As Donald Trump’s cabinet picks of unqualified and alleged sexual predators come under scrutiny, he and his MAGA buddies are doing what the “party of personal responsibility” always does when they screw up: blame it on others.

As you know Team Trump would love to find a way to blame the Democrats, the sexual assault allegations against Hegseth are Republican vs. Republican. There doesn’t seem to be a single Democrat to blame Gaetz’s misconducteither. So the best way to avoid responsibility: blame Hegseth and Gaetz for not doing Trump’s job for him.

By Rolling Stone:

According to four sources familiar with the situation, some senior Trump transition officials and others close to the president-elect were puzzled, if not angered, that Hegseth did not proactively inform them of the allegations against him before they hit the press. . — especially through publishing a police report detailing the alleged incident at a hotel in Monterey, California.

“How did he not know? Why didn’t he tell us?” says a source close to Trump. “Pete wasn’t interviewing for a job at McDonald’s; this is the goddamn pentagon! … Even if the allegations are false, it doesn’t matter because he needed to tell us what we needed to know so we could be better prepared to defend him — not learn about it from the media.”

That’s right, Team P***y Grabber, this is the goddamn Pentagon. Why the hell didn’t you do your homework and competently vet your own candidate for such an important position?

Apparently there was a BS issue of a verification process:

There was, sources say, a vetting process for Hegseth’s selection, but it didn’t reveal those details, nor was it particularly invasive. Trump’s transition team has not signed agreements with the White House or Justice Department to allow the FBI to conduct background checks on the president-elect’s nominees.

“When we ask, ‘Is there anything else we need to know?’ that’s usually a good time to mention a police report,” says a Trump aide. “Obviously he remembered all of this happening and there’s no way — I don’t think — he could have thought this wasn’t going to come out once he was nominated.”

Mediated has more on Trump’s effort to blame his own election for not doing the job he was elected to do (emphasis mine):

President-elect Donald Trump was misled by cabinet appointees Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth about the extent of the misconduct allegations against them, according to multiple sources who spoke to Mediaite.

…

Another source, who was involved with the Trump campaign, told Mediaite that when Gaetz was confronted about the allegations of sexual misconduct against him, he “denied, denied, denied.”

“Trump took it at face value,” the source said. “Gaetz has been caught.”

…

Gaetz was not the only cabinet nominee said to have misled the president-elect. Hegseth, the former Fox News host who is Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, was questioned about his background in initial discussions with Trump’s team. A source said Hegseth – who has been married three times and had several extramarital affairs – was asked if there were any scandals in his past and if he had ever signed a non-disclosure agreement.

“He told the campaign there were no problems,” the source said. “There are no attacking problems. There are no NDAs. Aggravated lies.”

Nice try, MAGA world. But it’s up to Donald Trump to make sure his cabinet picks are right.

While the media is distracted by the salacious details of Gaetz and Hegseth’s alleged sexual assaults (and let’s not forget that serious allegations of sexual misconduct have been made about the HHS pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Secretary of Education chooses Linda McMahon), let’s keep the focus on the forest not the trees.

In other words, Trump has already failed miserably in his first presidential acts of office, and he hasn’t even taken office yet.