“Do not obey in advance.” FBI Director thumbs nose at Tim Snyder’s cardinal rule when dealing with authoritarians.

It’s Lesson 1, found on the first page of Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: “Don’t obey in advance.”

However, today FBI Director Christopher Wray announced he would step down in January before president-elect Donald Trump assumes office. Trump appointed Wray to the 10-year position in 2017.

Trump had announced his intention to fire Wray without cause, an unprecedented act.

Under normal circumstances in a healthy political environment, the fact that an incoming president is poised to fire another FBI director without cause would be the basis for a major, presidency-defining controversy. Under our current circumstances, this is barely causing a ripple — and a GOP-led Senate is likely to confirm Trump’s radical and unqualified choice to lead the bureau.

He is the second director “driven out by Trump.” The first was James Comey.

The announced nominee: Kash Patel, first generation American lawyer and radical Republican.

Patel, who would need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, has never worked at the FBI and only spent three years at the Justice Department earlier in his career in the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. If confirmed, he has pledged to shut down the FBI’s headquarters building in Washington and drastically redefine the bureau’s role with intelligence-gathering.

Make no mistake, Trump is poised to assume office as an authoritarian who has molded himself after Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban. Wray just made that path a smoother one for Trump.

Most Trump nominees announced so far have been little- or un-qualified for the job they are supposed to assume. They’re wealthy, though.

• Ambassador to China: David Perdue, multi-millionaire
• Ambassador to France: Charles Kushner, father-in-law to Ivanka Trump and pardoned by Trump
• Ambassador to Greece: Kimberly Guilfoyle, Fox News host
• Ambassador to Turkey: Tom Barrack, billionaire
• Ambassador to the United Kingdom: Warren Stephens, billionaire
• Attorney general: Pam Bondi, former Florida attorney general
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator: Dr. Mehmet Oz, a celebrity heart surgeon and television personality
• Counselor to the president: Alina Habba, personal lawyer
• ‘Crypto czar’: David Sacks, venture capitalist and multi-millionaire
• Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Dave Weldon, Christian conservative and Florida physician infamous for his involvement in the Terri Schiavo case
• Food and Drug Administration commissioner: Marty Makary, millionaire and ally of anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration chief: Jared Isaacman, billionaire
• Secretary of Agriculture: Brooke Rollins, right-wing think tank president
• Secretary of Commerce: Howard Lutnick, billionaire
• Secretary of Defense: Pete Hegseth, FOX News personality, womanizer and alcoholic
• Secretary of Health and Human Services: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., millionaire anti-vaxxer
• Secretary of Homeland Security: Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota infamous for shooting her dog as a youth
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Scott Turner, former NFL player
• Secretary of the Interior: Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, multi-millionaire and venture capitalist
• Secretary of Labor: Lori Chavez-DeRemer, one-term U.S. Representative
• Secretary of Secretary: Linda McMahon, billionaire
• Secretary of the Navy: John Phelan, almost billionaire
• Secretary of the Treasury: Scott Bessent, hedge fund manager
• Securities and Exchange Commission Chair: Paul Atkins
• Small Business Administration: Kelly Loeffler, loyalist and brief term as Senator from Georgia and wife of billionaire Jeff Sprecher
• Social Security Administration commissioner: Frank Bisignano, almost billionaire
• Surgeon general: Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Fox News medical contributor
• U.S. Trade Representative: Jamieson Greer, attorney

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