Axios

President-elect Trump picked Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for attorney general for one, big, telling reason: Gaetz will proudly do the dirty work on controversial legal topics that others won’t.

• Why it matters: Get used to this. It’s your future foretold: On some topics, Trump wants to seem reasonable. On others — like anything related to his suspicion of a hostile “deep state” — he demands his own personal, controllable wrecking ball.

Republicans hope Gaetz is simply a sacrificial sucker, put up to be rejected so Trump can smuggle through a controversial but more acceptable alternative. Perhaps. But Gaetz is a Trump favorite and Mar-a-Lago regular.

• Trump has assurances from Senate Republican leaders that he can use a controversial workaround, recess appointments, to smuggle in unpopular picks, at least for a few years.