Donald Trump has started to name members of his cabinet, and his selections are worse than we could have imagined.
During his presidential campaign, Republicans tried to console moderates that a second Trump presidency would not be as extreme and alt-right as Democrats professed it to be.
While his selections of Susie Wiles as the first female chief of staff and Marco Rubio as his secretary of state were far from earth-shattering, the rest of his selections seem to be proving Democrats right.
He nominated Matt Gaetz as his attorney general, which was met with utter shock and disgust from congress. The representative has been investigated for allegedly paying for sex from a 17-year-old girl who was introduced to him by his once close friend Joel Greenberg, now in prison for trafficking an 11-year-old. He is also under investigation for illicit drug use, accepting bribes and obstruction of justice.
His fellow congressmen maintain his guilt, with former Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy contending that he lost his position because “One person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old.”
Another Republican, Markwayne Mullin, a senator from Oklahoma, said, “There’s a reason why no one in the conference defended him because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor.”
Gaetz was even barred from practicing law in 2021 and labeled a “delinquent” by the Florida Bar association for failing to pay his fees.
This is the person that Trump believes is best fit to hold the prestigious position of attorney general. A position known for its commitment to justice, the truth and the rule of law.
He said he would also appoint notorious billionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, for a new “Department of Government Efficiency.”
Trump stated, “Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
Musk has been infamous this election cycle for his loyalty to the president-elect and for spreading rampant misinformation on his social media platform, X. Even Ramaswamy brings his own brand of controversy to the new department, as he has been criticized for defending conspiracy theories about Jan. 6 and 9/11.
He has perpetuated the “Great Replacement Theory,” a white-nationalist conspiracy theory that immigration policies are deliberately used to diminish the power of White Americans.
He has also named Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence who is a laughably bad choice. She has an affinity for repeating propaganda from anti-U.S. autocrats. She spread Russian misinformation about Ukrainian biolabs and expressed skepticism is U.S. intelligence findings that President Bashar al-Assad was behind chemical weapon attacks killing dozens in Syria.
Kristi Noem was nominated to be director of homeland security, the bizarre and controversial governor of North Dakota. She caught fire for rejecting COVID-19 safety measures and revealing in her book that she killed her 14-month-old dog, Cricket, for not being an ideal hunter.
He said he would appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the Department of Public Health, a bold choice considering his history of false claims about the harms of vaccines and seed-oils.
Furthermore, while Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025 during his campaign, he will likely nominate Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff of policy, who appears in a Project 2025 recruitment video.
This is not Miller’s first time working for the Trump. He was his head speechwriter and immigration advisor during his first term, where he helped shape Trump’s hateful rhetoric that we have become so accustomed to.
He is a leading proponent of stricter immigration policy, including the president-elect’s plans for mass deportations. With Miller at the helm, America should no doubt expect a continuation of the first Trump administration’s trademark xenophobia.
Trump has made uniquely poor choices for individuals to be in charge of our highest offices. He has demonstrated zero concern for the quality of the people he selects. There is a singular deciding trait that guarantees your spot in his administration, and that is undying loyalty to him.
This story was written by Joey Schamber. He can be reached at [email protected] and @joeyschamber on X.
Photos of Vivek Ramaswamy, Stephen Miller, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used in the graphic for this column are courtesy of Gage Skidmore: CC BY-SA 2.0 / CC BY-SA 3.0. Other images are from the public domain.
