Yes, the choices of Pete Hegseth, Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are outrageous and a MAGA power play. But let’s not lose sight of the MAGA forest here: each is unqualified to run large, complex departments that deal with serious, complex problems that all Americans depend on to keep us safe in one way or the other.
Even if you love the MAGA philosophy and goals for respective departments Trump wants these folks to run, not one of them has even a fraction of the experience that any president who cares about protecting Americans would require.
Pete Hegseth (DOD): When Hegseth was rightfully passed over for running the VA, he had no experience running a large organization. The management experience he does have indicates a history of putting unqualified personnel in high positions and a questionable use of funds. Since then, he's remained in his job as a Fox News host. Now he’s fit to run the Pentagon? The nation’s largest employer? Come on.
Matt Gaetz (DOJ): Putting aside the matter of alleged statutory rape, Gaetz only practiced law for a mere three years, at most, never as a prosecutor. The firm he worked at doesn’t even practice criminal law. But Trump thinks he’s the guy to run a criminal justice department with more than 40 separate component organizations and more than 115,000 employees, a department that handles terrorism, narcotics and money laundering cases, to name a few.
Tulsi Gabbard (DNI): The Atlantic describes her as “stunningly unqualified” and with “no qualifications as an intelligence professional—literally none. She has no significant experience directing or managing much of anything." She’s also a likely Russian asset.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (HHS): The mainstream media keep touting him as an “anti-vaccine” choice. But he is so much more of a crackpot than that. More importantly, he has zero experience managing public health, just promoting his ideas about it. Yet he’s Trump’s choice to “lead a massive Cabinet agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid,” as AP describes it.
Trump has proposed a number of other cronies for important government positions. But not one is related to the economy or reducing inflation. Every single one has demonstrated Trump loyalty.
So what is the guy doing for all those voters who thought he’d be better for their pocketbooks? Spoiler alert: not much. Or worse. The only financial appointments Trump was quick to make were putting his billionaire buddies to recommend how to slash government services for the rest of us, probably so the billionaires can get another tax cut once their fave p***y grabber is in office.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
