I couldn’t care less what side of the political compass you’re on; Trump’s picks for the presidential cabinet are abysmal.
Not only do some of his choices, such as Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard, have zero experience for their future positions, they’re also downright gross.
The most notable appointment is Matt Gaetz who was appointed attorney general, before pulling out this afternoon.
Gaetz is under massive scrutiny for partaking in a human trafficking ring and possibly committing statutory rape on a 17-year-old.
What’s especially insulting about this pick is that the attorney general is meant to represent all of the United State’s legal affairs. There is no sugarcoating this: the overseer for legal issues and the man who is to give advice to the president about anything related to the court will be an alleged sex criminal and pedophile.
While not as horrible, appointing former Hawaii representative Tulsi Gabbard as our Director of National Intelligence is quite egregious.
Gabbard has no experience in the intelligence department, and she seems to be actively acting against America’s favor.
While she hasn’t said anything blatantly pro-Russian, she continually furthers anti-Ukraine propaganda by embracing the conspiracy theory that there are “U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine that could release and spread deadly pathogens.”
Even other Republicans such as Mitt Romney have come forward and expressed distaste over her appointment.
Another awful pick is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of the Health and Human Services Department (HHA).
While he does not claim to be anti-vaccine, he is the chairman for the charity organization Children’s Health Defense, which pedaled anti-vaccine rhetoric throughout the covid-19 pandemic, delivering harmful misinformation that spread all over Facebook.
If you don’t see anything wrong with that, according to a statistical model made by covid-19 researchers, more than 700,000 more people would have died without the vaccine.
Clearly, anti-vaccine misinformation is irresponsible and dangerous. And needless to say, having an anti-vaxxer appointed as our main guy for HHA is a nightmarish thought.
Among others floating around Trump’s head for his cabinet are billionaire Elon Musk, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, television personality Dr. Oz and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, three of which are grossly unqualified for a governmental role, and the other an apparent grifter who fell heads over heels for Trump the moment he realized he couldn’t win against him in a presidential race.
So many of these picks are outwardly strange and mismatched, almost as if Trump came to these decisions by pulling his followers’ names from a hat.
Despite the differences in all these people, they share a loyalty to Trump, something that he prioritizes more than loyalty to the people.
This leads me to believe that Trump has a very clear plan.
He must know that these choices are bad; he must know that he’s assigning people to very important roles that they can’t perform.
He must know that the lawmakers, whether that be in the House or the Senate, know that these choices will make our country worse off, which is the exact point of it all.
He’s testing Congress to see who’s loyal. He most likely will adjourn the Houses and see who will stand and watch while he’s appointing his cabinet without their approval.
This comes from his consideration of recess appointments, which send Congress on a break while the president can appoint his staff on his own.
By assessing an already Republican-run Congress, Trump can single out those who would challenge him and his decisions as a president, effectively making the legislative branch completely under his rule.
There would be no separation of powers with Trump encapsulating our country’s legislation, and this could possibly lead to him approving legislation that could extend his term another four years, something he desperately wants.
I hate to throw the word Nazi around, but Trump is very clearly using tactics characteristic of Adolf Hitler to remain in power by appointing those who are only loyal to him. This way, he can mold the White House into an echo chamber solely supporting his thoughts and values.
So, what may seem like a batch of stupid decisions on Trump’s part is actually a much more sinister preview of what the next four years will look like.
Trump’s cabinet, whatever it ends up being, will not be the end of the world. However, if the government continues to let people like Gaetz and Musk slide into such powerful positions, it’ll only cause more problems in the long run.
