, I assume. So I was left alone, but I knew I could count on you, David, with your law and foreign policy background and your deep devotion to Matt Gates to talk about these picks in particular and what they say about how Trump intends to govern.

...