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As Donald Trump rolls out appointments to his Cabinet and White House staff, it is clear that personal and ideological loyalty to him and his agenda is more important than competence or adherence to ethical or constitutional norms.
His most egregious hires include designating former Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth as Secretary of State for Defence, a man who has previously expressed support for overturning convictions against soldiers found guilty of war crimes, and scepticism about women serving in the military.
Trump has appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, neither of whom have any experience working in government, to head a new body to cut government spending, eliminate regulations and re-structure federal agencies.
This will probably result in the shredding of vital environmental, health and consumer protection measures, and the firing or resignations of thousands of experienced officials, to the detriment of government services.
Trump has also selected former Arkansas Governor Mick Huckabee to be the US Ambassador to Israel, a man who has supported the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, in direct violation of international law.
Elise Stefanik, tapped to become US Ambassador to the UN, vigorously defended Trump through his two impeachments, has little foreign policy experience, and is primarily known for her staunch defence of Israel and criticism of the UN’s approach there – hardly traits which will smooth her path in New York.
Trump announced that former Congressman Lee Zeldin from New York would become Head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin has limited environmental experience, has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industries, supported Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords, and expressed scepticism about renewable energy targets. He was also one of 126 Republican House members to sign onto the Texas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump has also appointed officials known for their willingness to adopt extremely harsh measures against illegal migrants, such as Tom Homan, a champion of Trump’s family separation policy, to be his new “border czar”, and immigration hardliner, Stephen Miller, to be his deputy chief of staff.
Yet even worse than these appointments are the designations of Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida as Trump’s Attorney General, and Tulsi Gabbard to be his Director of National Intelligence, overseeing all 18 of the nation’s intelligence agencies.
Gaetz shot to fame for encouraging the rioters on January 6th, and has railed for years against both the Department of Justice and the FBI for alleged politicization. His resentment against them is probably fuelled by the fact that he himself has been under investigation for sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and dispensation of special favors to cronies.
Tulsi Gabbard is a former democratic congresswoman turned Trump stalwart, who dabbles in conspiracy theories, has engaged with autocrats such as Syrian President Assad, and frequently propagates Russian propaganda. It boggles the mind to think how Justice and Intelligence officials are going to be able to work with leaders whose views are so utterly opposed to their institutions’ values and missions.
Trump’s least contentious appointment so far is probably former Army Green Beret service member, and current Florida Congressman, Mike Waltz, to be his National Security Advisor.
Waltz has supported Trump’s calls for Europeans to pay more into NATO, expressed scepticism about how long the US should continue to support Ukraine, favouring greater focus on the threat from China, and criticised the military leadership for being excessively focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the expense of performance and accountability.
But Waltz has not endorsed pulling out of NATO, has expressed support for allies in the Pacific, and draws on extensive security policy experience, for example, through serving as defence policy director for two former defence Secretaries, Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates, and as current chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on military logistics. He is also on the select committee on intelligence.
Some Republican foreign policy experts in the more traditional, internationalist mould, also detect a sliver of hope in the announcement that Florida Senator Marco Rubio will become Trump’s Secretary of State.
Rubio has previously differed with Trump over support for alliances, and long been an advocate for principled US leadership in the world. The question is whether this is the version of Rubio we will actually get, given his more recent willingness to kowtow to Trump, even to the extent of voting to block aid to Ukraine earlier this year, on the flimsy excuse that the US needed to focus on security along its borders.
However, the fear that Trump would surround himself largely with yes men and women is being borne out. Trump has made clear that there is no place in his administration for well-qualified officials who served in his first term in office, but also occasionally stood up to him, such as former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, or former US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley.