title:  Trump Gives Newt Gingrich’s Wife Job As Vatican Ambassador In Latest Bit Of Overt Corruption
text: Following a pattern of handing jobs to the wives of his best friends, Trump is set to name Callista Gingrich the United States Ambassador to the Vatican   a job she is, naturally, completely unqualified for.Callista Gingrich, the wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, is the preferred nominee to be the next ambassador to the Vatican.As is typical of Trump, he seems to have given little thought to Callista s actual experience before deciding to hook her up with the job. Gingrich s entire  career  section on Wikipedia is three sentences. She hasn t held a job in over a decade. She s never worked in diplomacy. The last of one she had, as a clerk at the House Agriculture Committee, erupted in scandal when it was exposed that Gingrich   so instrumental in pushing for Bill Clinton s impeachment   had been having a six year affair with Callista while the pair worked in Washington.Her only real qualification is that she is a devout Catholic. In fact, despite her starting a relationship with Newt in a lengthy affair, she made him get an annulment of his last marriage in order to get right in the eyes of the Catholic church. Because Newt had been married for 19 years, the couple came up with a particularly disgusting way to justify it. They claimed the 19-year marriage was never valid because Newt s ex-wife had been previously married. (Indeed, Newt had also been previously married but a mixture of misogyny and hypocrisy allowed them to ignore that.)As Trump s corruption scandals continue to grow, he is reportedly retreating further into his close circle of  loyal  enablers. After firing the FBI director for, in part, not pledging loyalty to Trump or listening to his order to drop the Russia investigation, sources in the White House have said that the replacement prospects are being assessed based on their willingness to be Trump s lapdog.Here s a typical rundown:Mr. Trump and his advisers have asked some people whether they believe Mr. Kelly, the former New York police commissioner, would be  loyal,  language similar to what he used in questioning Mr. Comey s effectiveness, according to people briefed on the discussions.Hiring the family members of his allies helps keep those allies loyal. Mitch McConnell s wife, Elaine Chou, is now the Secretary of Transportation. Mike Huckabee s daughter is the deputy press secretary. Trump s own closest adviser is married to his daughter.As a man who walks a very tight rope between impeachment, Trump s impulse seems to be to keep his friends so locked up in his administration that they wouldn t dare move against him. If Newt or Mitch McConnell tried to call for his removal, they would be dooming their own wives along with him. It s a bold play, and corrupt as hell.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images.