Pamela Jo Bondi had the blond hair of a Trump gal and the resume of a Florida attorney general. Yet, she wasn’t Trump’s first choice for the job, as many forget that Trump had his eye on the one person who best personified justice in the age of Trump. No, not Roy Cohn, who was dead, although if he wasn’t dead, he would no doubt be a prime candidate for AG, if not SCOTUS itself. No, it was the venerable Matt Gaetz, whose legal genius was only surpassed by his appreciation of underage women and deep interest in Aliens.*

When even the Republican controlled, Trump loyal, Senate couldn’t stomach Gaetz, and so the job went to Pam Bondi. Before her confirmation, Bondi put on her nice girl act. Afterward, not so much. Despite her belligerence in support of Trump, she never stood a chance.

President Trump had complained too freely, too frequently, to too many people about her inability to prosecute the people he hates. She was falling short of Mr. Trump’s unyielding, unrealistic demands for retribution against his enemies. She had made mistake upon mistake in her handling of the Epstein files. Her critics were in the president’s ear.

There were unforced errors, like claiming to have the Epstein client list on her desk or handing out binders to MAGA influencers that held nothing new or useful to them. And there were errors beyond her control, like the inability to prosecute and convict Trump’s enemies for lack of facts or law, when those darn judges and grand juries just wouldn’t play ball.

As Trump broke yet another norm by going to the Supreme Court to watch his disloyal appointees and let them know that daddy wasn’t pleased with their insouciance, he dropped the dime on Bondi.

On Wednesday, the 60-year-old Ms. Bondi, downcast but determined, joined Mr. Trump for a glum crosstown drive to the Supreme Court, where they watched arguments in the birthright citizenship case. In the car, Mr. Trump told her it was time for a change at the top of the Justice Department.

Whether Trump used his most famous apprentice phrase is unknown, but without giving her a chance to save face, she was fired.

Ms. Bondi hoped to save her job or, at the very least, buy a little more time — until the summer — to give herself a graceful exit.

She ended up with neither, and grew emotional Wednesday in conversations with friends and colleagues after she realized she was out. The next morning, Mr. Trump made it official, and fired her via social media post.

It wasn’t for lack of loyalty, which was understood to be the requisite qualification for a post in the Trump administration. It wasn’t for lack of obeisance, or her incessant flattery within and without cabinet meetings. Even though these are the “qualities” demanded of his minions, they also needed to produce the outcomes Trump demanded. That’s where Bondi failed.

There are names being floated for Bondi’s successor, curiously not including his former criminal defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, who will act as AG until the next is confirmed, from New York’s Lee Zeldin, who had a general solo practice in the Long Island ‘burbs before being the Republican sacrificial lamb running for governor against Kathy Hochul to the perpetually shrill yet stunningly dumb Jeanine Pirro, who has demonstrated even less competence than Bondi. But it won’t matter, as they too will be unable to give Trump what he desperately craves, vengeance against his enemies.

To be fair, Trump never had a firm grasp on the nature of government, seeing it as an extension of his mom & pop business where he gave orders and answered to no one. Trump saw the United States Department of Justice as Trump’s personal law firm, there to do Trump’s bidding and accomplish whatever he wanted it to accomplish. Law was merely another tool to be used to achieve his ends, whether gameable or ignorable or manipulable as the case may be. Law was not something principled, but a weapon in the tool box. When Trump ordered that the trigger be pulled, he expected his AG to pull the trigger. Bondi tried, but only shot blanks.

Will the next AG do better? It’s hard to see how that’s possible given the disconnect between Trump’s grasp of law and the existence of a judicial branch that doesn’t bend to his mighty will. Then again, will the Senate, loyal though it may remain despite all evidence that it has reduced itself to a rubber stamp for the venal, confirm someone as stupid, loud and crazy as Pirro?

If not, will the Justice Department survive under the thumb of Blanche, who saw nothing wrong with announcing to CPAC that the FBI purged everyone who had anything to do with prosecuting Trump or putting Ghislaine Maxwell into a camp after meeting with her to make sure she would say that Trump never touched any of those young girls his best friend loved too much? Blanche has survived a lot with Trump, not the least of which was sitting next to him as the jury rendered verdicts of guilty 34 times. Can he survive this when neither Jim Comey nor Tish James sits at the defense table?

*Not the illegal kind, although that might also be true, but the space kind who are being bred with humans, including of the migrant persuasion.